I won't go on the defensive
 

Don't try to put me on the defensive. There is a great deal of misery out there through no fault of the victims, and you have no sympathy for them.
Put this in context. You've called these people bums.

They are instead victims of a shrinking share of an economy that is growing painfully slowly. I submit that you are safe in your sunny utopia and have a fundamental disconnect with the problems of America because you have no reason to look at the economic realities.

How bad were things?
 

[quote=KatzPajamas;417255]You may want to ask her how bad things were and would have been if it wasn't for Roosevelt.

[quote=tonyafd;417347]Roosevelt prolonged the Depression.

[quote=tonyafd;417347]Already said that things were bad. Point is that people didn't resort to animal-like behavior.
Will ask the Roosevelt question today.

I said the people who were at that occupy were bums, not the people who are trying to make a life for themselves. I lived through the Carter years, I know hard times. Waiting in lines for hours for gas in my 10 year old car, no cell phone, iphone, ipad, color television, food stamps, welfare money.

The Carter Years
 

I remember the Carter years as a post Vietnam malaise. The gas lines were there during the Nixon years too. Inflation caused interest rates on 20 year Treasury Insured Growth Receipts to go to eleven percent. That was during Reagan's first term.

I said that the occupiers are those who had jobs or who were promised jobs at graduation. These occupiers have lost hope. Our education system prepares people for jobs at corporations and little else. My education didn't prepare me to open a store and move inventory. My education didn't teach me how to do day trading. It prepared me for a job in one of America's thousands of corporations.

There's only one problem, America's corporations have stopped hiring Americans.

Here's proof:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU[/ame]

Here's a report from a famous Conservative Lou Dobbs.
Lou Dobbs has since been fired from CNN

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi1R4iDx3Lg[/ame]

tonyafd...you are SOOOO CORRECT! Our education system does NOT TEACH or in anyway ENCOURAGE people to LEARN how to THINK FOR THEMSELVES!!!!....If you can read, write, do the basic math, and have no fear of getting your hands dirty, you can TEACH YOURSELF ANYTHING!!!!!!!

I've yet to see anyone respond directly when I've pointed out that, when I went to Occupy Boston, I saw cops, firefighters, teachers, *veterans* and kids with degrees (and I say 'kids' because I'm 49 and they were in their 20s). Are all of THEM 'bums'?

Enough "bums" in the crowd to cause the protest to be looked on in utter distain.

You really going to try to educate me on "your" cause while you're hanging around with communists, arsonists, anti-Semitics, rapists and druggies?

I'm going to turn my back on you because I can SEE your bad judgement. Why would I listen to anything you might want to say?

So by the same toke, I should listen to all the "Tea Partiers are racist bigots" characterizations?

In other words, you're going to believe sensationalist news reporting instead of eye-withness accounts?

You're going to concentrate on a few isolated incidents and ignore the HUNDREDS of other protests that are going on without a hitch?

I saw *two* Communists in Boston. TWO. They were basically being laughed at by the rest of the crowd - one was the ridiculously-name "Anarchist Communist" and the other was carrying around a Che Guevara flag and *every* *single* other protestor I talked to wondered if that guy even KNEW what ended up happening to Che.

Did it ever occur to you that Boston was the exception and not the rule?:confused:

There not even a comparison here. It's like comparing the breaking of a window on one house to the leveling of another.

Cops Clear Wall Street protest Park
 

They kicked them out so they could clean up their mess. They probably needed to wear HazMat suits. It was more then likely a disgusting job.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/n...LwGXYElqsxsWjO

the question being asked about the teachers/firemen/etc is easy to answer when one places themselves at the scene of the unlawful/disgusting activities by some of the participants. What do you consider yourself in such a situation?
I suspect we could say ditto for the firemen/teachers/etc.

btk

Response
 

This is my first post but my wife has been keeping me posted. We are one of the 99% that protest down at the square. She's been called a hippie, part of a drama group, whimpy, a doper and so on and so on. That's fine. You can call us whatever you want. The reality is, we're trying to make a statement on your behalf. I know, I know, most of you are republicans and conservative and don't like liberals. But, I'm thinking that most of you aren't in the 1% and probably not even in the 5%. If you are, good for you. If you're not, the republicans are looking to increase your medicare costs and cut your social security. You don't have to believe me, you can search on John Boehner quotes. Eric Cantor too. My wife and I happen to believe that the bottom 155 million people in America should have more than 2 1/2% of the nations wealth. We believe that 12% of American's shouldn't go to bed hungry every night. We happen to believe that in the richest country in the world that 1.5 million people are living on the streets. But, you can believe what you want to. This is America after all. I won't call you names. I'll just feel sorry for you and your lack of empathy for people who are struggling.