Thursday, November 17, 2011

Reports: 10,000 plus Protesters Massing in NYC at Foley Square

Numerous twitter reports indicate 10,000 plus Occupy Wall Street protesters and sympathizers are massing at Foley Square in Manhattan. Live video streams suggest their are thousands, though a more accurate number is impossible to determine.

Reports indicate that many union members have joined the protest, including SEIU members.

Foley square is just north of Wall Street and is surrounded by many government buildings including court houses.



4 comments:

  1. I was listening to the radio and heard some OWS group in LA chanting "tax the 1%, tax the 1%!". Would not describe myself as an extreme libertarian or knee-jerk conservative, but I felt this overpowering resentment towards these people when I heard them yelling that. I am not even in the 1% myself, but the idea of people screaming to tax their fellow citizens made me a bit sick. I hate to say it, but it felt like the loosers of city screaming to take money from the winners. I can more than accept a liberal economist making an intellectual case for this, but to hear these gutteral screams from my fellow citizens pissed me off, and I bet I am not the only "non-1%" person feeling this way.

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  2. I just had a thought. How 'bout some folks start a group called "STC" for Simplify Tax Code?! Make it flatter and simpler for both individuals and corporations. If top 1% see their taxes go up a bit, I'm ok with it in that context, provided 50% of the population does not continue to receive a pass on any income taxes. Some of the OWS surely fit into that category, and the screaming is simply a way to demand that others cut them a check. I wonder if I'm the only one who has had this gut reaction to these scenes?

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  3. What's really sad is that in the previous depression the mass movement was against taxation; not fleecing others.

    http://mises.org/daily/5068


    Great quote from the time:

    "I buy less food, less tobacco, less recreation and I would like to buy less government."

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  4. On a recent Adam Curry / John C Dvorak "No Agenda" podcast they discussed what seems a reasonable scenario r.e. the origins of OWS. There seem to be two groups involved. The original OWS group which was arms length removed from the Obama administration's main supporters. It was set up as basically a ginger group for Obama's Jobs bill push. Since then a broader group with a wider range of issues called "the 99%" have become involved. As the movement has strayed from it's designated agenda presumably the word has now gone out to close it down. There seems to be some central directives going out to Mayors etc (Oakland's mayor let this slip - Curry and Dvorak cover this) directing various "local" police forces to start the push. I'm not sure this is true but a worthwhile scenario to keep in mind.

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