I am not sure that I have ever protested anything short of a bad call on a football field. In fact, looking back, I am sure I have never been part of any real protest. I had a friend that was going to New York two weeks ago and I asked him to get a picture taken of him among the protesters. I did not encourage him to protest, just to get a picture.
I am thinking about going to New York and getting a picture myself. Then again, maybe not. In the end, my going to New York just to get a picture of myself among the protesters would not be the stupidest thing I have ever done. I am sure I could get a good meal while I was there. Maybe, I could fly in early one morning and then fly home late the same night. Of course, if I wanted good pictures, I would probably need to take someone with me. I have not asked Patti yet, but my guess is that she may have other things to do outside of pretending to protest.
I do feel some need to protest. I am not sure if corporate greed is my target. Maybe my reason is that Wall Street represents folks with a lot more money than I have and it seems a little unfair. I work hard, what about me? Maybe, I just feel the need to lash out at the economy and protesting is the only way I feel my voice will be heard. Unfortunately, protesting in the financial district is unlikely to bring about the result folks are looking for in return for efforts. Assuming what they are looking for is more money in their own pockets. The scary thing is that all it may do is cause the leaders of our country to react in some knee jerk reaction and enact legislation to appease the masses, only to do more harm. Kind of like the idea of “9-9-9.” But, I digress.
Let us not forget that the government’s forcing of financial institutions to make home loans in areas they would otherwise steer clear of due to high risk. The making of such loans may have been the catalyst that started us down the road to the financial crisis in the first place.. The need to make such loans only increased the demand for real estate, which certainly helped create more demand overall for houses. This led to more home mortgages, even more demand, and ultimately the ability to repeatedly “flip” houses in an ever growing market.
More mortgages led to the idea of packaging the mortgages in bundles and selling them worldwide. We forced the banks to make risky loans, which in turn led them to be even more risky on their own. Maybe, this is a bit of an over simplification, but you see my point. Regulations are neither inherently good or bad, they just are what they are. Sometimes, the best intended regulations backfire. As the protests worldwide continue, it will be interesting to see where they lead. So far, the protests here in the U.S. have been peaceful. That has not been true worldwide. Some of that is the way the protesters have been treated, some of it may simply be the level of outrage felt by the protesters. There is a fire, and it is unlikely to burn out any time soon.
There was a protest in Little Rock last Saturday. I did not know anything about it until it came out in the paper. Even if I would have known, I would not have gone. If I am going to pose for a picture at a protest, it needs to be in New York. Unfortunately, chances are, the only protest I will attend will be on my couch watching the news. I am not particularly proud of that fact, but sometimes that is just the way it is in the CHEAP SEATS!