Many of you don’t understand (or want to understand) the importance of the Occupy Movement. The disorganization that is created from not having a horizontal leadership structure prohibits outsiders from knowing the objectives of our protest, or what we intend to see happen. Now even though I disagree with Jeffrey Sachs’ foreign aid & development plans to end poverty (as written in his book “The End of Poverty”), this article he wrote in the Huffington Post clearly articulates “five specific actions against crony capitalism that should appeal across the political spectrum”.
1) RESTORE THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. This banking act from 1933 separates commercial banking and investment banking while regulating the trading of derivatives. “The financial casino continues to infect the core of the banking system and the real economy.”
2) PROSECUTE FOR 2008. In the 2008 crisis, financial fraud was committed by basically every marquee firm on Wall Street (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, etc.) The lead bankers who supervised these law-breaking and fraudulent practices “are still in place and need to go.”
3) RETIRE POLITICIANS. Politicians, like Congressman Paul Ryan, pushed for financial deregulation on the grounds of free markets. However when the big crisis hit, they called for bailouts from Wall Street. “They are the agents of moral hazard.”
4) END TAX LOOPHOLES. We need stronger regulations to stop the tax abuses that grant tax amnesties to America’s biggest companies. No more “park[ing] their profits in the Caribbean tax havens.”
5) RAID CONGRESSIONAL INSIDER TRADING. Rather than raiding nonviolent protesters for peaceably assembling in public spaces, we need to crack down on the insider information given in Congressional trading. Congress members are swayed by the lobbyists who hire their families and staff, those who sponsor their campaigns, and the personal gains made from their insider access to trading and deals.”Congress’ approval rating is on its way to zero.”
Sachs’ article further explains why a bait-and-switch, slash-government strategy (often proposed by Republicans) as a solution will not affect our economic, political and social crises. Attacking the lower, remaining social programs which are meant to assist in job training, student loans, welfare for poor children, quality pre-schools, etc. use up merely a small part of the economy. Crony capitalism instead exists in “the big-ticket sectors of the economy” such as banking, private health insurance, oil, real estate, infrastructure, and military contractors. Anger taken out against government corruption by misguidedly killing the “life-support programs of the poor and working class”, more Americans are actually being crippled rather than fixing the government. “To control crony capitalism, we need to direct our attention where it belongs: the wealth-support systems of the rich, not the life-support systems of the poor.”
As Sachs suggests, Peter Schweitzer’s book “Throw Them All Out” needs to be read by everyone. Let’s face it, we NEED government. We just need a government that works for US.
You can read Jeffrey Sachs’ full article here: “Fairness and the Occupy Movement Revisited”. Posted 11/28/11 at Huffingtonpost.com