Although disclaimed as not ‘official’ by the owners of occupywallst.org, a list of demands has been posted. I’m going to address those, as well as the protest in general. Let me say that I absolutely support the right of the protesters to peaceably assemble in public spaces, to present demands, to picket and otherwise exercise their First Amendment rights. No police or other government agency ought to interfere with peaceful protests. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the protests can’t be challenged by other view, or that they have some kind of monopoly on protests. We’re all entitled to our point of view, and the marketplace of ideas is open to all. In the end, we elect representatives to decide which viewpoint carries the day (at least so long as it is in line with the Constitution).
So what about the demands? I fully acknowledge that the demand list I’m addressing is the work of one poster, but the comments attached seem to indicate some fairly broad-based themes and ideas that make this list a useful way to respond. So here they are:
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.
That’s more than one demand, but counting aside, there are quite a few problems with this demand both from an economic liberty point of view, as well as basic economics. Effectively, this demand is a call for an end to global trade, and an expression of ignorance about basic economics. Let’s assume your local burger joint or your local pizza place has to pay double to triple their current wages to the kid making hamburgers or pizzas. Do you think that they can keep the price of the pizza or the double-cheeseburger the same? Not a chance. And so the prices will go up in proportion to the minimum wage, or, if the public won’t bear the new, higher costs, then fewer people will be employed or the business will simply close. Price-fixing cannot make people richer, except in raw dollar terms, but that means nothing. Does it matter if I make 10x as much is everything costs 10x as much? Maybe to someone’s ego, but not to their wallet!
As for increasing tariffs in a misguided effort to force manufacturing back into the US, once again, this will increase prices for everyone and create a scarcity of goods. Even assuming that the US can produce everything it needs (a false assumption), we don’t have all the natural resources we need and I find it highly likely that the countries with those resources will raise costs enough to offset the tariffs. And when other countries also raise their tariffs, all global trade is choked off and this hurts everyone globally. Artificial price floors created by tariffs do not enrich anyone.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors
Using Medicare as an example, we find that the only way to cut costs is to either deny treatment or reduce reimbursement for doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. Medicare for everyone, even if 100% of current private insurance premiums went straight into the program would still have limit both services and reimbursements. Congress has kicked this down the road every year, refusing to cut reimbursement rates further. Why? Because doctors and hospitals would drop out of the system, reducing the availability of care. Every country where single-payer systems has been implemented is looking for ways to reform and reduce cost, including privatization. In the UK, private health care is available, after having been banned. In Sweden, costs are being pushed back onto the consumers of health care. And these are countries with effective personal income tax rates much higher than those in the US. Bottom line, care will have to be rationed. One can either do it by market forces, or by fiat. Doing it by fiat will fail just as every centrally planned economy has failed.
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.
This appears to mean that one receives a ‘living wage’ when one is unemployed. The main result of such a policy, especially if it were exactly as written, would be to reduce the number of people who work. Why work when you can live ‘free’ on the taxpayer? Sweden ran into this problem—you started receiving sick pay at 60% of your income on the first day out. This was abused since there was no real way to control for people actually being sick. So they instituted a minor change to the law-you only started receiving benefits on the second day off work. Almost immediately single-day absenteeism disappeared. That’s what’s in store for America if wages do not depend on work.
Demand four: Free college education.
College education can NOT be free. It could be taxpayer funded, but that’s a far cry from ‘free’. It also begs the question—does everyone need a college education? The answer is clearly ‘no’. In fact, I would argue that far too many people go to college today, and for may of the wrong reasons. No matter how great you make the economy, someone still needs to be a cashier, a gardener, a carpenter and a host of other jobs, some skilled, some unskilled, that by no means need a college education. The taxes those people pay would fund this ‘free’ college education. In other words, the non-college educated would be taxed to pay for college educations.
