Traveling around Manhattan, I witnessed the activities of two distinct crowds of people. Formerly located on the lower tip of Manhattan in the Financial District diagonal to the former World Trade Center site is Zuccotti Park, the original camping ground of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.
A dramatically contrasting crowd can still be found only a short subway ride away but a world apart at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in the center of Midtown Manhattan. Each day, the gathering crowd is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to purchase the new iPhone 4S. Individuals line up in an orderly fashion to take home Apple’s latest highly popular new product. Once again with the recent introduction of this new iPhone, Apple demonstrates it remains highly connected with the pulse of its loyal customers.
By the third quarter of this year, Apple grew to become the world's largest publicly traded company. Steve Jobs founded Apple with partner Steve Wozniak in 1976. The story of Apple's success is well documented. It has grown to employ 50,000 workers producing an impressive number of innovative and productive products that have literally changed the world. Steve Jobs is but one example of an American entrepreneur empowered by the freedom provided by our free enterprise economic system that started as a small business that has grown over time to a story that has become part of business legend. Great ideas and a passion for success combined in the capable hands of a great entrepreneur such as a Steve Jobs illustrates the Great American Dream Machine in action.
Steve Jobs revolutionized the world and created a lasting legacy with Apple and Pixar that enabled him to enter the realm of the top 1%. Do the majority of Americans believe that he did make enough of a contribution to society to justify his amassing a net worth according to Forbes Magazine of $7 billion? Along the way he paid more than his fair share in taxes.
George Soros worth $22 billion according to Forbes, Russell Simmons worth $325 million, Kanye West worth $70 million, Michael Moore worth $50 million, Susan Sarandon worth $50 million, Nancy Pelosi worth $35 million and Al Sharpton worth $5 million are all part of the same top 1%. In addition to being part of the top 1%, all these people are all active supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Did all these people make their incredible fortunes sleeping in a park?
We look like we are at a point where the American people are increasingly losing faith in the ability of nation’s institutions to address our economic challenges. The “cover” message delivered in multiple forms by the participant groups of the Occupy Wall Street Movement sit-in(s) is that wealth should be distributed from people like the late Steve Jobs and the rest of the top 1% to them and other like-minded people. The “takers” are intentionally creating chaos when our nation is economically vulnerable in order to bring forth much more ambitious goals.
While the “cover” message is the desire for a redistribution of wealth, the fundamental intent of this movement goes well beyond this goal. The various left-wing extremists groups that have organized the Occupy Wall Street movement’s real intent is to implement fundamental change in our society to create a new world order based on their concepts of social and economic justice. In other words, they want to collapse our Capitalistic System and replace it with something else. The something else is unfortunately some variant of a failed experiment in communism that did not work in the former Soviet Union, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe. Implemented in a milder socialistic form, the collapsing mixed economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland provide even further overwhelming evidence of the failures of societies dominated by the power of Big Government.
The unions and left-wing groups that are behind Occupy Wall Street ignore reason and evidence because fundamentally they aim not to provide viable economic solutions rather for them this is a fight to gain more power. If you want to know what's wrong with America, Occupy Wall Street participants are eager to inform you with numerous grievances. If you want to know what is right with America you are greeted with silence. The American flag is displayed with disdain. Their strategy is to create chaos through the occupation movement with the intent to escalate the fight through increased violence. The increased mayhem and violence created by the “Occupiers” in many cities have finally resulted in the removal of their presence in several of these locations.
The mainstream media speculates about how the movement can fight for its courses through the political system. This is farcical and a misinterpretation of the primary objectives of this movement. Where Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro and Chavez have failed, George Soros, Van Jones, Bill Ayers, Maude Hurd, Stephen Lerner, Richard Trumka are fighting to take control. These new totalitarians through their various organizations wish to anoint themselves the new controlling elite to seize power in order to replace our great American Republican experiment in government with a new Social Democracy.
