By:
Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters march past Federal Hall in New York.
Any doubt that the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators represent nothing new was removed over the weekend when members of "The Charter Collaborative" posted on the movement's website their "American People's New Economic Charter." While it doesn't represent the official views of "any legal entity or registered organization," according to the post, there can be no doubt that the crowd-sourced charter emanated from the philosophical heart of the throngs assembled in New York's Zucotti Park.
The charter is chock-full of the same familiar leftist nostrums seen in Great Depression-era editions of the Communist Party USA's Daily Worker and on countless protest signs during Students for a Democratic Society-led campus demonstrations in the 1960s. Today, the rants about "American colonialism," "militarism," "people over profit," "living wages" and "economic democracy" are projected against a background of assumptions concerning "the 1 percent versus the 99 percent." No doubt, Marx and Lenin would be astounded that, amid the most prosperous and free society in the history of mankind, so many useful idiots could be convinced to protest against the very individual freedom and economic liberty that made it all possible.
One of the charter's contributors took it upon himself to calculate in an attachment what would be appropriate salary levels -- based on "concepts for economic sustainability and right livelihood" -- for various positions in the coming collectivist Valhalla. Under the new compensation calculus, bankers would be at the bottom of the order with a $20,000 annual salary (an amount equal to that paid to laborers). Realtors would get $25,000, lawyers $27,500, doctors $28,000 and nurses $27,500.
Teachers, librarians, train engineers, bridge maintenance, and ship pilots would be paid $35,000. Bureaucrats would receive $28,500, congressmen $30,000 and the president $40,000. If those amounts seem paltry, it must be remembered that everybody will also get free and full health insurance coverage, retirement benefits, and education for children.
There is no indication in the charter how such figures were calculated, but perhaps a help wanted ad that appeared this week on Craigslist provides a clue. The ad was placed by the Working Families Party, the far-left outfit that fields candidates in local New York elections and is actively involved in staging and promoting the OWS movement. Job-seekers are assured the WFP offers training in "advocacy, public speaking, mobilizing, fundraising, networking and organizing," not to advance "a policy position" but in the service of "direct action." Besides the training and a "full benefits package," those hired will be paid between $350 and $650 per week, according to the ad. Paid over a year's time, that comes to $18,200 to $33,800, right in the range recommended by the American People's New Economic Charter. Even without the health insurance and pension, those aren't bad wages for hanging out all day and night in a New York City park while chanting "down with capitalism."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-more-lefts-familiar-flapdoodle#.TpdyOgpxQqw.blogger
One of the charter's contributors took it upon himself to calculate in an attachment what would be appropriate salary levels -- based on "concepts for economic sustainability and right livelihood" -- for various positions in the coming collectivist Valhalla. Under the new compensation calculus, bankers would be at the bottom of the order with a $20,000 annual salary (an amount equal to that paid to laborers). Realtors would get $25,000, lawyers $27,500, doctors $28,000 and nurses $27,500.
Teachers, librarians, train engineers, bridge maintenance, and ship pilots would be paid $35,000. Bureaucrats would receive $28,500, congressmen $30,000 and the president $40,000. If those amounts seem paltry, it must be remembered that everybody will also get free and full health insurance coverage, retirement benefits, and education for children.
There is no indication in the charter how such figures were calculated, but perhaps a help wanted ad that appeared this week on Craigslist provides a clue. The ad was placed by the Working Families Party, the far-left outfit that fields candidates in local New York elections and is actively involved in staging and promoting the OWS movement. Job-seekers are assured the WFP offers training in "advocacy, public speaking, mobilizing, fundraising, networking and organizing," not to advance "a policy position" but in the service of "direct action." Besides the training and a "full benefits package," those hired will be paid between $350 and $650 per week, according to the ad. Paid over a year's time, that comes to $18,200 to $33,800, right in the range recommended by the American People's New Economic Charter. Even without the health insurance and pension, those aren't bad wages for hanging out all day and night in a New York City park while chanting "down with capitalism."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-more-lefts-familiar-flapdoodle#.TpdyOgpxQqw.blogger
No comments:
Post a Comment