Liberal Democracy

Liberal Democracy
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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Arthur Brooks: 'The Occupy Movement is Right!'


Source:American Enterprise Institute- Arthur Brooks speaking to AEI in Washington.

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I agree with Arthur Brooks that corporate America has too much influence in Washington, at least with the Federal Government and has too much power with them. Corporate America, including their banks run their companies into the ground in late 2008 and then they bailed out at taxpayer expense by the Bush Administration and that Democratic Congress. While millions of hard-working Americans, including well-educated and white-collar American workers are getting laid off and haven't recovered from that experience since and even worked for some of those bankrupted companies that got taxpayer bailouts.  

So then you have this left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement emerging in the summer and fall of 2011, when the economy is barley growing, when the U.S. Government is at risk of default, saying where are their taxpayer bailouts and why can't corporate America bail out the people who lost their jobs and went bankrupt themselves thanks to the housing crash of 2008 and being laid off because of the Great Recession. 

So I agree with Arthur Brooks that OWS has a real issue to be protesting about, but I disagree with them on how they would handle these issues. We don't need more taxes and bigger government. We need more freedom for more Americans, especially Americans who are currently struggling. Government should be empowering these folks to get back on their feet. Not raising taxes on successful people simply because they have a lot of money.