Forum Post: From the mind of Peter Schiff on Occupy Together, the free-market economist who predicted the Great Recession (the reason you occupy) and was laughed at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iJvtQpyx1A&feature=channel_video_title

"Instead of occupying Wall Street, they should be occupying Pennsylvania Avenue. Instead of protesting the banks that were bailed out, they should protest the government that bailed them out. …that's what's failed them. It's not capitalism, but the lack of capitalism. …They're upset about the bailouts - the bailouts of the banks, corporate welfare - but that's not capitalism; maybe it's crony capitalism, or corporatism, or statism, or socialism, or facism. There are a lot of -isms that you can label this but the one -ism that doesn't apply is capitalism, because under capitalism, the banks would've failed. They wouldn't have been bailed-out, there would be no corporate welfare. In fact, if we had capitalism, there really wouldn't have been a housing bubble. If we had capitalism, there wouldn't have been a financial crisis, so the protesters would have nothing to protest. …all of these problems are being blamed on capitalism but they have nothing to do with capitalism. … some of [Occupy Wall Street’s] demands…are very Socialist in nature. …more government, more socialism, but what is driving the protests is what they're demanding. They're protesting the absence of capitalism. The Occupy Wall Street movement is really arguing for more capitalism whether they know it or not. One of their demands is the complete forgiveness of all the student loans, but…why are those student loans there in the first place? The students are protesting the banks that loaned them the money, but…the only reason the banks loaned the money is because the government guaranteed the loans. If the government wasn't there to guarantee the loans, the banks wouldn't have loaned the students any money so there would be no student debt outstanding. In fact, what would have happened if there were no government-guaranteed student loans is colleges would have been forced to lower tuitions dramatically so that kids could afford to go there without borrowing the money. It's not capitalism that's driving up college tuitions; it's not capitalism that is saddling our young people with all these student loans, it's government that's doing that. Rather than protesting capitalism, they need to protest government. If we really had Capitalism, the truth is, those people who are now occupying Wall Street wouldn't have any time to occupy Wall Street - they'd be too busy working! They'd have good jobs in a vibrant free-market economy. The reason they have all this spare time on their hands is because the government has destroyed their opportunities. That's what they need to protest - not capitalism.” -Peter Schiff