The Occupy is starting to adopt an anti-corruption platform that will garner much more respect. An Occupy member's page http://owwc.gu.ma , supporting a business owner who lost millions of dollars to a corrupt officials seems to illustrate this adaption.

OK, "WaltsWrongWithThisPicture" I don't really know why I'm engaging with you, as you seem to be so firmly camped so far out to right field that I doubt anyone's mind is going to be changed, but a few of your arguments have been so commonly and easily tossed around public debates recently, that I think they bear scrutiny.

Speaking of statistical 'sleight of hand', let's look at the "top 1% paying 40% of taxes and the bottom 50% paying nothing". Boy, that sure sounds like the bottom 50 are getting off easy, while the "top 1" are bearing everyone's burden. But let's first acknowledge that (a) we have a tax code, and (b) is progressive, and therefore defines the % of income any one person pays - decreasing % as income drops, until income is low enough that the tax% is zero.

Now regarding your statistic, two facts can be seen here: (1) there are so many Americans making incomes small enough to fall into the lowest possible tax bracket, that this group now makes up 50% of the entire country, (in other words, the group of lowest-income-earning citizens is gigantic and growing, which should concern everyone), and; (2) if the "top 1%" apparently "pays 40% of taxes", it is clear that they earn SO much money, that even with their tax rates far lower than they've been in the past, and with all of the loopholes so commonly decried, the absolute size of the tax revenue garnered is still enough to nearly equal all of the taxes gathered from all income earners outside of their extremely tiny club of very wealthy individuals.

How, again, was this statistic supposed to counter arguments for less inequality in wealth and capital? Wouldn't we all prefer that we could somehow return to a situation in which a greater percentage of the people were in a stable middle class, who therefore accounted for a greater share of the total tax revenue?

But then there's reflexive rant about Michael Moore and George Soros and how people with no jobs don't have them because of laziness and people who are rich are that way because of hard word and "wanting it"... ...whiiiiiiiiiiiich just isn't worth responding to.

To want more even distribution of wealth throughout society, is not to desire that all skills and talents (such as those utilized in banking, accounting, management, marketing, etc.) should also be "equalized". We may still have CEOs, even if they're not paid 500 times more than anyone else in the company. SWF Converter Mac

I dont care if someone makes 10k, they MUST and should pay some taxes. As for those ceo's whose pay will become 500 times less, wrong- they will just go to another country who WILL pay them a lot more....the dropoff intalent and brain drain will kill whats left of your economy.

as as for the revenues gained from increasing taxes on those who are already taxed to the hilt? The amount you raise wont even begin to put a dent in your debt that president obama has run up like a drunken sailor. If you want to look at faults for this mess, you can of course blame the republicans and those before them to going back decades, but you MUST also include obama who is said to have taken more money from wall street than any other politician in the last 20 yrs. at the end of the day, I see you didnt even address my message above whereby if he was to show real leadership, he would tell his constituents to go home from these fake protests and help him revive the economy by getting jobs rather than camping out at a giant frat party, costing cities and the country for every day those losers are there.

the rich already pay way more than their fare share, more than most other countries, and most have worked hard for it too. They pay a helluva lot more than the bottom 50% who whine whine whine but pay NOTHING.

BY THE WAY, did you see michael moores mansion???? you think he and sarandon and penn and garofalo and naomi wolfe and hanks and spielberg have any tax shelters????????

The statement that 50% don't pay any taxes is just flat out lie. 50% of the population don't pay income taxes, but they pay plenty of other taxes. Secondly, who do you think rigged the tax code in the first place? Of course it was Wall Street. Why do you think they "donate" so much money to political campaigns? Its not out of civic duty or patriotism. Why do you think companies spend so much money on lobbyists? Its an investment to make more money by distorting the free market in their favor. Its crony capitalism, success not because of working hard or coming up with a good idea, but through buying politicians and accounting gimmicks. What the banks did to investors by selling them crap mortgages and paying rating agencies to rate them as AAA then turning around and bet against those same mortgages would be a crime if anyone else did it. Thirdly, of coarse 10% pay 70% of taxes, they control 93% of the country's wealth. The bottom 80% control hold 7% of the wealth and pay 11% of all taxes. Its rich that the same people who take guns to a political rally are now complaining that Occupy Wall Street is being divisive. Occupy Wall Street is doing the same thing the Tea Party is doing except without the stupid.

So in laymen lingo, if few hundred politicians sit on top of political power in a country, most of us a pragmatic view and have no problems with accepting such a reality of political power structure. But at the same times most of us are relentlessly taught to just abhor the same reality making it pragmatic when businesses are concerned.SWF Converter Mac

We may still have CEOs, even if they're not paid 500 times more than anyone else in the company. So that argument is a total non-sequitur.YouTube To MP4 Converter

I'm one of those millionaires they're mad at. I get most of my income from investment: Dividends, royalties, capital gains, rents and capital gains all figure on my tax return, which is quite thick. But my federal taxes only amount to 19% of my total income, even though I'm in the top tax bracket. Warren Buffet pays even less. And it's all legal.

