Thomas Sowell on Incoherent Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Summary

Thomas Sowell discusses the incoherent message of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Many of the protesters interviewed on the street don’t have a clear message about what they are protesting. They can offer a couple of talking points, but they cannot reason past that rhetoric. It seems, people just want “more” … as long as that “more” is paid for by someone else. There was a time when if you wanted more, you would go out find a job, work long and hard, and slowly build towards obtaining “more”. In those times, people would try everything possible not to end up on welfare and government aid because of pride and not wanting to rely on “hand-outs”. Fast forward to the present, and now they demand those handouts without shame. What is a ‘fair share’ that you would like to have OTHERS be forced to pay? A business owner should hand over 20% of income to the government? 40%? 60%? The problem is, nobody wants to be treated the way they are insisting on treating others. No matter how much the government takes, do you think they will spend it wisely, or waste it? If a toll road cost .25 cents, do you think all of the collected funds are spent, or are some funds saved by government or given back to the people? What if they raised it to .75 cents? What if they raised the toll to $10.00? Do you think government will find a way to spend and waste that money? Or, will they use it wisely and save the surplus, or give it back to the people? The answer is ‘waste’. Always ‘waste’. Every big government program is riddled with abuse. Do you want your healthcare treated the same way? ~NF