Forum Post: Irresponsible Government - Occupy DC!

What got us in this mess is the irresponsibility of our government. The loosening of lending standards during the Clinton and Bush Administration which allows the less educated to get taken advantage of when they make poor choices. Why did we repeal Glass Steagel? The government also opted for more "free trade" which allowed for the more outsourcing of American manufacturing. Wall st. helped cause this recession but it didn't create it. Poor policies by government essentially created this mess.

Businesses are businesses. They are there to make money and will operate with the rules that they are given. Those rules were given to them by the government. Wall St. were making investment products and decisions they weren’t previously allowed to do because government allowed them to. When things were heading down south, everybody thought the game was like hot potato where they could toss it to the next guy and wouldn’t be holding the bag. They were wrong. My family was a big part of New Yorks Garment industry which was booming in the middle of the last century with over 1,000 employed. It was the same story back then. Not everyone was happy with their salary BUT they had JOBS. America has now become a country too proud to take on any manufacturing jobs that we have to outsource everything to countries who are willing to take those jobs at competitive prices. Watch this documentary by HBO if you are interested.

Schmatta: From Rags to riches to Rags.

The constant outsourcing drove prices down. The constant rising of the minimum wage made our factories uncompetitive with these new outsourced manufacturers. We've closed down all factories in New York in the last 15 years. There's so much outsourcing going on right now that America manufactures next to none of its own products these days. The ones that say "made in the U.S.A." probably had their parts manufactured elsewhere and assembled in the U.S. just to have the label of "USA". (Look at the car manufacturers). The trade deficit needs to be fixxed. It's not corporate greed. It's irresponsible government. I don’t want to cut any slack and say that maybe the decisions by our government were well intentioned but turned out bad. As elected officials, they have an accountability to be held responsible for this mess and should know better. Maybe it’s the fault of our fellow Americans for electing such morons in to our political office. I definately support this movement even though many are saying there isn't a definitive message that they're trying to get across except that people are frustrated with what is going on in the economy. Maybe it’s a lack of understanding of what's going on in the political/financial system which a lot of the politicians might not understand themselves. This should definately be more of an "occupy DC" movement with all of our politicians not being able to accomplish anything because of in-fighting amongst both parties. A big part in why we are still in a recession is in this whole politcal fighting that is going on which has prevented any progress being made. Bernake said it himself that spending cuts shouldn't be occuring right now with the economy in limbo but the GOP and Democrats can't come to a resolution because it's nearing an election year. It's pretty ridiculous.

It’s been shown in the past that it’s fiscal policy that works in a recession. Why we are cutting spending in a time of need, is a curiosity to me. First off, there needs to be a correction in the trade imbalance between the U.S. and other countries. We need to create a trade surplus, not a deficit. There is no benefit to printing money when we’re going to be spending that money elsewhere. Then, there needs to be the government spending policies put in place to help pull us through this time of need.

People in the movement believe it is corporate influence on politics that’s driving these poor decisions by our government which is why it’s been proposed that election reform be part of the priorities for the Occupy Wall Street Movement. We need more than just election reform. We need both parties to cooperate to get us out of this mess. Not that I'm a democrat, but it's pretty obvious to me that the GOP is gutting the economy and the Democrat's solution to the economy by putting in spending cuts in their latest deal. This is dirty politics at its dirtiest. This is not about Democrat, Republican or Wall Street. This is about responsible leadership.