On the opposite and of the political spectrum, working within the system to reform it in a constructive fashion and through legal means and the ballot box is the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party Movement has come to the logical conclusion that if Big Government is not working - let's have less of it.
The mainstream media has examined and reported on both movements. Predictably, they have actively distorted the Tea Party’s message in a negative fashion and have worked overtime to diminish their influence and their record of achievement. The great influence of the Tea Party can be gauged by the vehemence of the usual scripted name-calling tactics used by the Left and the majority of the mainstream media to criticize this powerful and influential conservative movement.
The Occupy Wall Street movement earns 24/7 coverage their message is distorted in a way to present a positive story and its influence upon the American people is a greatly exaggerated. With a little effort, it is easy to determine the obvious differences between these groups.
Policy The Tea Party Occupy Wall Street
Economic Policy | Free Market Capitalism-Grow wealth to increase prosperity and opportunity for all. Winners and losers result. | Forcefully distribute wealth from the most productive members of society. Level (lower) the playing field for all except a small powerful elite. |
Political Method | Power flows up from citizens through the ballot box. The rule of law prevails and The Constitution is revered. The Founding Fathers are heroes. | An elite rule in the “name” of the people. The law is relative and subjugated to social policy. The force of raw power is most important. George Soros and Saul Alinsky are heroes. |
Change Agent | Reform and downsize the size and scope of Government – decrease regulation and have power flow back to the people. | Bigger Government |
Favorite Revolutions | American | French and Russian |
Favorite size enterprise and best occupation | Small Business – entrepreneur | The Federal Government-Regulator |
Favorite Country | USA | “Palestine” |
Least Favorite Country | Iran | Israel and USA |
Social Philosophy | Unify – emphasize what we have in common as Americans | Divide – Identity politics via Group, Race and Class |
Tea Party members are also active in their movement. The difference in approach is that they need to go home at night to tend to their lives filled with duties and responsibilities involving family, jobs and community.
Entrepreneurs through the creation and nurturing of the growth of small businesses have been responsible for the majority of new job growth in America. Many commentators have correctly asserted that the Occupy Wall Street movement should be centered outside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Obamanomics and the passage of ObamaCare are the primary causes of diminished job creation by small businesses in this country.
Blaming Wall Street as the primary cause of our current economic malaise is once again a diversion. While the Occupy Wall Street movement is disappointed by President Obama because he has not moved far enough left in their estimation, he still is a major ally of the groups leading this movement. President Obama and many elected Democratic Politicians are in philosophical agreement with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Tea Party has attracted many small business owners as members. They tend to be aligned with the overall Tea Party objectives of smaller government, lower taxes, and repeal of Obamacare and less regulation of business. While big business has the resources to alleviate some of the worst excesses of the anti-business policies of Obamanomics - small business have suffered out of proportion from the excesses of Big Government much like the middle class in America.
The American Dream Machine has been made possible by the existence of our free enterprise system. Throughout our history, entrepreneurs help create through their talents, hard work, imagination and innovative ways a society with the greatest standard of living in history. Millions of small business owners are working every day under increasingly adverse conditions to invent our future.
The Obama administration has failed America on many levels. The most damaging long-term legacy course caused by its anti-business policies is the diminishing of opportunities for the small business owner and entrepreneurs to play their vital role in our society to create long term wealth and new jobs.
The Tea Party connects with the promise of America by advocating the return to a truly free enterprise system that promises to create more wealth and jobs to benefit everyone. The new economy is increasingly based on services, technology and innovation. There is no lack of opportunity to generate additional economic growth because there is no lack in the imagination and motivation of human beings to create it. Occupy Wall Street's obsession with advocating wealth redistribution is based on a false premise of limited future economic growth potential. Unfortunately, Obama’s economic policies are in concert with Occupy Wall Street’s Socialist objectives.
The American people in November 2012 will have the final say regarding which vision of America will prevail. Will America’s future allow a Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google), and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) to succeed and create new enterprises that employ hundreds of thousands of people and have a profound positive impact on society or is the era of the great American Dream Machine over forever?
