Occupy Wall Street protesters turn their attention to Obama

Well it was only a matter of time. For the past couple months now the Occupy protesters have focused their efforts on big corporations who are raking in big profits and banks who received bailouts while the rest of us were left holding the bag. That was a decent starting point I suppose but at the end of the day, these companies can get only get so powerful without the help of the government. Companies are basically money making machines that operate on one principle only: to maximize profits for the shareholders.

From banks to retailers to car manufacturers, at the end of the day they all have the same goal. And how they conduct their business to achieve those goals is influenced a great deal by the legal and political environment. If rules are enforced and there is an even playing field with no company being favored by the government, companies live and die based on the quality of their products and their benefit to the consumers. If however we create an environment where the government is empowered to pick winners and losers, then companies are going to lobby the politicians to become the winners and ultimately end up with an unfair advantage.

The government essentially sets the stage for how business is conducted. If a company is behaving in a way that breaks the law or has a negative effect on society, that company should be called out and forced to face consequences. But if the government is not only allowing that to happen but is actually instrumental in it occurring, we need to take a look at them as well.

From nytimes.com:

More than 100 Occupy Wall Street protesters marched to a Midtown hotel on Wednesday night to protest a fund-raising event for President Obama.
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Demonstrators held signs that leveled some of the Occupy protest’s most pointed criticism to date of the president. “Obama is a corporate puppet,” one said.

It will be interesting to see if this is a one time thing simply because Obama is in the area raising money "for the richest of the rich", or if this will spark the beginning of a new chapter in the Occupy movement.