Comments on: Wall Street’s long occupation of the middle class

By: unionlabor1

unionlabor1 — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:28:35 +0000

According to businessinsider.com the top 1% owns 50.9% of the stock, bond and mutual fund market, the next 9% owns 39.4%, the next 40% owns 9.3% and the bottom 50% owns 0.5%. 90.3% of US stocks, bonds and mutual funds are owned by 10% of the population and the remaining 60% of the US population owns 9.8% of the wealth of the markets.

The staqtement that 50% of Americans owns stocks and bonds is a meaningless statistic when the other 50% owns virtually nothing.

By: Rawna

Rawna — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:09:32 +0000

Occupy Wall Street agitators represent something real but may not articulate it. And in the present argumentative narrative they may not say anything that will not have a counter argument or rationale.

The globalization was good for the financial industry. Key jobs of the Financial Industry and the industry itself is not threatened by the same forces that move jobs and other industries from one place to another. Therefore the globalization helped financial industry become colossal while shifting jobs and industrial capacity around the globe.

The key thing is that the Financial Industry – to remain concentrated – still needs muscle power in the shape of a structure backed by military might. This requires that military machine is fed what it thrives on. And one can see that it is being done. Interestingly there is increasing focus on reducing military structure dependence on muscle and legal backing. No need for Congress declaration and increasing uses of drones.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:01:31 +0000

Well…you said you wanted that gorgeous house for the wife and little ones, so you got it! You also wanted ™Starbuk to pour you a $4.25 bev EVERY morn, and that wish was granted too! What you don’t understand, people of middle earth, is that other people’s wishes were also granted! Like, for instance, ‘Hey Mr. Obama, this is Mr. X at AIG…listen, Ineed about 320mil right away’. POOF! That wish (like yours!) was granted. Problem for you is that.you wish too ‘low’, while others’ wishes are super-high, that’s why they’re supet-rich! You see, you didn’t want to be wealthy and recession-free, otherwise you would have climbed in the warm bed with Washington and played their game, that by the way, has been going on for over a hundred years now. What recession? Ha ha ha ha ha…you aimed too low my friend, and MISSED the financial security target unlike your fellow humans over on the hill in DC, and those guys in their ivory towers at BofA, WaMu, MorganStanley, I could go on and on and on and you still wouldn’t get it!

By: itsallwrong

itsallwrong — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:38:16 +0000

@eleno – WOW! this is part of what you said, and I quote “I am no banger of the drum for Wall Street, but come on man get some accuracy in your bloody essays. I am not American (but know it very very well) and I can see what happened. So can many others. ” . So A) you dont live here, b)you dont tell us where you are from, you could be communist for all we know c) who cares what a non american thinks about the american economy. If you were so important, you wouldnt need to type your dinky little rhetoric on here would you.

By: NedStark

NedStark — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:27:51 +0000

“The middle class, though, is still waiting for its bailout.”

While I agree with many points in the article, to say that the middle class hasn’t gotten a bailout is questionable. The Fed has been doing everything in its power to keep mortgage interest rates at record lows – to prop up home prices, essentially. How is that not a “bailout”? If the housing market were left to function without the Fed’s crutches, home prices would have dropped significantly more…and all those “middle class” homeowners (or, more accurately, homerenters…since many don’t have a whole lot of equity in their houses) would be in deeper pain at this point.

All of these actions have been done at great expense to savers and financially prudent individuals. I was earning >4% on my savings account back in 2007. For four years since, I’ve been getting less than 2%.

Thanks to Ben “helicopter” Bernanke, the only way I can get back to 4% (which is still pitiful for a savings acct, by historical standards) is to gamble a chunk of it in the stock market. And, boy, do I love those wild weekly swings in the market these days!

By: icfman

icfman — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:36:56 +0000

In your comentary above, Susan summed it up: “The companies use part-time managers, she said, so they don’t have to pay benefits….It’s their policy,” she said, “which is why I’m here.”

The middle class is slowly being turned into a class of laborers that are not working for the afore-mentioned ‘Jimmy Stuart’ dream (nice analogy). Instead they are working to support the protect corporate profit. We all know that profit is a necessary component of a successful business, but so is worker content, job satisfaction and a sense of pride. Corporate America has tossed those values aside in the quest for profit and share value.

This is akin to a body, where the blood is the financing that feeds the body, the tissue is the framework that supports the body and the brain is the corporate structure. None can survive without the others. In this instance, the brain has decided that maintenance and care of the tissue is not necessary. I propose that it is critical to the survival of the system as a whole.

By: Cohens

Cohens — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:56:28 +0000

Life is a problem. But the problem which is caused by capitalism is ironic one. Human beings are not reasonable and moral enough in building economic civilization. And the greedy capitalism is the evidence of uncivilized high class society.

By: IntellectMind

IntellectMind — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:20:49 +0000

The middle class are losing the battle! The protests are now way too late. I dont think they will be able to see justice done to them as the whole system is messed up. They cant wring the corporations or cause any turmoil, coz if they do, they are going to lose more and more jobs ! Simple! And the coming wave of more migrants who are more smarter, much efficient will only make the middle class jobs a luxury! So u see this is the reality. End of an American Dream in Squeal!

By: WouldChuk

WouldChuk — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:16:34 +0000

At 48, lost my corp job to outsourcing, especially after 9/11, now at 58 glad to have a third shift weekend job, so we are just treading water and getting by. But the third shift weekend job has allowed me to watch outsourcing over the past 10 years at one huge, and immediately recognized global company (to mention the name would threaten my current job). It was created in the dot com boom, (subsidiary of another company) and became very successful, then after 9/11, it began the outsourcing–to South America, to Eastern Europe, to India mostly. As I watched this happen it dawned on me “The same damn thing is happening at all other American companies too, right this very minute!” I thought to myself, “The day comes when all of a sudden everyone gets it–they took our jobs and shoved them and brought back the products to sell for premium profits?” Its as if “We’re just caught in a ‘time-warp’ sunami, it can’t be stopped or changed NOW since its really already DONE. While I empathize with all the OWS’s everywhere, the issue is this–the company I watched shipped off, piece by piece, still has one office of its operations still here in the US–the president’s office, and he uses it…when he occasionally is in the country. As for the entirely ONCE created in America, American Corp–they tripled in head count everywhere but in the USA, and that is history, NOW. So, where do we go NOW? I think in about ten more years the USA becomes the factory nation supplying the rapidly rising middle classes of Asia, Europe and India and… Protest all you like, it’s already DONE, over with, and still going. The best opportunity I’m looking at right now (as a former corp trainer) is to move to a foreign country and teach English so… so we can move more American jobs over seas. The opportunity got up and is GONE. So, go there if you need a good job. That’s what I’m going to do. Why? Its all I can do. I quit applying for training jobs several years ago–I was interviewed by a young 20-someone most who visibly tried to hold back their disbelief that “grandpa” thought he could work with “us?” Really, I think this is reality today, and its more of the same tomorrow. Wall Street people will still make a fortune (for a while) because “they” haven’t been outsourced YET! And, I really think that is what is under way right now. The guy who put the sign in the window of his Wall St office that read “We are the 1%” is lost in the fog of his high rise, cause if you work in a suit in an office with a phone and a computer–that can be done anywhere. GUESS WHAT “suits?” YOU ARE NEXT. But you just don’t see it YET or are able to even conceive of it YET. But after the next BIG BUST, your job is gone too. Then you will KNOW what it is like to be one of the 99%. Your time COMETH!!

By: SanPa

SanPa — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:31:53 +0000

Wall Street may be part of a problem, but K Street is the rest of the problem. A confrontation needs to be organized where Wall Street spreads cash and makes its deals will DC politicians.