Understanding #OccupyWallStreet

On Sunday, October 2nd, I went down to Liberty Plaza to see the Occupy Wall Street movement firsthand and stayed for about 5 hours. What I found more than anything else was democracy at work and a "General Assembly" of people who in a lot of ways are more mature than our elected representatives in congress.

The movement has drawn criticism for not having a clear list of demands or solutions, but those critics are missing the point. We are faced with many complicated problems, and the solutions that will work will likewise be varied and complex. Our leaders have had several years to come up with solutions, and theirs have not been simple and the results continue to be lacking. The Occupy Wall Street movement is structured 'horizontally' meaning that there is no defined leadership per se, which makes the movement more open and inclusive and everyone's opinion is welcome.

The people I encountered at Liberty Plaza ranged from Columbia Economics Professor Joseph Stiglitz to employed and financially/politically savvy professionals with strong opinions on what can be done, to others who can't put their finger on what they think is wrong, but simply know that something is wrong and want to make things better. All were friendly, curious, and willing to listen to a myriad of viewpoints.

It is wrong to be critical of fellow Americans who are peacefully exercising their rights under the Constitution. People came to have a voice in a public forum, work together and learn. How can you criticize someone who wants to be engaged in a true democratic process? How can you criticize someone who says that they don't know something but shows a genuine eagerness to learn about it? I have seen people write that the protestors are lazy, spoiled and naive, and should get jobs. I will tell you that these people are none of those things. If they were lazy and spoiled, they would be at home watching TV or playing video games, if they were naive, they wouldn't be forgoing comfort to search for a better way and to say that they should be working is to tightly close your eyes to the economic reality around us.

Obviously the viewpoints were as varied as the people, but by and large most were willing to work together and compromise, and most realized that this is not about being either or, black or white, capitalist vs. socialist vs. communist or a poor vs. rich battle nor anti-government or anti-corporation. All were interested in making things better. In a time when establishment politics continues to try to divide people who have very similar core goals, the amount of togetherness, patience and understanding was impressive and refreshing.

There were core themes which most agreed upon and most of them centered on restoring fairness of opportunity to the system, eliminating or reducing corporate control over government, and promoting peace, health, and education.

As an example, when the country shifts from a banking system which was supposed to be capitalistic where gains and losses are privatized to one which is worse than either capitalism or socialism; where the gains are privatized and taken out of the system by the few, and the losses are privatized on the backs of the ever-shrinking middle class, that is a huge problem. That bankers received $1 million+ bonuses on top of $200,000+ base salaries after being bailed out by teachers making $50,000 per year is ridiculous. The contract of capitalism was broken, the institutions literally gambled and lost their rent money and got the government to pay for it with minimal repercussions.

Additionally, there is the issue of the incredibly skewed tax code which puts most of the burden as a percentage of income on the middle class. The fact that a dollar made from an investment held for a year or more (and there are accounting tricks to recharacterize almost anything to fit that bill) is taxed at a max rate of 15% while income made from working at a job is taxed at up to 35% plus an additional 5.65% for social security and medicare is ludicrous. Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world recently wrote in his New York Times Op-Ed piece:

"If you make money with money (investments), as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot."

I don't hate the rich, in fact I like most of them that I've encountered, and I am happy for their success, but there should not be any way that they pay less taxes per dollar earned than anyone who makes less than them. The systematic concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands is not only unfair, but it takes a great toll on our nation and society. Issues like this must be corrected immediately to avoid further destabilization. This is not about class war, only about everyone paying their fair share. I can see no reason why a dollar earned by making an investment should be taxed less than a dollar earned teaching or building something, or performing surgery.

The above only begins to scratch the surface, but illustrates that there are many clear issues to work on here. Those two above issues alone should be enough to necessitate a protest, but why think small and impose limits when so much can be accomplished?

