Al Gore's Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

Al Gore's Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

For the past several weeks I have watched and read news about the Occupy Wall Street protests with both interest and admiration. I thought The New York Times hit the nail on the head in an editorial Sunday:

“The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening.”

“At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people. On one level, the protesters, most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity.”

From the economy to the climate crisis our leaders have pursued solutions that are not solving our problems, instead they propose policies that accomplish little. With democracy in crisis a true grassroots movement pointing out the flaws in our system is the first step in the right direction. Count me among those supporting and cheering on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street. It sort of sounds like Hints from Heloise or some other such bilge. Maybe he honed his literary skill by reading Dear Abby. In any event the sage of Carthage (Tennessee) has found fellowship with the brave brothers and sisters of the ninety-nine percent and while most of his thoughts appear to be copied and pasted from the New York Times they should appreciate the five minutes or so he spent thinking of them and sucking up. Hell, he spends more time chasing his masseuse around the hotel room. Far be it from me to suggest that Gore is not sincere but it does seem odd that the chairman of Generation Investment Management LLP and a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers would want to make common cause with the proletariat. What is next? A Times editorial by Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs praising the virtues of Leon Trotsky?