Occupy Detroit

[Goose]

its the 99% slogan, that if you aren't part of their defined 1%, then you are part of the 99% and are with them.... i'm not in the 1%..... its only something to aspire to....

im not part of THEIR 99% and its nothing I want to be involved with.......

[Downtown Lady]

its the 99% slogan, that if you aren't part of their defined 1%, then you are part of the 99% and are with them.... i'm not in the 1%..... its only something to aspire to....

im not part of THEIR 99% and its nothing I want to be involved with.......

I interpret the slogan differently -- I don't take it to mean that all 99% are together.

I take it to mean that the system is structured so poorly/corruptly that it's biased toward the top 1%. So that whether you self-identify with the 99% or not, the system is working against you unless you are in the top 1%.

[detroitdoug]

its the 99% slogan, that if you aren't part of their defined 1%, then you are part of the 99% and are with them.... i'm not in the 1%..... its only something to aspire to....

im not part of THEIR 99% and its nothing I want to be involved with.......

Dead on right here.

[DC48080]

The people who participate in this "Occupy" nonsense are most certainly not indicative of 99 percent of this country. Not by a long shot. These folks are simply a radical fringe group, albeit a noisy one, that wants everything for free; free college education, debt forgiveness, free healthcare etc.

They should be call The Freeloader Party. Or judging by their ragged appearance they could be referred to as "Fleabaggers".

[kryptonite]

I'm opting out of the 99%. Although I'm unquestionably part of the so-called 99 percent and I do agree with them that a jobs bill should be passed and I also agree on a few of their other 'demands', I find them to be like the Tea Party - unfocused and impossible to please.

[maxx]

The people who participate in this "Occupy" nonsense are most certainly not indicative of 99 percent of this country. Not by a long shot. These folks are simply a radical fringe group, albeit a noisy one, that wants everything for free; free college education, debt forgiveness, free healthcare etc.

They should be call The Freeloader Party. Or judging by their ragged appearance they could be referred to as "Fleabaggers".

RE:free healthcare

That could just as easily be said of all the people who don't want to purchase health insurance but who will show up at a hospital when they need healthcare.

[Goose]

Corporations and its republican allies have to contribute to keep America going. They don't have the right to stay rich forever!

this is where you lose a LOT of people...

http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/th...ess-112th.html

70% of the top 10 richest are DEMOCRAT

they really have you fooled....

[maxx]

I'm opting out of the 99%. Although I'm unquestionably part of the so-called 99 percent and I do agree with them that a jobs bill should be passed and I also agree on a few of their other 'demands', I find them to be like the Tea Party - unfocused and impossible to please.

Of course, you can't please them all. They are a group of individuals.

[Goose]

I'm opting out of the 99%. Although I'm unquestionably part of the so-called 99 percent and I do agree with them that a jobs bill should be passed and I also agree on a few of their other 'demands', I find them to be like the Tea Party - unfocused and impossible to please.

unlike the 99%, the teaparty is not asking FOR anything that will in some way obligate anyone else to provide for them..... be they rich or poor.....

[maxx]

this is where you lose a LOT of people...

http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/th...ess-112th.html

70% of the top 10 richest are DEMOCRAT

they really have you fooled....

And any Dem who is for getting rid of Soc. Sec. and Medicare should be ousted from the party. I'd like to know how many DINOs are in Congress. Of course, the real power people are pulling the strings of Congress behind the scenes. And they are just for themselves, not any particular party.

[Mikeg]

....... the system is structured so poorly/corruptly that it's biased toward the top 1%. So that whether you self-identify with the 99% or not, the system is working against you unless you are in the top 1%.

How can you ignore the structural bias that has resulted in 46% of Americans legally paying zero income taxes? That percentage even includes workers who because of the progressive nature of the income tax rate structure and/or tax breaks for seniors and low income families end up owing zero dollars when they file and then get a full refund of the federal income taxes that were withheld that year from their paychecks. [source]

I suppose "the system" is working against them, too?

All we keep hearing is that America is an evil, regressive nation and the top earners are no longer paying their "fair share", yet the facts prove otherwise.

In 1987, the bottom 95 percent of American taxpayers paid 58 percent of federal income taxes. In 2007, they paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden — a percentage that was less than the top 1 percent, which paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. In other words, in 2007 1.4 million people paid more taxes than 134 million taxpayers. [source]

[maxx]

Goose:
The Tea Party has its hypocrites too.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...party-20100928

[maxx]

Mikeg:
Read this. The Great Tas Shift.
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/20...axes_gale.aspx

[maxx]

Mikeg:
Read this.http://www.brookings.edu/articles/20...axes_gale.aspx

[manualshift]

Payroll and sales taxes on my measly earnings.

How can you ignore the structural bias that has resulted in 46% of Americans legally paying zero income taxes? That percentage even includes workers who because of the progressive nature of the income tax rate structure and/or tax breaks for seniors and low income families end up owing zero dollars when they file and then get a full refund of the federal income taxes that were withheld that year from their paychecks. [source]

I suppose "the system" is working against them, too?

All we keep hearing is that America is an evil, regressive nation and the top earners are no longer paying their "fair share", yet the facts prove otherwise.

