Friday, October 21, 2011
A Little Video Commentary on the Hypocrisy of the "Occupy" Movement
Here's a fun little video I shot of myself while I was on vacation a couple weeks ago. It's been fun read the comments and see how angry it makes the supporters of the movement. It's also fun to see what poor spellers they are. Given how many years these people spent pursuing their college degrees, it's surprising they can't punctuate a sentence...
If you double-click on the video, it'll take you to the YouTube page where you can read the comments. Really interesting stuff. Looking forward to a death threat or two to keep things interesting!
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Yes, self-made. I did an experiment this summer where I started with no cash, and in my spare time, did odd jobs to prove that anyone can make a living if they actually try. I'm self-employed and make a comfortable living, but I did this just to see if I could and to prove it could be done. Is that a problem?
ReplyDelete"Self-made" entreprenuer ... Yeah I'm sure those public advertising companies you worked for had no help in aiding you build a foundation of clients and experience to spin off and create your own media company at all ... Also, I think it's interesting you graduated from College in 1999 with an Economics degree ... and went straight into a job as a Marketing Manager ... that's pretty unusual for a college grad - unheard of ... ? Regardless, you've had a succesful company for 5 years, with previous experience at a corporation ... so you are established. This isn't "new" in the midst of a recession. Also, even if you did this "experiement," you obviously had a "safety net" to work with, not to mention time, and security of a job in the background "in case" ... so, your credibility is completely lost.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I never graduated from college. And I started work as an unpaid intern at an ad agency in 1996, so it wasn't corporate benevolence that enabled me to get where I am. And yes, I had a safety net--this was simply an experiment to prove a point. Why the anger? I'm flattered you took the time and effort to find my Linkedin profile, but why the hostility?
ReplyDeleteHey Matt,
ReplyDeleteit would seem to me that your comments have struck a chord with "Unknown". Logic would have me believe that he/she is either a protestor or a supporter their cause. Had he/she taken the time to fully research and understand the irony of their protest given the numerous luxuries that capitalism has afforded them, he/she would have reconsidered protesting in the first place and would have avoided being ridiculed. Since someone has risen up and pointed out the lunacy and hypocrisy of this protest he/she feeling ambarrassed by the obvious comments that you made now feels the need to justify their viewpoint by lashing out at you in an attempt to save face.
Nonetheless I fully agree with your perspective. As Charles Adler said earlier today on his radio show when you commented that you are being hated by many, "you are succeeding".
Take heart my friend, it is the tree that bears good fruit that has the sticks thrown at it.
Awesome video and you were great on Charles Adler's show!
ReplyDeleteI'm unsure how you could make this video two years ago, since OWS wasn't going on two years ago.
ReplyDeletecdgarlock -- that, my friend was a typo. Sorry about that!!
ReplyDeleteHi Matt: I loved this so much I posted it on my FB page. You said what we are all thinking but more artfully and cleverly than I could have. I am also an unlikely conservative, but becoming a prosecuting attorney snapped me out of it. The biggest mistake parents made when raising the entitlement generation is giving every one a "participation trophy" at the end of each soccer season so each kid could be a "winner." I have two kids, and I'm trying to teach them that there are winners. There are losers. In law school everyone knows who is ranked 1 and who is at the bottom. Sort of like at West Point. There are awful, boring, annoying, and hysterically frustrating days in all of our lives. Deal with it. My parents were born during the Depression and made sure I knew this. The end.
ReplyDeleteOops. Meant I was a "Liberal" but becoming a prosecuting attorney snapped me out of it....
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa -- thanks for the comment. You are so correct: There are winners. There are losers. Keep raising your kids right!
ReplyDeleteDear Matt and Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI feel like you've completely missed the point of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.
I support it when it's done right, and I think all-in-all you're missing the message. When a corporation wants to maximize profit, that's fine, but when they do it at the cost of American Jobs, the very same people they market their products to, and also put their outsourced workers in mortal danger because they're able to skirt safety regulations, it does qualify as Greed and not just profit-mongering. Loss of life is not an acceptable profit margin.
The real problem though is that Corporations are re-writing the rules. It's getting to the point where they will, or can already, donate anonymously to political candidates, even the Presidency. You and I can't do that. We show our ID's at the door, and sure, our votes aren't know, but it's known that we support -someone-. In their case, no one has to know. Their money being protected as free speech means no one without billions of dollars can ever compete with them.... Our votes stop counting, because we suddenly only see the guys that have the most funding behind them, our votes become their votes. They are forcibly buying out our votes. Hostile Takeover.
Furthermore, these 'over-educated hipsters,' my generation, the 'generation of entitlement.' Yeah, it's your generation that gave us that mindset. You know what I heard my whole life growing up? "You don't wanna be stuck flipping burgers, do you? Then go to College." Yeah, that's right, it was you guys. You made us feel like we were too good for flipping burgers, and then blame us for not wanting to. You painted it out to be some horrific occurrence, and as someone working their way through college by doing just that, I can assure you, it is. Lisa, do me a favor, raise your kids right by making them flip burgers like I am, and hope to whatever deity you pray to that you've never used that phrase before.
I'm lucky, going to a degree in Computer Sciences, which means my skill set will be in high demand nearly wherever I go, and I know it's not just some magical occurrence to get a job out of College, something a lot of your generation didn't bother to prepare mine for, as only about 10% of your generation and the one before it actually obtained Collegiate Degrees. My generation holds 17.5% of the total 27.5% of people in the nation who have College Degrees by the way, almost double the two previous generations put together, and many of us still can't find work. What does that say about the current state of things?
