To my many conservative friends - take a good look at those cartoon birds - you are not on the top rung. The game has always been rigged - a bit. But now those at the top are criminals, not high achievers or entrepreneurs or small business owners - criminals. And yes you are downstream, downwind and downhill from their greed. Don't believe that? Well then the top birds have you right where they want you.
No, I don't want to destroy the system and neither do most of the Occupy protesters. What we want is a fair system that doesn't favor the obscenely rich. Do you really think that you could, if you really wanted to, and tried hard enough, really get on that top rung. Well, you can't. You don't have the secret decoder ring with the IRS codes or the lobbyist or enough stolen money to get there. And besides they don't want you up top with them. You see you're not white enough or male enough or already rich enough; and you're just not self-centered and greedy enough or you wouldn't be reading my blog.
Yes the TARP bailout got a lot of the money back into the U.S. Treaury. Indeed if you don't count AIG and GM, there was a profit of sorts. Meaning if you jigger the numbers enough, TARP (or the Bush bailout) worked. That is, of course, if you forget the tens of thousands of families who lost their homes in foreclosure and the tens of billions of dollars in lost pension fund capital. Yes, your retirement fund was decimated by those Wall Street crooks who got their butts bailed out.
So coming around the big circle of economic policy from your side, you are going to be meeting a lot of us coming around from the other side. I hope you will take some time to talk and to listen because all the Occupy demonstrations are saying is -
"The American Dream should be available to everyone, to whatever extent they want to participate and work for their own personal piece of the dream. And, oh by the way, those who have it all don't want you to have any of it."
Let's talk - How about we meet at the independent coffee shop nearest to the Occupy encampment.
Link to the Open Letter to My Liberal Friends
Link to the Open Letter to My Liberal Friends
