Print
The news that the New York City police department has evicted “Occupy Wall Street” protesters is a positive sign that that parks meant for the general public will now be given back to that same public. In light of the eviction of the two month-old tent city in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, and Oakland’s recent eviction of Occupy squatters, perhaps sanity and civility will return to the town squares across North America. That said, as per usual, Canada’s city councils are taking their sweet time in evicting our own squatters.
Let’s be honest. Much of the Occupy movement was recycled 1960s activism (and in some cases, recycled 1960s activists) who hate business, despise capitalists and bathe themselves in envy. Insofar as they had an occasional point—governments should not rescue banks and automotive companies—they overlooked others: governments didn’t get economies around the world into trouble by spending too little, but by spending too much. And they massively borrowed on top of the existing tax take to do it both where taxes were moderate (America) and where they were not (Greece).
Such unconscionable borrowing for decades is why Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are a fiscal mess, and why California and other American states are broke.
If the Occupy movement returns, we suggest they come back with a coherent set of demands and common sense. They can start with recognizing that governments in the United States, Europe and even Canada have put the younger generations into a severe disadvantage, not through too little government intervention but by too much.
