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What does HN think about OccupyWallStreet?

8 points by jwee ↗ HN
A. Down with the bankers, up with main street! B. Cool protest...but half of my friends work at GS so... C. If I get this startup done, I'll automate an entire industry! Wait, did someone said protest? D. All of the protesters should enroll in C++ or Haskell class right now. Or join the enemy: VBA.

4 comments

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pedalpete
e. I think some of these people have valid reasons to be upset with how the bailouts were handled, and at least they are trying to take some action and care about their future. But what are they trying to accomplish with their protests. I'm the 99% doesn't give the 1% who you are trying to affect the opportunity to understand what you want them to do.

the gov't gave you $4 trillion when you screwed up, and we're paying for that with our lack of jobs, income, and loosing our houses. We want you (banks) to x,y,z and we will do a,b,c...

I just want to see one place where a coherent message of demands is, so I can pick a side. I think the way the bailouts was handled was shameful, and I'd like to see main st. Get back on it's feet, but it is difficult to do that because I don't know what they are really asking for.

in contrast to Vietnam war protesters, they got it. They knew what they wanted, nobody questioned what the protesters really stood for. Same with anti-nuke, immigration protests, civil rights, etc etc.

I'm assuming that they are possed about the bailouts and the financial issues only because they are trying to disrupt wall st. They could be the 99% who can't afford healthcare, 99% who thinks there are too many Starbucks outlets, 99% who have to watch their weight and exercises to stay thin while the 1% can eat whatever they want and never gain a oz.

how they haven't realized that they don't have a single cause yet is very surprising, or maybe I'm just missing it.

glimcat
It's only their third week. The Vietnam War protests went on for how long? Give them some time and maybe they'll get the message figured out. The solutions to economic depression and socioeconomic disparity are a bit more complicated than "pull out of the war." You don't fix a mediocre Gini coefficient overnight.

They seem to be at the "I'm pissed, are you pissed too?" stage. I expect they'll either fizzle out eventually, or they'll refine their message and pivot.

thinkcomp
It's a movement desperately in need of leadership.

The financial system is incredibly complex. It makes protesting it extremely difficult because there are so many aspects that are broken. Anyone who ends up leading it will inevitably have to be pretty closely connected to the so-called 1%, because frankly that's who runs the show right now and those are the people who understand the system and how to change it.

I'd love to help but I'm afraid I'm on the wrong side of the country. If you want to help me with PlainSite (http://www.plainsite.org), though, I think it could help articulate the movement's message.

mtdev
It is good that this is getting some publicity but the whole protest is misdirected without a clear message or demands. I would love to see more of the '99%' take a relatively smaller step forward and participate in elections. With so many close races, even a few unified percent, of the '99%', can hold a lot of political clout thereby making a stronger statement. As a bonus, you can take work off to vote and you don't have to get arrested!