WE ARE THE 99%
OCTOBER 5, 2011. As this movement spreads, perhaps the amorphous reasons people are giving for it will coalesce and become clear. Meanwhile, it seems appropriate to at least point out a few underlying facts about Wall Street, since that’s where it began, with a few college students camping out there.
Wall Street is, as most people know, the home of the stock market, which is a game favored by a whole load of people who want to make their money make money.
No one forces all these people to sink their $$ into stocks. They can get in, they can get out, they can abstain altogether.
The myriad companies that issue stock usually come to understand that the price of that stock, over time, doesn’t necessarily reflect the companies’ performance. There’s a fairy tale that states it does, but smart people don’t believe it.
Investing in stocks is a crapshoot, and it’s best to be the house, taking your little cut on every buy and sell order.
So if these protesters think the investment houses are greedy and nasty, they should suggest a boycott.
DON’T BUY STOCKS. IT’S A CON.
STOCK INVESTING IS A JOKE.
IDIOTS TRY TO MAKE MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET.
WALL STREET IS VEGAS WITH BRANDY AND CIGARS.
THE MARKET REBOUNDED BECAUSE MY DOG TOOK A CRAP.
WHO MANIPULATES STOCK PRICES?
STOCKS ARE A RIGGED GAME.
YOU’RE NOT A BIG SHOT BECAUSE YOU BUY STOCKS.
THE RAT PACK DAYS ARE OVER.
BUY A STOCK, JUMP OFF A CLIFF.
BOYCOTT THE STOCK MARKET.
Something like that. You know, nicely printed big signs.
Of course, the unions who are now joining in on the protests might feel a nervous twinge at a few thousand signs like this appearing on the nightly news, because the hustlers who run their pension funds are presumably investing in the stock market.
So are governments at all levels. So are the colleges these kids attend.
The stock market makes Vegas look like a guy on a streetcorner with a little table and three shells.
Trying to regulate what kinds of investments the brokerage houses can offer—in order to avoid another 2008 meltdown, for example—stands a very small chance of success, in the long run. And if a sucker is born every minute, people will continue to pour their $$ into the market. Unless they come to realize it’s a game, like slots or craps or video poker or roulette or the racetrack.
Since this we-are-99% thing is a long shot to begin with, and stands every chance of being co-opted quite soon, if it hasn’t happened already, why not roll the dice on letting people know what the stock market is all about? Why not, as awful as it sounds, tell the truth?
I don’t want to be the guy who ruins the party, who walks into the room with a keg of non-alcoholic beer, but hey, it seems clear that if lots and lots of people just stop investing in the market, the greedheads who make their money on the commissions from such idiocy will incur a serious amount of trouble.
Or would you like the upper 1% of the wealthiest Americans to pay 2% more in taxes than they are paying now—after some watered down bill squeezes through Congress? Will that usher in Utopia for all?
If “free market” means anything anymore, it certainly means people can invest or not invest. The root of Wall Street derives, in large part, from the fact that it is fueled by millions of people and institutions that buy stocks. That’s where the money comes from.
So I know this sounds crazy but—WITHDRAW THE MONEY.
If the guy who comes to your house to sell you magazines is pushing something you don’t want, tell him no thanks and go back to the dinner table.
“What are you in these days, Bob?”
“I’m in GE, Fred.”
No you’re not. You’re in a casino, potato head. You’re taking the Jets minus 3 against the Giants.
Let’s see some real signs showing up on Wall Street and on the nightly news. Let’s see Brian Williams explain INVESTING IN STOCKS IS FOR PROBLEM GAMBLERS.
Hey, set up an 800 line for “people who can’t quit the market.” I’ll take my turn at the phones.
“Sir, first of all, buying stocks is like shaking the dice at the Mirage. You don’t know what you’re doing, and your broker doesn’t care. He’s taking his cut whether you win or lose. Get it? Forget about that fat guy in the baseball cap. Just take your money out…”
Jon Rappoport