Forum Post: My Views

I agree with most media outlets when they say that this movement lacks a clear desire or "demand", but that has never really bothered me. This is because I've understood that this movement expressed the major outrage people have over our current economic situation. I've also wanted to join in this movement for the sake of expressing how I feel about corporate influence in our government. I grew up on the internet, and I don't like how a "Content MAFIAA" gets to tell Bob Corker, my state senator, how we need laws that invade people's privacy and hindering innovation, while he ignores some of the criticisms I've had over such bills.

Also, I wish to talk about people saying that the protesters are merely irresponsible people who just rack up debt. I'm a college student who moved to TN back in 2009, and my parents had very little credit issues. They tried to get a loan from several banks, but they kept getting the run around from several offices. One of the banks said that the law requires a person have a certain credit score to get a loan, even though such law has never existed as far as I know. We were able to get a home, but I have to pay a college tuition. While I've been planning on getting a Bachelor's in Computer Science, I fear that may not be possible because I would have to take out a student loan, and it is highly unlikely that I will be able to pay one off in this economic situation where jobs that I need to pay them off are scarce (I'm already working, but my job right now cannot pay college expenses). From my experience, you don't have to be in debt to be hurt by this economy, and those who are in debt have been unwillingly been put in a situation where they can't pay them off.

Now as far as my views of capitalism goes, I still believe in it, but it hasn't worked the way it was supposed to. In my "textbook" sense of capitalism, businesses in a competitive market provide for consumers. The superior businesses lives by providing superior goods and services, while poor providers go out of business. One of my main criticisms of the bank bailouts is that the banks did not do what it took to stay in business (giving loans to a bunch of random people), but they were allowed to live anyway. Had those banks actually went bankrupt, other banks that are locally owned and are more responsible could have gotten greater business. If the place I worked at didn't please consumers, they would go somewhere better than our place, and we would go out of business.

This is just my $0.02, thoughts and (constructive) criticisms accepted.