Occupy Wall Street translated

“You may fool all the people some of the time, 

you can even fool some of the people all of the time, 

but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” 

- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America

"We our the 99% percent."

We have witnessed 10 years of stagnant wages for the middle and lower economic classes while total compensation for executives and CEOs has continued to accelerate.  We have witnessed the continued and growing disparity in government employee compensation and private sector compensation. We are aware that the removal of barriers between investment banks and traditional banks allows and encourages moral hazard to consume our financial sector.  We are witness to the alliance between financial institutions and our federal government, at the cost of the ordinary taxpayer.  We cannot understand how millions of US citizens have lost their homes while Wall Street continues to pay out extraordinary bonuses, and no individuals have been sent to jail despite clear evidence of fraudulent practices at multiple levels and in multiple institutions.

"We want jobs!'

Somehow Washington DC, the center of our federal bureaucracy, has become the most properous city in the nation, while the rest of America goes up in flames.  Washington jobd don't create more jobs, they suck off the figurative teat of federally issued debt, which is born on the back of the rest of the country.  We have no new job creation for the last ten years but an additional seven million available workers.  The 'real' unemployment rate is closer to 16% then 9%. 

"Make peace, not war!"

We are ten years deep into two wars, which cost billions of dollars each day, not to mention the human cost in misery and suffering, and have little if anything to show for it.  We cannot afford to police the world and all its multiple transgressions.  Bring home the troops and let's focus on making us better rather than them worse.

"America, wake up!"

OK, he has me stumped.  Perhaps it is a rhetorical statement, since it does appear that the rabble are coming to grips with the existence of a system that favors the haves at the expense of the have-nots. Maybe he is trying to say that most of our federal politicians are charlatans and liars, making promises they can't keep.  Or maybe he inherited 100,000 shares of Starbucks and is happy to see that the stock has fully rebounded, and only wants to encourage other angry youths to keep on drinking the dark bean, man, because those dividends are all he ever plans to earn.