Most participants are steadfastly committed to maintaining the protest in a peaceful manner, do not want to get into altercations with police, and actively strive to keep things safe and courteous. There has been $0 of confirmed property damage sustained during the movement. When one man climbed into a tree above the crowd, the crowd began chanting "please get down", the majority wanted to avoid giving the police a reason to disrupt the General Assembly meeting, and wanted to ensure the safety of all.

Although the police do at times step in to assert control even when things seem to be going smoothly. I saw a young woman standing next to a bike having a conversation for over a half hour in full view of the police. They arbitrarily came over and asked her and a few other people to move a few feet toward the park over an arbitrary line because she was "obstructing the sidewalk" even though foot traffic was light, she wasn't slowing any pedestrians down, and it was fine for her to be there up to that point, they decided to take issue with her. When she refused to move and locked herself to the bike, the police called for a truck with a power demolition saw which they used to saw the bike in half and arrested her. When one or two people in the crowd began insulting the police, others said "no, don't do that". After the arrest, a facilitator came to encourage people "not to be distracted" and to come back to the General Assembly where people were about to share their accounts of the incident on the Brooklyn Bridge.

After listening to the accounts of the bridge and dropping some pizza off at the food station, I headed home thankful that a large group of people decided to ensure that more voices are heard and that we as a society are not defined through our silence by the voice of a few.

An Open Response to the Netflix / Qwikster Split

What follows is a letter I sent to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in response to his blog post of Sunday, September 18th, 2011 entitled An Explanation and Some Reflections

Please forward this to Reed. Since it took him so long to write me a personal letter on this, I didn't have time to do the same right away, but I think it will be helpful to a company which up until now, I thought was one of the greatest around. I used to swear by Netflix, and used to be zealously loyal to it and now I am considering canceling. I wonder if Netflix actually talks to its subscribers and makes plans based on the real world, or have your decision makers become completely disconnected and blinded by a success which can easily fade.

Below are the comments I sent to a friend of mine regarding Reed's letter and the situation.

Yeah... As far as Netflix, I feel I should have gotten a letter from the CEO within a day of the price increase announcement in the newswires. As far as I recall, this is the first official email I have received from them regarding this price increase period. All other info I have received from the news. I never saw a customized e-mail saying "here is what you were paying per month and here is what you are going to pay" and so don't actually know what my new price will be for my 3 DVD out at a time + Streaming plan.

To me, the actions described in this e-mail are making things far, far worse. I might actually look to go short on the stock, but it may be too late for that at least in the near term as it has already taken major hits. The only thing good I see is the addition of games. Separating the sites is completely IDIOTIC. The main asset to me that Netflix has of mine is my ratings of every movie since I signed up with them in 2001. There was also always the convenience of being able to look up any movie that exists and maybe watch it instantly, if not, no big deal, add it to the DVD queue. In fact, I was recently angered when they stopped showing non-instant movies on the iPhone app. I always used the Netflix app as a one stop to get quick info on ANY movie. As someone who is relatively financially affluent and time poor, I considered the elasticity of my demand for Netflix to have been very low. I am also one of Netflix's most profitable subs as I often wind up keeping a DVD for months at a time. So I felt a little annoyed on an intellectual level about the price increase, but I knew that I would swallow it in large part because of these conveniences and my stored ratings. I also didn't mind so much because if it means me getting a bigger selection of top tier movies instantly, I am willing to pay. If they think I am going to go to two separate websites or apps to rate every movie I see, they are insane. They should take great heed to this as this is the first time that I, a decade-long subscriber and early adopter am seriously considering abandoning the service (both of them). My decisions have also been a really good barometer for the overall consumer market because in general I am anti-materialistic and advertising-insensitive. This is not to mention all the money they are going to waste rebranding the sites, advertising for two separate sites, loss of brand recognition, additional charges paid to credit card companies for multiple transactions for the same customer, etc. It looks like they are going to WASTE the entire price increase on this fool's errand.

Eric