Because I overheard a lady say she had no respect for OWS protestors because they had cellphones, and therefore couldn’t be that hard done by:
Imagine that there were no regulation of Vegas casinos. Clever souls still game the system, and still get caught, and still go to prison, but the casinos don’t have the same risk. Just under the radar they shamelessly rake in the cash, and they gleefully come up with new ways of gouging their customers. Some people have an uneasy feeling that they’re being ripped off, but the casinos bring up the excellent point that it’s gambling, right? Sometimes you lose. Fair enough. But then some sharp-eyed observer notes that there doesn’t actually seem to be a way to win. Is she somehow a more reliable observer if she doesn’t own a cell phone?
What?
I worry that the cause of Occupy Wall Street has no convenient sound bite and is thus doomed to failure. I worry that the message is lost on the great majority of the people they are representing (the great majority). I worry that the standard obfuscating tactics of the economic and political right will persist.
In a democratic society, we presumably have the right to choose our leaders. In the US, this comes down to two parties. One side mandates small government and freedom for everyone. The other side mandates freedom for everyone, but not at someone else’s expense. The former gets our votes by convincing us of something called Trickle Down Theory, which says that the rich will take care of you so long as you stay out of their way. The latter gets our votes by convincing us that We’re All In This Together, and that by everyone pitching in for things like education and medicine, the country as a whole becomes stronger. The former wants you to have these things too, but only as much as you’re willing to pay for yourself.
It is because of the former that Americans pay $500 per month for health insurance that may or may not pay out. It is because of the latter that some Canadians pay a quarter of that (most pay nothing at all) and are completely secure in their coverage and quality of care.
It is because of the former that a handful of men were able to game the Securities and Investment system and almost shatter the global economy. It is up to the latter to reign in the economic elite.
I think whether or not I own a cell phone is largely irrelevant, don’t you?
