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Occupy Wall Street exposes underlying US problems

14:24, October 08, 2011

Edited and Translated by Yao Chun, People's Daily Online

"Occupy Wall Street" is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City which has lasted for three weeks since September 17. The headquarters of the protest is based in Zuccotti Park, formerly "Liberty Plaza Park", and was originally called for by the Canadian activist group Adbusters.

The participants of the event are mainly protesting against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among other concerns, in the Untied States. The organizers hope that the protesters themselves will seek their own specific demands, which should focus on "taking to task the people who were responsible for causing the great economic meltdown two years ago."

"Occupy Wall Street" has raised global eyebrows and experts deemed that the protest was caused by economic, politic as well as social issues of the United States.

Though the U.S. has made several efforts such as investing huge amounts of government funds and conducting two "quantitative easing" programs to increase market liquidity, the U.S. economy is still reeling in the quagmire, with elevated unemployment rates and a cooldown in consumers' spending awareness.

The anemic economic recovery is the main cause of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest, according to Lv Xiaobo, a political science professor at the renowned Columbia University in New York.

Infighting and gridlock between the Democratic Party and Republican Party in the United States hinders the rapid and effective implementation of many policies and economic reforms, which has irritated the American public.

Lv says that making compromises in American politics is becoming more and more difficult. Gridlocks often emerge between the Democratic Party and Republican Party. The decision-making mechanisms have categorically failed there.

For a long time, the Americans in the bottom of the society are the people who less participate in the politics, so their demands are rarely to be known by the policy-makers and their interests are routinely neglected or trodden on. The movement undertaking in the Wall Street is an effective attempt made by grassroot masses aimed at revising U.S. political apparatus.

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（Editor：马茜）

Leave your comment5 comments

Beachbear at 2011-10-0974.237.125.*: There is no such thing as "government" funds in the US. Everything is supposed to belong to the citizens and the government is supposed to act in the best interest of those citizens. Obviously what is "supposed" to be and what "is" are two different things here.
LD at 2011-10-0974.73.96.*: American have few faces, they are good at showing the fabulous and hiding the bad. The recent Arab style spring in the US underlying the fundamental problems the huge gap between the rich and the poor Americans, the rich is 1%, the poor is 99%, the 99% is working their asses off to feed and to pay the rich from low paying wages to paying high interests from school to car loans to home mortgages, the corruption within the powerful, money and wall streets, corporation on the politicians, and vise versa.The problems are endless in the US.
ASEAN at 2011-10-09220.255.2.*: @RobertBut the US will never admit that Capitalism has failed even though the whole of USA is going to collapse soon. In fact, they will try ways and means to bring down Socialism with Chinese Chracteristics and will try hard to prevent other countries, such as those in Africa, from copying its success. Only the demonstrators in Wall Street knows that Capitalism has failed them badly.Now the US has been pointing the finger at China for its failures. They claim about currency manipulation, etc. when in fact it is the USA mismanagement of its economy.The only way out is for those demonstrators in Wall Street run the US government. These demonstrators are very bright people and they know that whe government is leading the whole of US into greater problems.
Jack Smith, USA at 2011-10-0824.26.135.*: The U.S. system has become rotten to the core and is proving Marx right. Capitalism eats its own and always destroys itself. In the U.S., the rich rule for their own benefit, which is always at the expense of the people and the country. The U.S. is ripe for a downfall and another civil war and revolution in the process. Jack Smith, USA
Robert at 2011-10-0887.218.209.*: Government leaders of China, please take note of what is happening in The US! The paradise of Capitalism is not what it seems. What is happening in the US should serve to help the Communist Party of China and its leaders together with the people of China, to continue on the road to Socialism with Chinese characteristics.