STIGLITZ: OWS Protests Are An ALARM-The best government that money can buy is no longer good enough.

[kpete]

The globalisation of protest
Protesters around the world say they are part of a generation that played by the rules but has no hope for the future.

............

They are right that something is wrong about our "system". Around the world, we have underutilised resources - people who want to work, machines that lie idle, buildings that are empty - and huge unmet needs: Fighting poverty, promoting development, and retrofitting the economy for global warming, to name just a few. In America, after more than seven million home foreclosures in recent years, we have empty homes and homeless people.

The protesters have been criticised for not having an agenda. But this misses the point of protest movements. They are an expression of frustration with the electoral process. They are an alarm.

On one level, today's protesters are asking for little: A chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, on another level, they are asking for a great deal: A democracy where people, not dollars, matter, and a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do.

The two are related: As we have seen, unfettered markets lead to economic and political crises. Markets work the way they should only when they operate within a framework of appropriate government regulations; and that framework can be erected only in a democracy that reflects the general interest - not the interests of the 1%. The best government that money can buy is no longer good enough.

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the rest:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111151200703378.html

[Kaleko]

1. More than an alarm, OWS protests are live manifestations

of a massive shift in consciousness: from selfish destructiveness to selfless care and concern.

Well-respected economists like Stiglitz, William H. Black, Krugman, Robert Reich et al should get together and march in these protests arm-in-arm. Like the sign at Occupy Vancouver told us:

Don't forget
to be
awesome

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. ...

:thumbsup:

[Kaleko]

3. Hey...

I like your avatar.

Not to mention your efforts to keep the fire burning around here. :)

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I also like your avatar.

Thank you for just the right insights at just the right time.

[sabrina 1]

5. 'A shift in consciousness'. Exactly and before anything

can be changed, that was necessary.

Btw, Stiglitz has been to the OWS protests. He gave a teach-in a few weeks ago on economics to one of them. Dean Baker also has been there.

This is necessary, to help people understand the causes of the crisis because an informed public is far less likely to be manipulated.

[Kaleko]

7. Now that you mention it,

I do remember reading about Stiglitz being awesome at OWS a while ago. Significant events are clustering together and unfolding in such rapid succession, it's hard to keep track of them and know where I lost all this time.

[RainDog]

6. k&r n/t

[xchrom]

8. Recommend