Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The Globalization of Protest
Due 11 Nov 2011. Nobel Prize Economist Joseph Stiglitz relates his analysis on the OWS protests. He discusses contrast between overregulated democracy and unregulated bankers. How do you evaluate this discussion?? Should income equality become a goal of the capitalist system?? What steps should be taken to solve the problem, if any??
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Although there are signs showing that our economy finally starts to recover, it is ridiculous to me that the bankers are taking all kinds of bonuses. (Although they do this all the time, I am still shocked to see it in the article.) I think our government should watch what these people are doing.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, the social networking is so popular and powerful that it is able to spark a protest. Many countries are so afraid of this kind of power that facebook or twitter are blocked.
Like we mentioned it in class one time, people will rob or steal if they need to. Desperate people would start a protest(like the one in Wall Street, which is instead a peaceful one unlike the ones mentioned in the article)
Income equality and Capitalism can not happen at the same time, in my opinion. It is not possible for a country with freedom to achieve this goal.
Many people are becoming angered with the economy though their are "signs" of our economy starting to pick up again in the US. Other countries who have economic problems are like Spain, and European countries. Spain, just like the US, have been having protests as well. Income equality might seem fair but it would be like communism. The way I think it can be fixed is by spending money and not just hold on to the money. Since we do need money to stimulate the economy, we need to start circulating more of our money.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Joseph Stiglitz. The idea that bankers are unregulated yet democracy is over-regulated is quite alarming. There needs to be a complete switch in those ideas. Income equality should definitely be a goal; however, I don't believe that it could be achieved while maintaining a complete capitalist system. Steps that could be taken to solve this problem is to work towards decreasing the income inequality. This could be done by more taxation on the 1%. Overall, there needs to be a boost in the economy which will in turn solve the problems of inequality and put the US back on track.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree with Joseph Stiglitz when he mentions that the focus of a democracy should not be solely on the 1% but rather the population as a whole. I don't think that income equality should be a goal of capitalism. In a capitalist system, naturally, there are winners and losers. I don't see protests making much difference in the creation of jobs and turning this economy around. To solve this problem, there needs to be a reform in the tax code. I think that the top 1% should be taxed at a slightly higher rate, which would generate more revenue. Middle-class citizens should not be paying a larger proportion of their income for taxes. This will lessen the burden on the middle-class, which is slowly diminishing. With a new tax code, the economy is almost guaranteed to get better over time.
ReplyDeleteThis is Kasey Litchfield. My google account wont let me post comments so I had to use my AIM account.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many aspects of Stiglitz's argument. Bankers need to be regulated and we should focuse more on the popolation as a whole and the ir welfare instead of just the 1%. Capitalism is all about making as much money as possible and economic equality will prevent this for many Americans. We should tax the 1% more heavily than the rest of the 99% in an effort to stabelize the economy.
I agree with Stiglitz's argument. If focus continues to be placed only on the elite 1%, the remaining 99% will just continue to suffer while the rich get richer. In a capitalist system, I believe that there should be equity to a certain degree. Obviously those who have a higher education and a better job should be awarded, but at the same time, those who have not had to opportunity to get a degree or a white collar job should not be punished so severley through rising taxes and home prices and other blows. To solve this, the 1% should have to pay a larger tax payment than those making a fraction of their income instead of paying such low amounts.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Stiglitz points out major flaws within our system regarding the inequality between the one and ninety-nine percent. His evaluation makes sense and could not be a better description. Although this inequality needs to balance out, I don't think it should be a goal of the capitalist system. It's like survival of the fittest, where some have more advantages compared to the other. However, because the capitalist system is like survival of the fittest, the government should be monitoring their actions so have complete equality in punishment or consequences.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that the banks are underegulated, and I am disappointed to know that the major bankers are allowed to receive any type of bonus, after being baled out. Income equality cannot possibly coexist with capitolism, so it can't be a goal in a capitolist society. This is partly, why I would advocate socialist societies, but that's off topic. Our first step would be two invigorate the people. There is power in numbers, meaning that by getting people to protest we would be more likely to successfully get what we desire. the next step would be to give up the American ove for capitolism. it is ok to be capitolist but to associate that with AAmerican pride is rediculous. If other systems were more accepted, we could make more of a change in this country.
ReplyDeleteI think that the fact that we have this unregulated banking system is absolutely ridiculous. The banks were a bad idea in the first place, why in the world should we allow them to operate unregulated? As for income equality, I feel it's necessary that we adopt some sort of policy that will shorten the gap between the wealthy and the poor. As for the capitalist pigs, they just need to suck it up and take one for the team; what good will all that wealth do when the 'too big to fail' banks collapse? It's been an ongoing argument that a socialist approach to economy simply works better, and it's been said time and time again since the dawn of our capitalist system. YAY SOCIALISM!!! (Lol), but really, it's a little ridiculous how poor America's income quality is in comparison to other countries... In fact, it's down-right embarrassing and it needs to change.
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