Perseverance seems to be the key word driving the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. Who would ever have believed the effort would have been around to celebrate a two-month anniversary much less have spread across our nation and be contributing to unrest and rioting in Greece, Italy and France. And, there will probably be more problems in Europe as countries there are affected by austerity measures developing to try to avoid default of some governments and the demise of the Euro.
It would appear from some of the reports that the efforts are being infiltrated by elements more interested in venting their anger at any opportunity, and at any cause, rather than trying to bring about true meaningful change. Hopefully these distractions (burning, looting, etc.) will not become a cause for the movement to be destroyed by their widespread deployment. The OWS movement does have some valid issues to address. Transparency of the government/political/corporation connection alone is worth all the support we can give the group.
There is no doubt that the instant communication systems are contributing to the rapid spread of live pictures promoting the actions of one city demonstration and giving inspiration to yet another city’s activities. It certainly has brought the action to the forefront of the television news media this past week and has led to some very high profile personalities speaking out on the subject of the investment community. No less a voice than Warren Buffet could get the attention of the major networks for an extended interview on the subject of corporate taxes. Mr. Buffet’s comments that the “existing system of our government/financial markets works very well for those who control it” sums up the very core of the weakness that infects our economy.
The information available on the Internet links far too many of our elected officials to large corporations through investments in their personal portfolios derived from information they gleaned through their elected positions. As more and more information comes out on the subject of “greed in our economy,” we are going to see more and more how deep-seeded it is in our political system. The board of directors of a corporation is basically elected by the very large stock holders (financial institutions).
The board helps decide policy on political support (contributions to candidates and PACs) of the people we have to choose from when we vote. Only when the veryrich get involved as a result of a major change in their social consciousness (such as Warren Buffett), will we have an impact that actually results in change.
In my opinion, two things are absolutely necessary to start the process of change.
First, we must have term limits for both the Senate and House and terms of the Supreme Court; and second, we must have a balanced budget amendment to our constitution. The TEA party’s impact is not great enough in itself to accomplish those goals. It will require a major move of numerous powerful personalities to implement them.
An individual named Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks’ basketball franchise and a net worth estimated at $2.3 billion by Forbes, has an Internet blog www.blogmaverick.
com, on which he shares his views on government and the business community/finances. He, and a friend, started and sold an Internet company named Broadcast.
com and he now is involved in several companies as well as the Mavericks. His views on the issue of the federal government, taxes and small business are most interesting. At age 53, he is about the age of my oldest son and it is his age group that will participate in the actions required to make changes and will witness the effect of those changes. He has three articles on the web blog that cover many of the issuesthat I try to expound on in these articles. And, based on my limited corporate experience, he is right on almost all of them. The basic corporate tax rate issue is certainly important at the corporate level but it takes on a very personal reason for those who hold stock options - which he points out very clearly.
Jim Cramer, a purported expert on personal finances who appears regularly on CNBC’s coverage of the stock market has been making comments about the ability of high-speed electronic trading to create “even more” disparity in the stock market. With control of corporation’s stock so heavily tied to institutions and mutual funds, the majority of us don’t understand what is actually going on in the world of high finance.
The corporate board’s influence affects decisions such as when to build manufacturing plants overseas, forces corporations to keep one eye on stock prices and keeps the same people moving from one high level of influence to another. Only the Warren Buffets of the world can have meaningful effect on these circumstances.
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Editor’s note: Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected] .
Opinion, Pages 4 on 11/23/2011