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I notice nobody commented on a solution to a single one of the problems I posted, or how by asking OWS for demands you are asking them for solutions. I don't think protesting what you know is wrong is a waste of time. Even if you don't have the answers.

You're a numbers guy Bob, what's the solution?
While yer at it, solve the euro crisis for us.



Whew, you want me to solve this crises, eh? Sure, no problem at all. I wonder what's the limit of a post size on this forum. 1,000 words? 10,000 words? Ok, a few thoughts with no embellishment and I'll do the easy ones first.

Lobbists. I have no problem with them. They are democracy in action, same with corporate funding of campaigns. What people fail to realize is corps are us. They're all publicly traded companies and most of us are shareholders. A board of directors is a democracy and they are heavily regulated by the SEC. A lot of us work for them or we like you I think, work under the regs of a trade association. When a corp lobbies congress it's on behalf of their shareholders and employees to help them get more work, basically and it's the same for the trades and unions as well. Every single organization in this country has lobbyists and that's a good thing imho. It's no different than the old cliche about our representitavies. We hate all of them except our own.

Exec bonuses. High level execs are no different than sports stars. These guys are rainmakers, financial wizards. a turn around specialist, whatever. They get the money they do because of the open market just kike ARod or Kobe Bryant and yes they all have contracts. This country is based on contract law, it's the fundamental principle of who we are. Congress, the president or the agencies can't simply say contract law is null and void just because they think someone is making too much money.

The real estate markets that's at the root of our current situation. I can't talk about this without getting political and that may start a mud throwing war and stop this thread. All I'll say is it's Congress that started it by forcing the big banks and I mean force them to make loans they didn't want to make. They fought it tooth and nail in congressional hearings and certain representatives at those hearings called them racists basically, accusing them of redlining neighborhoods by denying loans to poor people of color. I'm not naming names here, research it yourself. The protestors should be marching in front of the White House and Congress for not prosecuting the ones who are really responsible for this but unfortunately those protesters and most of the public at large are not numbers people like me and don't pay attention to this stuff enough to have any idea about that. The protesters and maybe you as well don't understand who caused this and think they're protesting certain things but they're barking up the wrong tree.

Companies outsourcing jobs overseas, free trade and all that. All I can say is when you shop for anything more expensive than a can of soup do you price it on the internet? Check how much Amazon sells it for with no tax and free shipping? The only reason companies lobbied to outsource is if they didn't they would go out of business, simple as that. You, me and all of us will cut their throats to save ten bucks on a thousand dollar item and nobody cares where it's made. Period. Ask anybody who rails about lost American jobs to China, India, Korea, wherever. Ask them where do they shop and how do they shop? It's all about the price and that's it, end of story. You Rharv and I mean that literally, have to look in the mirror and really think about that before you moan about jobs being outsourced. You're a tradesman and I'm sure you get your tools and supplies at the usual suspect big stores and you have to get the best price in order for you to be competitive if you're bidding on a job. Matching everybody eles's price is the only thing that allows these companies to survive, otherwise their pricies will be a few percent too high and that's all it takes when virtually anybody with a computer price shops them to death. Walmart has been called China's US marketing arm and it's mostly true but has that hurt their business any? No, because the prices are good. There is nothing else but the price, the price and oh yeah, the price.

Last and certainly not least is your point about the Fed. I have no idea about that and don't know if what you said is actually true or not and even if it is, that's way above my pay grade. I would like GDaddy to comment on this one because he knows more about that than I do I suspect but if he's smart and I know he is, he may not want to open that can of worms.

Jeesh, I'm surprised I managed to keep it this brief...

Bob

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