In 1987, the bottom 95 percent of American taxpayers paid 58 percent of federal income taxes. In 2007, they paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden — a percentage that was less than the top 1 percent, which paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. In other words, in 2007 1.4 million people paid more taxes than 134 million taxpayers. [source]

[noise]

its the 99% slogan, that if you aren't part of their defined 1%, then you are part of the 99% and are with them.... i'm not in the 1%..... its only something to aspire to....

im not part of THEIR 99% and its nothing I want to be involved with.......

"THEIR 99%" has a lot of wide-ranging views, if you'd take the time to pay attention to the issue.

I guess my question for you is this: do you always fall in line and do what your told or have you ever taken a public stand on an important issue in your life?

I'm not quite sure what's so objectionable about feeling discontented about a factual 99% vs. 1% separation. I guess for some it's drugs, others it's religion, and others still it's misguided patriotism.

[Trumpeteer]

Payroll and sales taxes on my measly earnings.

Payroll taxes help fund YOUR SS & Medicare! Sales tax means you BOUGHT something! People like you sound like the idiot kid interviewed yesterday by a reporter asking what he meant by his sign saying that the "occupier" wanted someone to "Pay MY Tuition". When asked why he thought he should get free tuition paid for with someone else's money he replied, "Because that's what I want."

[Mikeg]

Mikeg:
Read this. The Great Tax Shift.
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/20...axes_gale.aspx

I offer actual income tax data from 2007 and you counter with an article from 2005 that is nothing more than speculative hand-wringing over the possible effects of the Bush tax cuts! Is that the best you can do?

How does that disprove the point I made about the long-term shift of the income tax burden away from the lowest 95%?

How does it in any way disprove the fact that at least 46% of the 99% that the "Occupy" protesters claim to represent end up paying no income taxes at all? Few of the protesters have any "skin in the game" yet they are whining about bias in the income tax burden and how the system works against them - hollow claims that will fail to turn the "Occupy" protests into a mass movement.

[Melocoton]

The fact that a large percentage of Americans are now too poor to have federal income tax obligations is not a good argument against the #occupywallstret protests. It's the opposite, in fact.

For those interested, a more detailed discussion of the simplistic right-wing blame-the-poor 53% stuff is available widely on the web: one report points out: "Rather than focusing on how relatively modest tax breaks make many of the elderly and low-income workers with children nontaxable, we should keep in mind that high-income households pay a lot less tax than they would without tax expenditures." [expenditures = special tax benefits, tax breaks, etc.]

http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/20...-income-tax-2/

From the Brookings Instition, no less.

[MikeM]

The fact that a large percentage of Americans are now too poor to have federal income tax obligations is not a good argument against the #occupywallstret protests. It's the opposite, in fact.

Just what I was going to say. The last thing I would want to see is more tax on the elderly and poor families.

[bailey]

This is a very enlightening series of charts that the OWS/Detroit folks should be using to explain the issues to both their supporters and to the media.

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-...t-2011-10?op=1

The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.

I think that disconnect is not getting through to people.

[Detroitnerd]

The elite rich, the banksters especially, but also other parasitic rich people, "earned" their money largely through unfair political influence, bribes, essentially, putting them in the class of gangsters. They will never, ever admit this. The elite rich will never admit that their hoarding of the national wealth causes any problems. They will continue to point at any who disagree and say they're malcontents, hippies, losers, socialists, communists, terrorists -- anything. And, when you look at their "ideology" it's really just a host of rationalizations after the fact that don't make any sense, unless you put them in the framework of prejudice. You and I get tough love [["GET A FUCKING JOB") while the 1 percent get bailouts, toothless regulation, sham hearings, no prosecution -- and get to do the whole thing over again if they want. This is how they roll and you should never expect to change their minds.

Now, the other people who AREN'T the 1 percent but imagine themselves to be [[perhaps, one day, even though it's less and less likely under this growing economic feudalism), at least you might have a chance of changing their minds.

[Jimaz]

Free Press: Occupy Detroit protesters to camp out in Grand Circus Park

[Scottathew]

I still don't understand what they're protesting and what they want.

The Wall Street folks I understand. They're angry about all the fat-cats that play around with our money. They're angry with the fat-cats that actually [[in part) caused the recession.

I'm not against the "occupy" movement, I just simply don't understand it.

Is saw a Detnews article that quoted a protester, a 30-year special education teacher that can't make "ends-meet". I laughed my butt off. Those teachers, especially one with that many years in make wicked money for working 9 months out of the year. She's just upset she had to trade in the Escalade for a Tahoe.

I'm all for tax reform and closing down the tax loopholes for corporations and the rich, but I'm not sure what "Occupy Detroit" wants...

[Detroitnerd]

Is saw a Detnews article that quoted a protester, a 30-year special education teacher that can't make "ends-meet". I laughed my butt off. Those teachers, especially one with that many years in make wicked money for working 9 months out of the year. She's just upset she had to trade in the Escalade for a Tahoe.

Did the teacher offer her salary? Or are you conflating one teacher with several?

Are you familiar with privatized schools not offering special ed classes? It's relevant.

Did she say she had to trade in her car, or are you commentating and putting words in her mouth?

I think I've hard that one before: "Their interpretation of austerity is a new Tahoe instead of an Escalade."

Links, please ...