This is due to the convenient fact that the tax code is written by millionaires, and the majority of Congress is eager to protect their interests. How much income does the average guy receive in the form of capital gains? Very bloody little, he relies mainly on his salary, and pays the full rate on it. In addition, we benefit from tax loopholes like the oil depletion allowance, which the average person has probably never even heard of, and is certainly unable to take advantage of.

If rich people pay more taxes, it is because we have been able to absorb almost all of the growth in total income. http://blogs.cfr.org/lindsay/files/2011/11/Income-inequality.gif

Yes, we pay more taxes, but our income growth is much, much greater. Overall, Americans pay about 26.9% of GDP in taxes. Among nations, we rank 55th in tax burden, just behind Jamaica and Tonga. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP

At the same time, we have income inequality between the richest and the poorest citizens which is worse than in any other industrialized country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

Dear Whats Wrong with this picture...

Can't stand being second class huh? Give it a rest we are fully aware how some
people use statistics to confuse and manipulate the 90 %.

The poor are poor pure and simple. Ever try raising five kids on less than $1200
a month? And before you even think of criticizing you have no idea and no right
to assume your any smarter than anyone else.

I get sick and tired of the well off complaining about their problems while dismissing
the rest of America's population as "worthless or worse" and oh, I'm so smart I
got me this boat load of cash by my own effort. BS!

You were handed your wealth by the sweat and blood of hardworking economic slaves. You can't even give them a living wage. They die earlier, suffer longer, and are victims of crime at a higher rate than your sliver spooned slug brothers.

I support equal justice and the literal interpretation of the US Constitution. Stop being
a fascist and do what's right for a change.

Oh and by the way I served in the Gulf back in the late 70's probably before you were born... your welcome.

There is no need to read more than 3 lines in this response to know that WALTSWRONGWITHTHISPICTURE is just repeating to us the old and tired Repubplican talking points. This Republican line that the top 10% pays 70% is old, moronic and pure diversion from the facts pointed out in the article that show how the growing income disparity is bad for both rich and poor. A large proportion of the rich in the US are not enterpreneurs who innovate, build companies and creat jobs, but financial corporate executives who have enriched themselves through large salaries bonuses for taking risks, not with their money but with other people money, causing near meltdown of the financial system and were then bailed out by tax payers. Even in view of the obvious failure of the current system, some people like WALTSWRONGWITHTHISPICTURE cannot admit that there ideology has run its course in the 20th century and are incapable to adjust their views to the 21st .

VisionTunnel; this starts out as what looks like a credible argument, but breaks down rather quickly. Yes, there is a such thing as experts, and an 'elite' is often acceptable in many different communities, circles, sectors of society. Possession of wealth and capital is simply one area in which a massive concentration into an increasingly minute group of people is deleterious, not just to the masses left out, but in fact to everyone.

Point 1 - we do indeed have no (or almost no) problem with a few sitting "on top" of knowledge, education or "science and technology" (even if that's a little vague). But we absolutely DO have serious problems with too few people controlling political power; precisely why our modern liberal democracies have checks and balances, and we tend to "dislike" totalitarianism and tyranny in general! (Unless you are in fact in favor of individuals holding "ultimate power to make and break destinies of the people".)

Point 2 - We also cannot equate, as you do, those who "sit on top of business, trade and industry", with those who "sit on top" of simple possession of wealth and capital. To want more even distribution of wealth throughout society, is not to desire that all skills and talents (such as those utilized in banking, accounting, management, marketing, etc.) should also be "equalized". We may still have CEOs, even if they're not paid 500 times more than anyone else in the company. So that argument is a total non-sequitur.

Point 3 - There is mountains of data confirming that greater inequality in wealth among citizens (of virtually any modern state), correlates with a whole host of negative indicators in health, happiness, even safety,... even when average level of wealth is higher! It's the inequality itself that actually makes very significant differences. So yes, in this case, we do have a problem with the inequality; many of them in fact.

What?

Are you serious? Care to call Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, or the other founders
Socialists? It's all about the "Freedom of Speech" Alex.

Lay off the pot your projecting paranoia. Social discussion has been a vital part of
The American Experience since Columbus ruined the neighborhood. We tolerate the bad and with some sigh of relief embrace the good hoping for a better future for all.

Lets work with what we have and make improvements as we go ok?

This too shall pass as has all the other generational controversies making America
a dynamic and noteworthy place to live.

Change is good without it life could not exist.

I don't agree with every facet of the Occupy movement but action is necessary when people who have worked so hard just to have their retirement wiped out or laid off just to find out that they have to take a minimum wage job because canny banksters have devised a system of schemes to harm the entire economy.Even though the Occupy movement means wells, it has no clear message or an askPdf Converter for Mac

Across Latin America, the share of the top 10% has fallen, relative to the rest of the population. Its the first time in its history that there has been a decrease in inequality throughout much of the region.YouTube Converter Mac

Education, with all the money spent on it in the last decades, is incredibly inadequate. Teachers in public schools and colleges are more interested in pushing ideology than teaching even the basics. Entrepreneurship, self reliance, hard work etc are lost on the younger generations. I remember when I was in about the 1st grade, approx 1969, my teacher writing this on the board. "THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH". Much could be learned by simply discussing what this means in schools nowadays.