LETTERS | THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT: WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR?
General welfare not in the sights of corporate America
DECEMBER 25, 2011
RICK BOWMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Occupy Portland protester slept in front of city hall in the Oregon city Tuesday.
STEVEN SYRE ( “Politics and private equity,’’ Business, Dec. 20) states a false dichotomy about private equity firms, saying that they are perceived either as “bold risk-takers serving capitalism, or rapacious predators destroying companies and jobs.’’ In fact, they are both, which was the point of Occupy Boston’s encampment at Dewey Square, near the downtown financial district. The critical message is that the financial industry and corporate America in general in fact serve only capitalism, an amoral economic theory cum ideology that dictates the maximization of profit as the highest good. This maximization is irrespective of the public interest, i.e. what the Constitution quaintly refers to as the general welfare, being the proper object of a truly democratic government.
That’s how Mitt Romney made his millions through Bain Capital, all perfectly legal, of course. That’s the basic problem the Occupy movement is addressing with mass protests focused on financial districts.
The movement is made up of a cross-section of citizens, real flesh-and-blood people, all demonstrating against the undue influence on public policy of the fictional corporate persons whose money buys unlimited mass media access, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Occupying public space is our only effective means to get equal access to that media.
Rich Latimer
Falmouth
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