Forum Post: Let's Occupy Wall Street from WITHIN!
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 12, 2011, 1:09 a.m. EST by arousta
(3)
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I have my own company on Broad Street, right within the belly of the beast. I think #OWS needs to be focusing in parallel on helping those smart, young (and old) talented people amongst the protestors to gain marketable skills and apply them in the job market. If there are no jobs, we have to create them! Spontaneous innovation, just like the creation of #OWS, is possible.
This can serve three great purposes:
- Show the world that OWS supporters are not just smart, ethical and passionate, but that they are hard-working, resourceful and responsible.
- Empower this growing OWS community to be a force of positive change, not just by calling out and standing against corporate corruption, but by putting more smart, ethical people into the economy, that can change things through their work ethic as well as how/where they spend/redistribute monies earned (ie - not on big brand, amoral corporate products).
- Gain more support from SMBs (Small to Mid-Sized Businesses) and Entrepreneurs like me! I get it, but I know that other SMBs are a bit scared and confused, thinking "are these crazy hippies anti-business?" I think a blanket anti-business, anti-money making policy would be a huge mistake for OWS. We have to celebrate innovation and support entrepreneurship, as long as it is NOT in service of some negative or destructive purpose, like military technology, predatory lending or pornography.
There are so many promising and morally good industries and job opportunities right now, both in the US and abroad. True patriots of OWS should diversify and fight the battle on multiple fronts. Let's tap into it. Tweet me up to discuss further - www.twitter.com/arousta
There are a lot of smart, kind, and even ethical business men and women on Wall Street. Entrepreneurship, as it is advocated by most universities today, is destructive to the degree that it fosters get-rich-quick mentalities that grew out of the Silicon Valley phenomenon/dot-com nonsense 12 years ago. That "bubble" set the stage for the same unethical virtuality that has caused false valuations and financial fiascos. We should be protesting against MBA programs around the world that are releasing thousands upon thousands of questionable "leaders" into business every year.
Didn't something happen like this in the 60's? Then BOOM the 80's happened. Lots of people got rich, others suffered horribly. Not sure that's the best idea.
http://j.mp/BreakTheJobTrance
arousta, I'm with ya 100% ..." If there are no jobs, we have to create them!"
but that takes capital.... I've owned numerous businesses, making lots of money... I could set those up again... but there no capital available to build new businesses ... so what do we do.... our country is being raped by greed ... I'm not suggesting that you are greedy... you don't sound greedy at all... and 99% of American business arn't either ... we know that... but there is 1% that is killing us... good post
"I think #OWS needs to be focusing in parallel on helping those smart, young (and old) talented people amongst the protestors to gain marketable skills and apply them in the job market."
I hire workers at a profitable technology startup, and for the last few days I've been here encouraging people who are complaining about being unemployed here to stop blaming other people and to instead focus on learning new jobs skills. I've provided some very specific suggestions for free training resources in the field that I happen to know. I've made it very clear that I've been outsourcing jobs that Americans could have to Venezuela, and those are jobs that pay more than the average American hourly wage of $33. I've provided concrete pointers about how to qualify for the jobs that I have available right now.
The response has been 100% rejection. I've been the subject of endless ad hominem attacks. People have positioned me as the enemy for even suggesting learning new skills. People have responded with defeatism, saying that by the time they finish training there won't be jobs available because everybody will have taken them, or that it's unrealistic to learn the skills that I'm pointing out are in high demand.
My conclusion is that I'm seeing evidence of the kinds of personal defects that are the reason why some of these people are unemployed in the first place. And my patience for trying to be helpful has pretty much ran out. My willingness to hire anybody associated with this movement or to help them train for new jobs is going... going... gone.
TechJunkie, I was a business owner also... the fact is that for the majority of Americans reguardless of their training.. there are very few jobs that pay enough to even rent an apartment... further there is no capital available to start new enterprises... the construction business that was a big player in providing jobs is completely gone.... people are fed up... they don't want to hear get a job anymore.. they can't find one... they don't want to hear go to school anymore... they've done that ..racked tens of thousands dollars of debt.. and still can find work... something has to change,,,
All of that starts to lose its credibility in my mind when I've been here for almost a week repeating the same thing over and over and I still haven't had a single person ask for more information about getting a job. These are not people who want jobs.
I ask for more information about getting a job.