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
A nice idea. One I support. But even on a fast-track you are talking decades before we can eliminate fossil fuels. And who is going to pay for this? You are talking about wholesale replacement of infrastructure, vehicles and industry. The costs are staggering. Assuming that by ‘fossil’ fuels they mean coal and oil, but not biofuels and ethanol, the cost would be high. If they really mean carbon-based fuels (which I think they do), then the costs are astronomical. With deficits already running in the trillions, how is this going go be paid for? Add in the later demands for eliminating nuclear power and we have a situation where electrical generation is limited to solar, wind and hydro power which, even if their efficiency increased 5-fold could not power current demands (let alone the demands of a manufacturing economy they desire to restore by fiat). Oh, and as an aside, much of the material necessary to build these non-carbon based power sources has to come from overseas, but in demand one they wrecked global trade. No amount of spending on science is going to fix that problem.
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.
Not sure where this money is supposed to come from. Government spending is already consuming more than 20% of the GDP. The demands for taxpayer funded health care and college education above will create a further strain on spending. Borrowing is out (see the later demands on this). That means printing money or massive tax increases, more likely both. This will result in out of control inflation and reduction in disposable income, both of which will hurt the lowest income people the most.
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.
Again, not sure where the money is supposed to come from. Even with Obama’s ‘millionaire tax’, that if implemented would collect enough money over 10 years to cover 4 months of deficit spending. Of course, this demand ignores the fact that forest levels are relatively unchanged since 1950. Any massive reforestation would necessary displace people and farmland, something that would likely hurt the poor and family farmers the most. Decommissioning nuclear power plants would take 20% of all electrical generation off the grid. Replacing it immediately would require new carbon-fueled power generation on a massive scale, which defeats the entire environmental platform suggested here.
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
It exists. It’s called the 14th Amendment. It guarantees every person equal protection of the laws. Nothing more is needed. Unless, of course, they are seeking privileges for non-whites and women. Evidence suggests exactly that. The goal is to push white men out of the way and silence them. This is explicitly racist and goes against this demand!
Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.
Well, I agree. Those who support economic liberty support the feee movement of capital, goods, ideas and people. But this demand is not compatible with the demand for trade protectionism. Limiting the flow of goods and capital will massively distort the migration of people. In addition, if the US guarantees a living wage (a demand above) to every person who lives here, and there are no border controls, then millions upon millions will move to the US to gain that benefit. Free migration of people only works when capital and goods are free to flow as well.
Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.
There isn’t anything particularly wrong with this demand, other than being inefficient. Of course, it’s also vital that only those entitled to vote are allowed to vote, so combining the above with an identification system would create a very secure, very clean election. Of course, this demand is really only for ensuring that all the ballots in the ballot box are counted accurately, not ensuring that the only ballots that get into the box are valid! And both matter.
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
I can’t think of a better way to destroy the world economy, and wipe out the savings of many seniors as well as their pension and retirement funds. One of the most common investment vehicles for older Americans is municipal bonds. Wiping those out (they are debt) will destroy the life savings of most retirees. And the ones who aren’t wiped out by the elimination of the bonds will be wiped out when all banks fail since they would have no assets with which to pay their depositors. Every bank account is wiped out.
This also means that nobody would ever again lend money. Why take the risk. And this means no purchasing of goods or services unless you can pay cash on the spot. No mortgages to allow anyone to buy a house, no car loans, nothing. An immediate halt to the entire global financial system and an immediate collapse of every currency. It would make the Great Depression look like a kindergarten field trip.
Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
I’m assuming they mean credit rating agencies (i.e. Moody, S&P, etc). Since the banks are all wiped out, all corporations are wiped out and the financial system destroyed, they aren’t necessary. Especially since nobody will worry about ‘credit worthiness’ since nobody in their right mind would lend money, even if they had it.
Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.
Card-check on steroids. I’m fine with this so long as every worker has the choice to opt-in or opt-out. Those who opt-out do not pay dues nor are they forced to join or participate in union activities. And they are free to opt-out at any time, for any reason. Of course, this isn’t what the demand wants, which is forced unionization and elections controlled by union thugs who can intimidate workers into signing the union card.
In conclusion, I suppose I could think of a quicker way to destroy the world economy, reduce the standard of living for everyone, drag the world back into the pre-industrial error and create massive starvation, wars and misery. But I would have to think a long hard time to be able to do a more thorough job than this list. It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of basic economics and complete lack of understanding about how real wealth is created. And because of that, proposes an economic armageddon the likes of which the world has never seen.
About Stephen Adams