Are we IN midst of a major social battle? Is the 99% Vs 1% occupy campaing worth its salt? Is the purpose misplaced? If the rich are greedy, are the poor( not rich) any better? were rules( unwritten) broken on both sides?? Have we conviniently forgotton that it was our greed( along with others) that is responsible for current situation?
I love bar natter. It is almost impossible to predict what you will be talking to a person at a bar let alone who you will be talking to! It might be a 65 year old pensioner, a 40 something Irish dancer or a 22 year old hot girl! To make things clear from the outset, I am just as comfortable talking to all, no preferences ( well….. that may not necessarily be the whole truth but for the sake of this blog, lets assume my statement as ultimate truth and move on 
). Also, the range of subject not only amuses me but sometimes even truly baffles me. Politics, religion, rich and poor, dictators, tyrants, conditions of the hospitals, weird things and experience around the world, culture and the list goes on. But I have a funny feeling that I don’t need to stress anymore on this topic as almost everyone of us have had one ( actually many ) of these over the years and dare I say will have many in years to come. It was just one of those damp cold night in the city of Belfast ( I know I am not being specific as this description fits 350 out of the 365 days in a year! ) and I found myself with my friends in one of our favourite bars. Unfortunately, I had a long day at work and had driven straight from work to the bar and so had to keep myself away from the ever so tempting pint of Guinness. Being sober in a bar at 8 o clock is not so bad, but when its close to midnight, its torture!!! Clearly my friends were having a lot better time then I was J. I started to look around to see if I could find anyone who was having as ‘good’ a time as I was and a girl caught my eye. She was I thought mid – late 20s and from the looks of it, was designated driver for the night. I said ‘Hi’ and to cut long story short after a few pleasantries we got talking. Just when you thought you have seen everything in life, life throws a curve ball at you! The girl was an activist and was part of the occupy Belfast campaign ( inspired from the occupy wall street campaign ). You know where I am going with this don’t you. Lets just say the talk wasn’t the typical bar talk about likes and dislikes.
As much as I was trying to skirt around the issue, curiosity got the better of me and after a few minutes of chit chat I asked her what was the purpose of this campaign?? The answer I got was in many ways not what I expected. The campaign was aimed at the council authorities that were going to enforce cutbacks in their yearly budgets to charitable institutions jobseekers allowance etc. I like people who are driven by causes and hence there was something innately likable about this girl. But then again I am a man of firm thoughts and have my own belief structure so I couldn’t help but question some of the things that she was saying. I asked her so what exactly is this demonstration aimed at? She said that just like in America, it was the 99% telling the 1% that cutbacks that hurt the poor the most are not the solution to the problem. Now I was not going to argue that the poor people should be in anyway taxed more or that their government supplies should be cut etc. but I thought she ( and most other who are debating on this topic ) aren’t looking at both sides of the coin. Most people are looking at the ‘have nots’ and blaming the ‘haves’ for all the trouble. Now althought there is some element of truth in that I am not totally convinced that a sweeping statement against every rich ( or poor ) person is the answer.
Our chat invariably led us to the 2007 crash and the repercussions of the same that are being felt even today. So I asked her, who do you blame for the crash and without a moments hesitation came the answer BANKERS ( she called them Banksters, implied reference to ‘mobsters’ ). Now I asked her how do you think they are responsible for that? She said that they gave loans to people who could not afford it ( teaser rates on home loans that were low to start with and shot up in 2-3 yrs ) and as a result there were foreclosures and people lost their hard earned life savings while they made their money on commissions and got rich. Now there is not much there that I can disagree with. As a matter of fact, I have no doubt that this is what happened. I have seen and read a lot on this topic, enough to know that even people who were in prison somehow managed to get mortgages!!! But the point is, did the bankers or estate agents put a gun to anyone’s head and ask them to sign on dotted lines accepting the mortgage? Even if there have been isolated incidents when this happened ( I don’t know may be may not be ) it is hard to believe that all the mortgages signed all across America ( or the world for that matter! ) were done in this fashion. So then the question remains, that yes the bankers were giving loans to people who didn’t deserve it and that they were greedy, raking up their commissions in the process, but didn’t people who signed up to these mortgages have any responsibility? Should they not have been more careful ( and realistic ) about their financial position and ability to pay back the mortgage?? So if it is a question of greed, who’s greed was greater, the one who offered the loan or the one who accepted it knowing that it is a big risk?? I have talked about unwritten rules that we follow in one of my previous blogs ( Rules: Are They Made Just So That They Can be Broken?? http://is.gd/4BI6Fb ) and it is sufficient to say that unwritten rules were broken on both sides and the reason was greed.
As much as I was trying to skirt around the issue, curiosity got the better of me and after a few minutes of chit chat I asked her what was the purpose of this campaign?? The answer I got was in many ways not what I expected. The campaign was aimed at the council authorities that were going to enforce cutbacks in their yearly budgets to charitable institutions jobseekers allowance etc. I like people who are driven by causes and hence there was something innately likable about this girl. But then again I am a man of firm thoughts and have my own belief structure so I couldn’t help but question some of the things that she was saying. I asked her so what exactly is this demonstration aimed at? She said that just like in America, it was the 99% telling the 1% that cutbacks that hurt the poor the most are not the solution to the problem. Now I was not going to argue that the poor people should be in anyway taxed more or that their government supplies should be cut etc. but I thought she ( and most other who are debating on this topic ) aren’t looking at both sides of the coin. Most people are looking at the ‘have nots’ and blaming the ‘haves’ for all the trouble. Now althought there is some element of truth in that I am not totally convinced that a sweeping statement against every rich ( or poor ) person is the answer.
Our chat invariably led us to the 2007 crash and the repercussions of the same that are being felt even today. So I asked her, who do you blame for the crash and without a moments hesitation came the answer BANKERS ( she called them Banksters, implied reference to ‘mobsters’ ). Now I asked her how do you think they are responsible for that? She said that they gave loans to people who could not afford it ( teaser rates on home loans that were low to start with and shot up in 2-3 yrs ) and as a result there were foreclosures and people lost their hard earned life savings while they made their money on commissions and got rich. Now there is not much there that I can disagree with. As a matter of fact, I have no doubt that this is what happened. I have seen and read a lot on this topic, enough to know that even people who were in prison somehow managed to get mortgages!!! But the point is, did the bankers or estate agents put a gun to anyone’s head and ask them to sign on dotted lines accepting the mortgage? Even if there have been isolated incidents when this happened ( I don’t know may be may not be ) it is hard to believe that all the mortgages signed all across America ( or the world for that matter! ) were done in this fashion. So then the question remains, that yes the bankers were giving loans to people who didn’t deserve it and that they were greedy, raking up their commissions in the process, but didn’t people who signed up to these mortgages have any responsibility? Should they not have been more careful ( and realistic ) about their financial position and ability to pay back the mortgage?? So if it is a question of greed, who’s greed was greater, the one who offered the loan or the one who accepted it knowing that it is a big risk?? I have talked about unwritten rules that we follow in one of my previous blogs ( Rules: Are They Made Just So That They Can be Broken?? http://is.gd/4BI6Fb ) and it is sufficient to say that unwritten rules were broken on both sides and the reason was greed.
I am aware that after reading this some of you might think that I am playing the devils advocate in this blog. But its not just that. I genuinely believe that the demostrators are missing the point and that instead of blaming everyone left right centre, people should accept responsibility of what happened. Remember the rich were rich even before all this happened, and probably will stay rich long after. The choices are to keep looking and them and feel sad about your life or find a new way to look at it and try to be happy. What do my good readers think? Would love to hear from you.
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