Around the world, young people—students, workers, and the unemployed—are bringing their grievances to the public square. Protests have spread throughout the world, from Tunis to Cairo, Tel Aviv to Santiago de Chile, and Wall Street to Oakland, California. The specific grievances differ across the countries, yet the animating demands are the same: democracy and economic justice.
I don't claim to know what is going on in Tunis or Cairo or Tel Aviv or Santiago De Chile, but I do know what is going on in the streets of the United States of America. What we have here is an economy weighed down by a massive government bureaucracy, eating massive taxes. According to the Journal of Libertarian Studies, June 2007, 2/3 to 3/4 of redistributed tax dollars are lost in bureaucratic overhead. with every new administration and every new Congress, the beast grows ever larger and more insatiable. In my lifetime, from the Great Society programs and the War on Poverty to Medicare Part D and Obamacare, politicians have used this tax money to buy votes. "Vote for me and I'll set you free!"
As we continue to be weighed down by ever more tax and a greater regulatory burden, business is loathe to hire. Deekawife 3.0 sees this daily in her line of work. I know this from direct experience.
The problem of youth unemployment reflects much larger and deeper problems of inequality of income, education, and power, problems that are common throughout the world. The young people occupying Wall Street and protesting in hundreds of American cities are channeling sentiments felt very widely throughout American society. Their defining message, “We are the 99 percent,” draws attention to the way that the rich at the very top have run away with the prize in recent years, gaining great wealth and great political sway while leaving the rest of society to wallow in wage cuts, unemployment, foreclosures, unaffordable tuition and health bills, and for the unluckiest, outright poverty.
Sachs is just plain wrong here. The rich become rich because nearly all abandoned the "safe" option of going to school and taking a "safe" job with a "safe" employer. They took a risk, they took advantage, they became successful. The wage cuts and unemployment are a function of the government's failure to force free trade and end the flow of cheap illegal labor into the country. Wage cuts are forced on business so they can "compete" globally in a world where most other governments subsidize or outright own industry. Where they flood the US with cheap goods that we buy. Our own government can end this one tomorrow. Get out of the way of business and industry, allow the reasonably unfettered manufacture of goods here using cheap energy readily available in the form of coal and natural gas. Drill Baby Drill. And let's not forget "crony capitalism" brought to you by GM, GE, Wall Street and Solyndra.
The root cause of the foreclosure issue goes directly to a government that demanded everyone should have a "right" to home ownership. The federal government removes any risk from mortgage lenders via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mortgage lenders, in turn give mortgages to anyone and everyone. And people who no longer get any kind of economic reality in the public (government-funded and run) schools (propaganda centers) add a $30,000 boat and $50,000 SUV to the bill. No wonder they don't have any furniture in their house. And these are generally the parents of #Occupiers. It's no wonder #Occupiers can't figure this out.
Unaffordable tuition and healthcare, again comes from government intervention and subsidy. Government subsidizes tuition by (again) guaranteeing loans. Free money for colleges and universities. Does anyone see a pattern here?
The only country in the world where youth protests are not against an oppressive government is here in the US. the protests are anti-capitalist and anarchist. Socialism has never worked. Anywhere...ever. I challenge anyone to show me where a "worker's paradise" has remained a "worker's paradise". The #Occupiers are ignorant of this fact and are driven by greed and envy. They have been propagandized by the government since day one. Their parents are ignorant as well.
Our capitalistic, democratic representative republic worked exceptionally well for 200 years. As the federal government has become larger and more intrusive, the country has become less prosperous. It is as plain as the nose on anyone's face, if they choose to see.
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