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding some of what you said in your video and posts, but I think my arguments stand on their own merits, ad hominim aside. By the way Matt, your video? Full of that there ad hominim. Pointing out Hypocrisy does not a good argument make.
Sincerely,
Gregg "Rikaze" Webb
And on a side note, not watching Fox News and not listening to Glenn Beck are clearly some of the best things a person can do these days. The news is too depressing in general, and the Mass Media is almost universally tilted one way or the other, despite the idea of journalism being an unbiased perspective, and I respect that you avoid (or at least claim to,) the mass media in general. Like my father told me when I was still a tyke, "Always think for yourself, come to your own conclusions."
ReplyDeleteLumping all corporations in together is the biggest mistake OWS has done. Not all corporations have the same political pull. In fact, much of what Rizake states about corporations benefits certain corporations to the detriment of other corporations. That's why true free markets should be the aim. Let government set standards (definition of an inch, pound, etc) and be arbiter of conflicts, not the director of the economy since Hoover (price ceilings, floors, limiting production, etc.) or bank roll of "public projects" that benefit connected corporations "create" jobs whether or not there is a public demand or not. (re: railroads, highways, dams)
ReplyDeleteThe other problem with Rizake's argument is regarding corporate money: if we choose more benevolent companies we can affect how other companies do business. We need to realize in doing this, we may have to pay more or not have the convenience of a larger, more popular company/corporation. American jobs require more capital for wages, working conditions, reporting requirements, etc. Would consumers purchase an iPhone for 16 times what they cost now? How should we view the individual and which view should have more sway: as consumer or worker?
The final misunderstanding is that one will find work with the degree with which they graduate. That is more the exception than the rule. In addition, most students get degrees that equal their passions and/or talents which does not necessarily equal what the market wants at any given point in time. I found myself out of work Jan 2009 after 25 years in the automotive field. I now maintain lawns and gardens. With a few more clients, I should make as much money as I did in the automotive field working less hours and within a 10 minute commute from home as opposed over an hour each way.
There are always opportunities. OWS is blinded by being in a box of ignorance and not opening their eyes to reality. They expect someone else to change to benefit them without changing themselves.
OTTObox -- I couldn't have said it better myself: "There are always opportunities."
ReplyDeleteI wrote an ebook about doing odd jobs to make a living. I proved that you can make reasonably good money if you use a little creativity and have a willingness to work hard.
And congratulations on your business. You may not be getting rich at the moment, but you're proving that the American Dream is still alive.
OTTO, the corporations that do have political pull are benefiting themselves, and buying politicians to protect them. And the ones that have the political pull are a small minority, yet they seem to control massive portions of their respective markets. No, lumping corporations isn't something we've done, because the ones without political pull aren't being greedy, and barely have the room to. And the businesses being affected adversely are ones like yours, having concessions taken from them in order to greater benefit the big guys.
ReplyDeleteAnd if we should just choose more benevolent companies, then why didn't you guys do that already? I haven't been around long enough to become a consumer or a worker, I have no say in what corporations control the market and never have. So, why is it my generations responsibility to choose more benevolent corporations? It's becoming our responsibility, but it was yours first, and you dropped the ball, to my generations detriment.
Lastly, you're wrong, it's not the exception. The exception is people who find work outside of their degree. Do your research. Of the 10% of the Baby Boomers and Gen X that got College Degrees, over 8% of them got jobs in fields directly correlating with their degrees. It's -my- generation that can't find jobs that correlate with our degrees, because there are just fewer jobs, even if you wanna just flip burgers.
Yes, there are always opportunities, but there should be a lot more than there are right now. America is the Land of Opportunity, right? So why are there so few to go around unless you're blessed with above-average Intelligence or an exceptionally creative mind? You argue that if you're willing to work hard, there are always opportunities. No, no there aren't. I just went looking for a job in Construction, and I happen to live in an area where the construction market, especially during the winter, is exceptionally good. And I couldn't find a job after two weeks of looking, I'm stuck flipping burgers.
Lastly, open your eyes. Your parents and now you have let our Constitutional Rights be tread on for far too long. You've let them censor television and news, you've let them go to war without Congress' Approval, and you've supported Corporations that are trying to steal our rights and buy Politicians, because you're scared of making the tough choices, like living at home with your parents and flipping burgers because you will never save up enough money to buy a house otherwise. Like taking Public Transit because Gas and a Car will mean 30% of the house I want to buy when I'm 30 will have to be owned by the bank. Like having a six year-old cell-phone, because I don't want to support Apple and the fact that they push their international workers TO DEATH to make their phones.
The people out there, on the walks, may not get it as well as they should, but they've picked one thing out of a multitude of things that YOU AND YOUR PARENTS LET HAPPEN. We're in a black-hole of debt, and you guys want to leave ME with the bill. I don't even have a credit card, I've never accrued a cent of debt in my life, yet you guys borrowing from Social Security and promising yourselves early retirements without paying your bills means I'm going to have TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN DEBT on my shoulders. And so will your kids. And when we're 45 and sending you off into the desert to die. Don't take the entitled attitude. Apparently, my generation knows all about that, we'll know your game, and we'll have our own families to protect and to put food on the table for. And you screwed us too, so sorry, no sympathy from me.
The OWS guys are actually showing you one of those problems, but you aren't willing to see it, because you think we're stupid kids who are being rebellious.
But OTTO, I'm glad you're answering me directly, arguing my points critically and logically, and opening a dialogue. It may not be possible for me to make any impact on any of you guys, but I can try, and it's people like you, who open up a candid debate, that make that possible.
ReplyDelete