What Is The "Occupy Wall Street" Movement All About?

vaaaaaaaaleu cunha...eu tava meio perdidão mesmo nesse negocio do Occupy Wall Street

E a tragédia vai muito alem disso. O valor total das dívidas de americanos com empréstimos para pagarem cursos superiores agora excedem as dívidas com cartões de crédito. Pior ainda, as leis de falência não permitem a extinção dessas dívidas da mesma maneira que permitem escapar de compromissos com hipotecas, empréstimos para compras de carro, com cartões de crédito, etc. É uma verdadeira tragédia para quem está tentando começar a vida profissional agora: muita dívida e pouco emprego.

Para mais detalhes, vejam
1. "Student loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion this year" no http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/col ... 50818676/1
2. "The student debt crisis in one chart" http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezr ... _blog.html

Mas há sempre um jeito de rir das piores situações. Leia o seguinte para treinar o seu inglês, mas não seriamente...

"Nation Waiting For Protesters To Clearly Articulate Demands Before Ignoring Them"

"NEW YORK—As the Occupy Wall Street protest expands and grows into a nationwide movement, Americans are eagerly awaiting a list of demands from the group so they can then systematically disregard them and continue going about their business, polls showed this week. "The protesters need to unify around a shared agenda with precise policy goals so I can begin paying no attention to them whatsoever," said Tulsa, OK [Oklahoma] poll respondent Kaye Petrachonis, echoing the thoughts of millions across the country."

Read more at http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation ... lat,26353/

Um novo termo para o seu uso: a spoof

É verdade, Henry, do jeito que está, o movimento parece apenas gritar contra "o sistema", sem especificar nada. O que querem para que a situação dos tais 99% melhore?

Henry Cunha escreveu:Pior ainda, as leis de falência não permitem a extinção dessas dívidas da mesma maneira que permitem escapar de compromissos com hipotecas, empréstimos para compras de carro, com cartões de crédito, etc.

Não sabia disso! Essa semana mesmo vi em um seriado uma personagem falando que o primeiro empréstimo a ser pago tem sempre que ser o da faculdade, já que ele nunca vai embora, mas não tinha entendido a razão. Valeu!

Na revista Época há uma matéria bem explícita sobre o assunto também:

Nas ruas, contra tudo
O movimento Ocupe Wall Street se espalha pelos EUA e expõe a desilusão dos americanos com o setor financeiro, a classe política e os rumos do país
Diego Escosteguy, de Nova York
Época

Joe Stiglitz, outro economista nobelista, acaba de publicar um artigo na revista Vanity Fair, entiulado "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" Essa expressão, para quem não reconhece a alusão, vem do discurso de Lincoln conhecido como o Gettysburgh Address, honrando os mortos da batalha de Gettysburgh, onde ele conclui "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Stiglitz começa assim (e até menciona o Brasil, veja só):

"Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous—12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades—and more—has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow."
....
"The top 1 percent may complain about the kind of government we have in America, but in truth they like it just fine: too gridlocked to re-distribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes."
....
"The personal and the political are today in perfect alignment. Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. By and large, the key executive-branch policymakers on trade and economic policy also come from the top 1 percent. When pharmaceutical companies receive a trillion-dollar gift—through legislation prohibiting the government, the largest buyer of drugs, from bargaining over price—it should not come as cause for wonder. It should not make jaws drop that a tax bill cannot emerge from Congress unless big tax cuts are put in place for the wealthy. Given the power of the top 1 percent, this is the way you would expect the system to work."

From http://www.vanityfair.com/society/featu ... ent-201105

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Obviously, we are in trouble in North America (Canada too, not by such a wide margin, but going along the same political trail).

And this is all in English that's not so difficult even for an intermediate learner to understand....