What Delicious Irony: Occupy Wall Street Finally Makes a Point

The occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is out to demonstrate that a community can work when the proceeds of the governed are collected by the government and redistributed as the collective sees fit. The mass of humanity at Zuccotti park in New York City have discovered what many in Cuba, the former U.S.S.R. and North Korea already know – it just doesn’t work.

In a post at The Gothamist we come to understand that the community account controlled by the OWS general assembly is not for distribution to the community.

Last night’s General Assembly meeting in Zuccotti Park was “one of most contentious ever,” in large part due to a heated debate over whether the drummers at Occupy Wall Street should be given $8,000 from the movement’s coffers to buy more drums and equipment. It seems some of the drums were stolen or vandalized, and the drummers asked the General Assembly to help them regroup. “We have worked for you! Appreciate us,”one drummer told the crowd, but the appeal was denied..

The general assembly has been collecting a tax on the drummers – up to 50% of their earnings according to reports. With more than a half million dollars in the fund that the assembly controls, where is the redistributive change?

Sure, the general assembly is paying for other things they find more important than the drumming – that’s the problem with this type of government. When you give the centrists more control, what happens when they disagree with you?

Imagine, if instead, the drummers were allowed to keep all of their income, replace their own equipment and run their organization as they saw fit? They might recruit more drummers and if they were indeed pulling in hundreds of dollars per day, wouldn’t that signal that they were effective in putting out the OWS message?

The trouble with the general assembly decision is deeper than dollars for drums. It’s who decides how the message goes out? Centralization means that you either agree entirely with the central government or you get left out.

This leftist experiment also demonstrates the problem with a highly progressive tax scheme. The most productive workforce at the park are taxed the heaviest and are slowly being put out of business. Their only choice will be to move to another park. Odd how the most productive businesses are forced to leave the home by progressive schemes.

If the actual intent of the OWS crew is to get a message out, why no money for the messengers? If the real reason is to prove that a larger central government and highly-progressive tax scheme are effective – they’ve simply proven the opposite.

Oh, the very delicious irony.

a quick h/t to Erin Haust (@erinhaust) who’s tweet alerted me to the drummer’s plight.