to wonder how the occupy random places people

[Sevenfold]

can afford to do it.
if they work, are they on holiday? are they rich?
if on JS, don't they loose that as they are not looking for work......

thanks for the replies, sorry if my thread title didn't make sense, it did to me last night when i had had a drink.
makes a bit more sense now, although I still don't understand what they are protesting about.

Yes, is such an original heckle. Sigh.

It does distress me that despite wanting to be so anti-capitalist/anti-corporate that they do make such enormous use of Starbucks!

you don't understand what they are protesting about

Hello, do you live in this world?

Have you heard of the financial crisis that is going on in US and Europe?

Have you glanced at the papers...surely you cannot miss the austerity measures and associated rising unemployment figures?

What about the increase in gap between rich and poor?

And if you try very hard, you might see people feeling disenfranchised with 'crony capitalism' where political leaders answer to the economic elite, not the 99% electorate

Are people really as clueless as the OP

I think it's an amazing thing to see people protesting about these issues, although it wouldn't be for me personally at this point in my life. To take unpaid leave to protest about something you care about really shows commitment and I can't be cynical about it, I think it's important to have people who care about these issues in the world, who will take a stand on social justice.

I think it's great too. They might not change the world but they are standing up and shouting that they are not happy with the way things are.

I have been on two protest marches, I didn't honestly think they would change anyone's mind but I still wanted to say I didn't agree.

Flatbread - I think most people can work out what the protesters are against, the problem is there isn't a coherent 'what we are for' argument. There's also competing complaints. For example, you can't say "we want the markets to have a lot less influence in government policy decisions" on one hand, but then on the other say "we want the government to spend more than it earns" without accepting the difference will be made up from borrowing, and Italy is currently showing us exactly what happens when those "City types" decide they don't want to lend their money to a government unless it offers massive interest payments to make it worth the risk that they won't get their money back. If you want the banks to have less control, you have to stop needing them to fund everyday spending.

Let's be honest about it, the 'cuts' aren't even overall cuts, the government still plans to spend more this year than last overall (even allowing for inflation). The cuts are just a decision not to borrow even more and increase spending by as much as a Labour government would do.

I personally don't like the current set up, but while I'm seeing a lot of people who are agreed about the problem but can't agree about the solution. The camp contains people from a lot of different walks of life, but also from a lot of different political view points - it's reflecting a general problem on the left, there isn't an alternative being strongly argued for - more "the same but a little bit less so".

Until a new alternative for "what good looks like" (rather than just people pointing and saying "that's what bad looks like") emerges we're not going to get anything other than some tinkering at the edges, then everthing bumbling along like before.

Missverinda.

Surely the point of a goat is you don't need to feed it? It eats grass and stuff, no?

It's not that incongruent. You don't have to be totally anti-commerce or business to think the current financial set up, and the distribution of wealth and political influence should change.

I like the model the creator of Innocent was talking about last night on Peter Jones' show.. a sort of socialist capitalism, where you strive to make money and that is important, but you do it ethically and you give back to the world when and where you can. That is what "Occupy" means to me... about bankers who say that they feel they are overpaid relative to nurses, say, doing something about it such as contributing some of their salaries or the corporate funds to causes in need in a sustained, serious way. I don't know if this is true, but I get the idea that there is a lot more philanthropic activity by big business in the States, and it seems like it has potential...

But what do they propose as the alternative? So far all I've seen is people occupying St Pauls etc., for no determinable goal and for no specified reason other than "this is not good". How do they know when to leave? When it gets too cold, when the economic crisis ends, when the Euro collapses?

They seem to be setting themselves up to fail.

flatbread ,clueless. do grow up, they are called occupy "insert place" that doesn't exactly explain it.

I wonder this. I know that they are being fed by a soup kitchen type thing that has been set up, but surely they live in real houses rather than tents.

Maybe they are students?

working9while5 I didnt watch the whole show as it seemed like a mutual ego boosting exercise. Was it any good?

I didn't see it all either Voidka, had a poorly toddler so caught a few minutes in between rounds of puking! It was a bit: "ooh entrepreneurs are human too!" and "ooh the Innocent guy likes money as well as hippy stuff"!!

Lydia,

I do't see why the protesters have to have an agreed upon solution. Till people protest and complain, there will be no serious discussion regarding solutions. Protests are the first step.

The problems Italy is facing regarding yields have more to do with being a part of the Eurozone and ECB policies, than it's debt burden per se.

Excellent article on Italy:

blogs.ft.com/the-a-list/2011/11/10/why-italys-days-in-the-eurozone-may-be-numbered/#axzz1dJLy3Z2m

Oh good god, I have just read the minutes of one of their meetings. They are even more pointless than I thought they were! Massive fans of Starbucks it seems as well.

How dare they make demands for anything? Repulsive arrogant people.

Also seems to be a distinct lack of people willing to pitch in and keep the place clean.

How dare they make demands for anything? Repulsive arrogant people.

Yeah. They should know their place. Fancy citizens of a democracy thinking they have the right to an opinion on political issues.

How dare they presume to speak for anyone other than themselves. Why should a few hundred people be able to dictate policy and process to official bodies? Would you be so supportive if the few hundred were the BNP? Of course not. We have democratic systems, it is presumptuous and arrogant of these protestors to assume that they can simply bypass them and demand that people do as they wish/

Or do you only support minority groups making demands if you happen to agree with them!