Occupy Boston Facepalm

[Hyena Dandy]

As I hoped I made clear, I'm not challenging the protest or saying they should stop. What I am saying is that they should at least know what the prices they are incurring ARE, and who's paying them. They have every right to keep going, and I hope they do, but I also would hope that they know what someone's SAYING when they say "You've cost the city over $100,000" is not the same as "You've cost the federal government $100,000"

[Panacea]

Certainly a good point.

[mikoyan29]

I think the movement is disjointed because there is alot of stuff to be pissed off about. Real wages have declined for the lower classes for the past 30 years while wages at the top have skyrocketed. Housing prices have gone through the roof. Medical costs have gone through the roof. College prices have gone through the roof. Gas prices fluctuate wildly. The roads are a mess. The bridges are a mess. Heck even the power grid is hanging on a thread. The Air Traffic grid is a mess. And what are we worried about?

[draggar]

Take the G20 idiots who were here in Pittsburgh recently. They came here to protest pretty much the same causes--big corporations, governments, etc. Instead of actively targeting those entities...they broke windows at Mom and Pop restaurants and stores. Apparently, in their minds, any business = a corporation.

That's mob mentality - everyone go after everything and usually incited by those who don't really care about the cause and only care about chaos.

Take the wolf hunts for example - people are calling to boycott everything from Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon. Why? Why does a potato farmer in Idaho have to do w/ the wolf hunts? If anything, they want wolves because wolves will keep herbivores out of their crops. There are even ranchers who don't have a problem with wolves because they employ good preventative measures.

Target the companies causing the problems. If you have an issue with large banks - then protect them. If you have an issue with large corporations, then protect them. Why protest ma&pa companies who are the backbone of the US economy?

[HYHYBT]

Wait... *housing prices* have gone through the roof? Around here they're going for half, and sometimes even a quarter or less, what they were just a few years ago. If they can be sold at all.

[mikoyan29]

Wait... *housing prices* have gone through the roof? Around here they're going for half, and sometimes even a quarter or less, what they were just a few years ago. If they can be sold at all.

Just before the bottom fell out of the market, housing prices were rising more significantly than income was. You would think that would have been a harbinger of things to come as people realized that they were buying more than they could afford. I seem to remember the rule of thumb when buying a house was to look for a house that was 2 or 3 times your income. Median house prices were beyond that compared to median income. Even with the bottom falling out, housing prices are still too high.

[Andara Bledin]

Actually, based on historical housing prices, the current market is below the natural ceiling. It's close to the top, however, so should things have returned to how they should have been all along, prices should see a small dip in the near future, but nothing of particular note.

Honestly, the housing bubble was incredibly untenable, and the fact that it was so freakishly above what it should have been is what kept me and my boyfriend from even looking into houses. We knew better.

^-.-^