OCCUPY WALL STREET NEEDS TO REDIRECT

Other than garnering a lot of unfavorable media attention and alienating average Americans, I haven't seen much accomplished by the camping out of the participants in the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.  I'm thinking if they were really wanting to change the world, or at least have an effect on Wall Street greed and political influence, they need to redirect their attentions away from camping out and crying the blues.  What they need to do is start a grass roots movement to encourage people to stop doing business with the major corporations who played a role in the financial meltdown.  The very companies and the people who run them are still rolling along, mostly unaffected by the financial crisis thanks to taxpayer bailouts. 

If the "Occupy" movement really want to make some changes, the only real way to bring these people down is to hit them in their pocket books.  I just watched a documentary recently, narrated by Matt Damon, covering the whole financial meltdown.  How it started, who was involved and which companies played the largest role in wrecking the economy.  This documentary listed corporations by name who played the largest role in bringing down the economy.  If the goal is to send a message to the people running these companies that this type of behavior will no longer be tolerated, then the best way to do it is to stop doing any business with them.  Cut up their credit cards, cancel your bank and investment accounts with them and avoid any business with them or their partners or subsidiaries.  Just make sure when you do cancel your accounts you send them an nice email or written communication explaining why you will no longer do business with them.  When the money stops, that's when they will stand up and take notice. 

In my opinion, the people who were responsible for the financial crisis should be in prison, not enjoying the good life on bonuses paid with bailout money.

OCCUPY CAPITAL HILL

I wrote earlier in the month questioning the motives and agenda of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.  While I agree there is way too much corporate greed as far as executive pay packages and bonuses, I think the whole protest may be misdirected. 

If you give the matter a little thought before jumping in to the fray, what seems to have triggered the movement were the outrageous bonuses paid out in the financial industry immediately following the government bailout.  If this is the case, then protesters should be occupying Capital Hill instead of Wall Street.  If the government had not bailed out banks and financial companies with taxpayer dollars then these companies would not have had the money available to pay out unearned and undeserved bonuses in the first place.  Obviously if you hand over taxpayer dollars to people who already make way more in income than the national average, they're most likely to look for ways to put some or all of this money in to their own pockets. 

I think the protesters should move their camps to Washington D.C. and change the name to Occupy Capital Hill.  After all, which is worse, bilking shareholders through overly generous compensation plans or handing over taxpayer dollars taken from the pockets of people who no longer have jobs or have much lower paying jobs than before? 

OCCUPY WALL STREET???

What exactly are the people who are occupying Wall Street hoping to accomplish?  So far I'm not getting any clear message of their agenda from any of the news that I've seen or read.  Could they be trying to destabilize the stock market even further?  How would that help their cause or causes in any way?  Perhaps the protestors need to go home and give the whole thing a little more thought, instead of trying to ruin what's left of their parents and grandparents retirement. 

My biggest question is, how do all these people have so much time on their hands?  I have to work for a living and when I'm not at work, I have responsibilities at home.  If they're not working, wouldn't their time be better spent looking for a job?  If they are working, why aren't they at work?  If they don't need a job because they're supported by government entitlement programs or are independently wealthy, then wouldn't they just be protesting against themselves?

I think they definitely need to give this thing a little more thought.  Flash mobs on Wall Street aren't likely to accomplish much.