 |
| (Photo by Matthias Trautsch) |
Arends sums up the rules of “America’s Street of Shame” in the following manner:
“On Wall Street, you take every nickel and dime you can get your hands on. If it’s not nailed down, it’s yours.
You take without conscience or shame. If you see a
blind man selling pencils on the street, steal the pencils.
Steal the pennies. Steal his dog.”
Now that you’ve stolen those pennies, flip them whenever
ethical decisions need to be made (or ignored). Wall Street results would predictably look like these: “Heads you win, tails they lose.”
So how can Occupiers mimic Wall Street tactics? Arends implies that if each Occupier were to apply for all credit cards that they’re eligible for, and each Occupier were to then charge them to the max, and each Occupier were to then default on the payments, and each Occupier were to then declare bankruptcy…
well then, Wall Street might eventually be truly Occupied by those who beat them at their own game.
Arends also suggests that this strategy occurred to the Occupiers, but that “they considered it grossly immoral.” Although immoral strategies seem expedient, they eventually crumble under the weight of their own inequities. That could
be why Churchill famously commented: “Many forms
of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends
that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it
has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
That could also be why Gandhi stated: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Kudos therefore to all those Occupiers who preferred “camping out in the cold, eating lentil curry” to adopting Wall Street tactics of their own.
Resources
http://money.msn.com/how-to-invest/what-if-occupiers-aped-wall-street-marketwatch.aspx?page=2
http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/ChurchillQuotes.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment