Forum Post: Is it moral (right) to only steal from the rich, but not from the poor?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 17, 2011, 11:30 a.m. EST by ChicagoRocks
(24)
from Morton Grove, IL
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
A very disturbing trend weaves through this movement. Steal from the rich, help the poor. It is not right to steal from anyone, even if their gains are ill-gotten. And corporations have legally gotten gains. We may not like it, but the shareholders have worked within the law to advance the shareholders (your) interest.
Who determines if they are rich or poor? Many impoverished people in the world would consider every Occupy protestor as rich (buffet food lines, warm sleeping bags). Is it OK for them to sneak around at night and steal our iPhones and pocket cash? Of course not. But that is precisely the problem with class warfare. There will always be someone richer than us, and we will always be the victim.
Wall Street is not the demon here. Washington is. Unfortunatley, our Administration has ignited this class warfare, making us think that we are the Victims in order to get votes.
We are not victims. If we have too much debt, we agreed to it. Let's take responsibility and pursue a change in the laws. Focus on Obama and Washington.
Need knowledge, self-control, and RESOURCES to have freedom and if 1% owns all the resources the rest can not be vary free. Life is all about relationships and getting them right. Put your faith in truth which is about knowing relationships in your life. Put your hope in freedom which is about choosing relationships in your life. Put your trust in love which is about caring relationships in your life. Truth, freedom, love are good. Deceit, slavery, hate are bad. Choosing good is moral. Choosing bad is evil. Of these values freedom is the easiest to loose because you need resources to have it, but if you have more resources than you can use they end up owning you and resoures not used or not used in a sustainable way get wasted and when resources are wasted it means less freedom for someone somewhere.
If you share these values spread the WORD, I took years getting this right and you may say that it should have been easy but like the knowledge that the earth goes around the sun if you did not know it that knowledge would be hard to get, we have to teach knowledge or the knowledge dies with us. Have faith, hope, trust in truth, freedom, love David McDonell of Ironwood MI debdaveandpets@gmail.com
While I agree that Washington is the general root of the problem because that is where the legislation occurs, it should be pointed out that attitudes like yours are also the problem. You view the desire to reform as a personal affront to you and then you lash out defensively implying that the protesters want to "steal" from you. Just how would they be "stealing" from you? Are you refering to desired changes in tax code? Do you view taxes as "stealing"? There will always be inequities in the world but that doesn't mean that efforts shouldn't be made to make things fair. You offer defensively that "corporations have legally gotten gains". I would point out that just because something is legal does not make that thing right, moral, decent, fair, productive or even logical. The obvious example is that slavery was once legal. And I think we can agree that slavery was wrong. So, it was important to change that law. Wall Street should be as energetically for change as the OWS people are. The reason is Wall Street will eat itself alive if better regulations are not enacted. Sure, for a while, short term gains can be made at the expence of others resulting in the legally gotten gains for a few. But eventually, it will erode the middle class so completely that there will be nothing left to feed on. Or Wall Street will leverage itself so completely out of balance as to destroy itself and everyone else's wealth along with it (sound familiar? If not, read some headlines from 2008).. So get with it ChicagoRocks. Nobody wants to steal from you. They just want some rules and regs that will make some basic sence in terms of our mutual, sustained survival.
But who is Washington working for? Is it really for the people? Or the Corporations? How much does Corporate Greed influence policy decisions?
Precisely. True reform is needed. That will not come from a mob uprising. Mobs historically replace one group with another group.
Corporate Greed is such an easy phrase, and it sounds so good. Corporations must act to maximize profit in a moral way, and most do. Let's get at the legislation which is the root cause, not those will follow the laws.
Morality? Corporations? The only morality corporations seems to have stems from Government regulations... yes their are good CEOs and Politicians...
But I think left to their own devices, Companies will do what they can to make more money. Like selling cancer (Tobacco), or spend millions on lobbyists to get 'fair' policies...
Greed is the problem here... Government should be to help the people... not to help corporations.
Big Corporations only cares that this year profits are greater than last years...
Answer me this. One of your comments say companies will do whaterever it takes to make more money. I think that is the point. Make more money to hire more people to make more product to make more money. Apple does what they need to to make more money, starbucks does the same. Absolutley everything you purchase has the same mindset. MAKE MORE MONEY!. If we took that away we would be in the stone age. So what exactly are you proposing? And who decides when it goes from bettering the business to the "Greed" you spoke of? WHat gives you the right to say if I am greedy?
Ah yes... corporations make more money, change the rules so they can make More money.... create tax loopholes so they Keep more money... hire lobbyists so they can Make More Money... buy Politicians, move factories away from the US, influence trade policy so they Make More, Keep More... everything is about money.
Exactly, Corporations are meant to make as much money as possible. But there lies the problem. We need a strong Government to keep Corporate Greed from hurting Americans.
Corporations don't bound to any Nation, they pledge allegiance only to the all mighty dollar.
So we "vote" for Corporations like we do Politicians right? (with our pocketbooks) But what if Corporations can influence Policies anonymously... it's in their best interests to do so, right? So how can we vote with our pocket-books if we don't even know what they are doing?
They are selfish... they will take $1 away from us if it can make them $2...
If we let Corporations write the rules, they will surely write them for their best interests... see I don't think Governments are for Corporations... I think it's for the people... but the past 10-15 years it seems like every aspects of our Government, from the military to our politicians, elections, 'free trade' agreements... I'm sure countless other policies... have been influenced heavily by Corporate Greed... and like we both said, Corporations, the invisible hand, is built on greed. But Governments imho should be for the people, not for individual or hand full of Corporations.
Corporations are heartless souless entities... I don't want them to be my master, make my laws or lead my people.