Summations Only

I am unclear as to exactly what change even the most optimistic Wall Street protestor is expecting?Is the aim to overthrow the capitalist system? Whilst weed and witty banners are always welcome even I (born optimist that I am) can't see that having the desired effect.

What little I have seen of this on the news has been more along these lines than the more specific and realistic aims you mention.Those sound similar to the sort of thing UK Uncut has campaigned for here in the UK.

Well that seems fair enough. I guess the chant:WHAT DO WE WANT - Better regulated pension funds and more fiscal responsibility shown by bankers.
WHEN DO WE WANT IT - NOW!!!!Just isn't snappy enough to get that point across in the average news bulletin.

If there is one thing America (and the Western world more generally) is good at it is public relations. Selling itself.As someone who worked in a number of developing countries I have known many many people raised on the belief that if they could just get to America or (to a lesser extent) Western Europe their lives would improve beyond all imagination. Unsurprisingly their whole aim in life becomes to do just that. I'm not talking about starving refugees here. But taxi drivers, bar owners, craftsmen, mechanics etc. etc. from places like Guyana, Tanzania, Belize, Philippines etc. etc.Then they get here and end up working shit jobs on minimum wage and living in squalid ghettos. Barely even registering on the first rung of society. If they are lucky. Far less status and job satisfaction than they had at home. Barely any increase in genuine material wealth beyond the ability to buy the ubiquitous Western fast food that seemed so glamorous back home. In many many cases the people would have been much better off with their relatively decent lives in their own countries.Some see the con. Many refuse to give up on the dream despite the odds stacked against them ever achieving it. A lot see the reality but decide to stick it out in the hope that their kids can benefit from the perceived opportunities in the way that they thought they would. In most cases increasing lack of social mobility makes even that noble long term aspiration a probable pipe-dream.Some people come because they genuinely live in states of extreme oppression and are genuinely desperate. But many come because they have been sold the same crock of shit that you have Buz. Brainwashed into thinking how frikkin great everything is "here" and how awful the rest of the world is in comparison. But it isn't that great for many. And it is highly doubtful whether being stuck at the very bottom of an industrialised Western society is a better place to be than in the middle of many other places.

Curiously that matches Oni's own book on himself......!Only kiddin. It's good to have the comedy-meister back (where he been?) and I for one would vote for his 10 rating but for the fact I am deeply competetive and that would put yet another long timer ahead of me in the ratings war.Get cheers or die tryin!!!AbE - It appears my latest cheer has provided the straw to break the no ratings camels back. Oni has a 10 rating. MFer!!! GrrrrPS - I am a bit drunk at the mo.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

Bastard. Well crank up your sheets and put wind in the sails of the Straggle-meister.Enough of this objectivity nonsense.

Guardian Columnist on The Occupy MovementThe whole "occupy" thing arguably started elsewhere (Spain?). But the Wall Street protest seems to have been something of a firestarter/torch bearer.The more I read about it the less cynical and more hopeful it is a genuine movement for change I become.