Occupy Wall Street

[little_monkey]

We definitely need the government to stop corporate welfare, but I think what also needs to be done is to reduce the level of regulation, at least on small business owners. There isn't enough incentive for people to start their own businesses anymore, because there is so much red tape you have to step through, not to mention all the costs in order to set up the documents in the first place. If the government really wants to encourage more jobs, it needs to let small business (i.e. the middle class) expand.

Besides corporate welfare -- they capitilize their profit but socialize their losses -- it's also their big battle against science we must be wary of. When science tells you that your products or by-products are harming many people, but you are making money beyond the dreams of avarice, what do you do? You attack the science. Big Tobacco established the paradigm. When accumulating evidence linked cigarettes to cancer, Big Tobacco found that it was easy to hire your own "experts" and do your own "research" to undermine the findings of legitimate science. Big Tobacco's anti-science strategy worked amazingly well. Meaningful regulation of tobacco was delayed by years. Of course, millions died, but profits of billions upon billions were reaped. Lately, the tactics that worked so well for Big Tobacco have been adopted by many companies, from Big Oil to Big Food. Mere reason does not stand a chance against truckloads of money and great PR. Popes and Inquisitions could not stop science, but big money might just succeed.