"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

OWS Supporters Don't Like Being Made Fun Of.... But Tough Shit, Buddy

I don't get many comments on the blog; heck, it's usually my Mom commenting that I should stop blogging and get back to work.   But I got a comment on one of my posts on the OWS protests that's worth sharing.   The fellow commenting was apparently perturbed that I had made fun of some of the OWS protesters who had felt put out that rich bankers got to work so early they couldn't chant at them and bang their drums when they walked by.   Here is the comment in its entirety:


The protest is about these people making money off the backs of others, dumb ass. Not the mere fact that they're rich. Dumb ass.
I really like the repetition of the "dumb ass."  I'm sure it made this anonymous fellow feel very intelligent to say it the first time, so he just had to get that feeling back again at the end.   Hmmmm... calling someone who disagrees with me a "dumb ass," man, that's persuadin' the middle-class voter, ain't it?  

Meanwhile, I have a hard time understanding how exactly it is that OWS supporters feel that rich bankers make money off the backs of others.   Bankers loan money to people who want money with the agreement that they will pay it back.   They charge interest to make a profit, but there are numerous regulations limiting the amount of interest they can charge and, in any event, the market generally sets the interest rates, and lendors certainly have a right to recover the time value of their money, don't they?   If bankers didn't make money lending money, there would be no reason to accept the risk of loaning and entrepreneurs, home buyers and, yes, students who want to borrow for college would have to do without.   Maybe the OWS supporters think the world would be a better place without bankers, but I don't think it's a world they'd really much like to live in.

To me, a taxpayer, the real moochers in society who "make money off the backs of others" are people who accept welfare (I never have), accept unemployment benefits (ditto), accept food stamps (ditto), housing subsidies (ditto), or who work for the government and expect cushy benefits and early retirement "off the backs of others."   And, of course, people who borrow money for things they can't afford (houses or college educations) and then don't want to pay it back, but want other citizens who are more responsible (taxpayers) to bail them out.   But that's just me.   Maybe I'm a dumb ass.  


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While I'm on the topic of making fun of OWS protesters, here's a video that's getting a lot of play out there.   What exactly is this woman upset about?   Apparently the world out there is just too confusing for her:





But I'm the dumb one?

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