Discussion on:

Occupy Wall Street's invisible asset

The protest didn't started in the US, it started in Egypt for political reasons and speed to Europe in politic-economic matters. The US cities started the last.

Don't be silly.

Even following your convoluted point you'd have to take it to Tunisia - not Egypt.

They're trying to re-live the '60s, except they're less coherent.

If most of them are twenty-somethings, how can they re-live something that was before their birth?
I for one am proud to see youth get involved again. the greatest enemy of democracy is apathy.

...that they've seen glorified for the last 40+ years.

And what they're doing isn't really "democracy". At best what they're doing is theater. Democracy happens at the polling place.

...you can afford a photo ID and have transportation to get one. Seniors, college students away from home and the poverty-stricken have been shoved out of the voter pool in dozens of states. The League of Women Voters in Florida has cancelled all voter drives for fear of penalties newly imposed that would bankrupt them for clerical errors by volunteers - or intentional errors by infiltrators. Voting is dead. Anarchy is next.

You simply cannot function in our society today without a proper photo ID. If you don't have one, the ability to vote is the least of your problems. Conversely, if you don't have the inclination and/or ability to obtain one, then I seriously question your intellectual ability to responsibly vote.

And if a country cannot conduct an election with integrity, then there is no "democracy" there either.

There is no data to support that rhetoric. In the 2008 election the poorest districts in my hometown had the highest voter turn out.

I cannot speak for other states, but the lack of ID for voting in Massachusetts along with several other rules that allow voter fraud means that the state voting laws do not comply with UN voting rules for emerging democracies like Eqypt and Iraq.

Voter id's are required in elections monitored by the UN. If we were an emerging democracy the UN would classify Massachusetts voting laws as making elections strongly susceptible to voter fraud.

in order to vote? It's required to purchase liquor and smokes (among other things). Various other activities require ID. Voting is arguably the most important activity we can do. You should be required to show a photo ID before being allowed to vote. We wouldn't have as much voting fraud (illegals, dead people voting, etc.) if voters had to show valid ID prior to voting.

We are repeating history and not learning a damned thing. In the early 1930s, people were out of work and travelled to Washingon DC and camped out. The camps were called "Hoovervilles" after Pres Hoover.

These protests are hardly like the "Hoovervilles" of 80 years ago. For one thing, very few of those in the Hoovervilles were well fed, paid stipends, sponsored by unions, or had laptops and smartphones.

One of the larger 1930s protests in the DC area was a group over 40,000 people, among them over 17,000 war veterans, looking for the war bonuses and widow benefits promised them by President Wilson. My grandfather was among them.

They hunted in nearby woods and fished the Potomac River for food during their encampment.

6 of the armies primitive tanks were used to support troops evicting the marchers. Marchers were killed in the eviction process. People who had carried everything they owned to the march had their belongings burned when future WW II hero Douglas MacArthur burned the encampment to the ground on orders of the Attorney General Mitchell.

Congress eventually over rode President Roosevelt???s veto of the bonus funding bill in 1936.

These whiny crybabies today have nothing in common with those brave people.

...they'd be calling their settlements "Obamavilles".

Tyler,
I generally appreciate your articles, but I think you're off the mark on this one, mainly because you rely on the WSJ article without questioning the article's underlying (incorrect) presumptions. Sure, the park is owned by a private company, but the park is there because of zoning laws, enacted by the government for the public good. It's not in existence because of any noblesse oblige by Brookfield Office Properties. Another incorrect presumption is that the OWS protesters are protesting all private companies for all private actions. The issues of inequality in our financial system are not black and white like that, and I bet many, if not most, of the protesters there appreciate nuance in land use, ownership, and public/private partnerships.

There is no irony in the land they are protesting on belonging to Wall Street landlords. The public interests are negotiated up front, and the owners must comply. Besides, just how valuable would that high rise be if there were no roads to get to it? No water to flush it's toilets? No city police to protect it from vandals and thieves? No military to prevent total takeover by armed Cuban militias? No courts to protect it from mortgage contract fraudsters?

Put that exact same building in the middle of Mogadishu, then call the appraisers and see what they say. This country gives that high rise it's value, not the other way around. The saying isn't "building, building, building" in the real estate world, it's "location, location, location" and you better be ready to give to the community that makes you great.

You're right. The premise is too corporate-media friendly for my tastes.

Their emperor's new clothes.

Ha, I was waiting for a comment such that in No Irony. So doctordawn, who do you think paid for those roads, police, plumbing, military, courts??? Business generates wealth and jobs for society while providing goods and services to the public.

Government provides security. But frequently it just steals wealth to empower itself and its cronies.

government is not an entity existing separately from business and other sectors. all of our senators are millionaires, and lots of the reps, too. they have investments, and they use the revolving door early and often. they follow the dictates of the army of lobbyists. today's government is controlled by the banks and big corporations. the supreme court has legitimated their buying of elections. government as such is not a problem; government by, of, and for the corporations is.

...that the bigger the government gets, the more it becomes like you describe?

How sad it is that union dominated publice schools have convinced so many people that the evil in America is business. The real evils are government and big unions that are able to tax the wealth of oridnary Americans to feather their nests. Public sector union members earn twice what their private sector counterparts do at the expense of those workers who must pay for the lavish salary and benefits by force. My hope for this once great land is fading away.

Their "invisible" asset? Public ignorance. They claim to be merely protesting low taxes on the rich and bank bailouts, but the reality is that "OWS: Yes, we are anti-capitalist!", and they really want full (government) employment, a "living wage" or $40,000, and forgivenss of debt.

Then there's the 99% myth. The top 50% of wage-earners, those with an income over $50,000 a year, pay 98% of all income taxes.

Their "visible" assets: Hypocrasy and narcissism. The use iPhones and iPads to tweet that the 1% (which until recently included Steve Jobs) are evil. They think that it's OK to borrow money from someone and not pay it back. If that's true, I want to borrow money form the OWS crowd.