The protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park have given us quite a show the last couple of months. We are getting reports that they have defecated on police cars, paraded in the nude, engaged in public sex, and defaced the park with mounds of garbage. That's called exercising your First Amendment rights. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg for your generous understanding.
What does this unwashed rabble want? Well, we know from their signs that they favor, among other things, radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience, and violence, if necessary. Apparently, this is not a problem for President Obama and the Democrats. They have embraced this tattered mob. They are so envious of the Tea Party that they'll support any mass of protesters that mirror their left wing ideology. Appearance and odor notwithstanding.
What do the Republicans say about all this? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a recent interview that the protesters have a right to express their opinion. Wow! Now that's taking a tough stand!
Actually, Republicans look upon the rabble as lepers; they won't go near them, much less embrace them like the Democrats. A mistake, perhaps? I think they are missing a great opportunity to score points, not by supporting the mob, but by agreeing with its greatest complaint: greed, especially the kind infecting Wall Street.
What are the protesters so angry about? The lowest 150 million Americans have a lower net worth than the 400 wealthiest Americans, many of them looking down on the mob from their Wall Street office windows. Put another way, the top 1 percent of Americans have more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent. You want more? The average salary on Wall Street is over $360,000 a year, and that includes pay for secretaries, messengers, and mail room clerks. That's five times the average salary in the rest of the private sector. Five times!
Let's take just one example. In 2010 Goldman Sachs had a pre-tax profit of $13 billion, down from $20 billion in 2009. But that didn't stop the Board of Directors from raising the CEO's compensation to $13 million. This year Goldman's stock is down 43% and it showed a third quarter loss of $428 million. Still, that has not prevented the firm from putting $10 billion into the compensation pool. God forbid the CEO should take a cut in salary.
What's wrong with this picture? Does the Occupy Wall Street crowd have a case?
Republicans have been adamant about not raising taxes on high income earners. But there's a difference between supporting small business owners who create most of the jobs in this country and remaining silent about the unconscionable greed of a securities industry that produces nothing and is dedicated only to creating wealth--its own.
President Obama's incessant demand that the fat cats pay their fair share will continue to resonate with the masses as long as the protesters rail at Wall Street's greed.
Republicans will continue to be identified with that greed as long as they fail to see the difference between the real job producers and the suits in the windows above Zuccotti Park.
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