Declare victory already

Occupy Albany got busted up today in what looks like police overreaction, but it seems to me with winter starting and the state tax deal passed earlier this month, it's time to declare victory and go home. Not that the tax deal is perfect -- in fact it's not as progressive as the millionaire's tax it is replacing. But it's a great deal better than what the state tax code would have been had the millionaire's tax expired on schedule at the end of this year, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Republicans, the business establishment et al. were confidently asserting would happen before Cuomo changed his mind and brought everyone else along. And what changed Cuomo's mind? Those "Governor One Percent" and "Cuomoville" signs at Occupy had something to do with it.

Comments

[Matthew]

Yeah, Governor 1% got his tax plan passed (which was going to happen anyway because he's got a legislature who will play ball...unlike what his predecessor had) but how is it a "victory" for the OWS demands(?) were never even addressed?

Nothing has fundamentally changed.

The banks are still being subsidized by the government, making them even "To Larger to Fail" than they were in 2008. Virtually no Wall Street CEOs have been prosecuted. The stock system that got us into this mess (the deriatives & the credit default swaps, for starters) hasn't been reformed. Higher Education costs are still rising. The Student Loan debt (the ones many were asked to take on in the 2000's mantra that it'd be worth it because a degree makes it more likely you'll get a job) is now outpacing credit debt. The vital public sectors that we as a society depend on to keep it functioning (like law enforcement, public health care, & education) are shrinking because we all of a sudden can't afford them. But most importantly, the labor market has fundamentally changed & there are not enough jobs right now to go around.

How in your right mind can you call this a "victory"?

[Bob Conner]

Hey Matt, good points, a coupla replies: The issues of reforming the financial markets and prosecuting wrongdoers are to my mind more in the baliwick of Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Albany's focus was rightly more on state issues, including the millionaire's tax. And the new tax law is more than half a loaf in the right direction. While you are quite right that "Nothing has fundamentally changed," I still think for a ragtag buch of demonstrators to have an actual impact on a major piece of legislation that significantly improves the tax code as of Jan. 1 (i.e. compared to what would have happened had the new law not passed), is indeed a real victory.

[Matthew]

"The issues of reforming the financial markets and prosecuting wrongdoers are to my mind more in the baliwick of Occupy Wall Street."

I'd be inclined to agree w/ you if Wall Street matters actually stayed on Wall Street. Unfortunately, their greed didn't spilled out onto Main Street, forcing us the mighty taxpayers to subsidize them.

[Matthew]

*Unfortunately, their greed spilled out onto Main Street...