'The American Dream Has Imploded'
Members of Occupy Pottstown on Monday protested corporate greed, big bank and Wall Street bailouts.
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Alan Croasdale had a thriving graphic arts business he started decades ago. The Collegeville-based company employed six workers, he said.
The nation's economic downturn changed all that.
"In (2005), I lost my business," said Croasdale of Pottstown. "Right now I am unemployed ... I just lost my health insurance as well. My life has been turned upside-down."
Croasdale said the U.S. is "under the thumb" of the corporate world.
To protest that relationship and its trickle-down effect, he and about 35 others gathered Monday for an Occupy Pottstown rally in the borough.
"Wall Street people ... screwed we working people," he said. "We need to bring jobs back to the United States."
Dawn Wilson of Lower Pottsgrove Township was also at the protest.
The economic crash reduced her once busy pet sitting business to a light workload.
"So many of my clients have lost their jobs," she said. "Thanksgiving has always been my busiest time because people travel. I have one client this Thanksgiving. People aren't traveling. They have no money."
Corporate interest must be removed from the country's political system, said Occupy member Dina Browne, who was raised in a lives near Pottstown.
"Big business buys our whole government," she said.
Browne said she has a degree in psychology and is a certified English teacher. She lost her jobs in the mental health and teaching fields due to funding cuts, she said.
"I have been unemployed for 17 months ... I have no health care," Browne said. "I've worked my entire life ... There's just so much wrong with this system."
Browne said the U.S. bailout of big business contributed to the country's dire economic status.
"I don't want a welfare state but I want the government to stop taking care of (big) business so I can have a chance," she said.
The big banks got a $25 billion loan at no interest, Browne said.
"I can't get a loan at no interest," she said. "The American Dream has imploded. It's a nightmare."
M Shirey
7:10 am on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
they should be protesting Washington over Keynesian Economics
Golden Cockroach
11:34 am on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
In Pottstown the protests aim is the slum property owners who profit from HUD's distribution of taxpayers money to "warehouse" the poor and unfortunate in their badly managed, inadequately inspected rentals. Incompetent, greedy investors are rewarded handsomely...and again by not bearing the financial ramifications of the abuse of our municipal service, the police - case in point, 37 police reports for just one rental property in 6 years. THAT'S OUR TAX MONEY being spent to keep their tenants under control while they are at home in the 'burbs on a couple acres in their shiny, well-maintained residences. Yet we go without a desperately need street cleaner, respectable garbage cans on High St., much needed street lamps in the older neighborhoods, the list goes on.
Isn't it a travesty that, yet again, Montgomery County butters their well greased palms with property tax reductions while Pottstown's SD struggles to educate the copious numbers of kids that live in their rental properties? The borough struggles to maintain infrastructure issues and keep crime to a minimum while they cannot adequately serve businesses and homeowner/occupants - the good taxpayers. These slum owner's are Pottstown's 1% and it's time that we stand, with one voice, to put an end to their lucrative "gigs" in our community. We can't afford to let them thumb their noses at us any more and we definitely can't afford to subsidize caviar their lifestyles.
http://goldencockroach.wordpress.com
truthsayer
1:19 pm on Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Since many of the supporters of the Occupy movement are only capable of repeating something they've read or heard, I will continue to say this so they will eventually understand the truth...the real "1%er's" in this country are our elected officials in Washington DC.
Our elected officials have created a system of wealth for themselves, generated by the hard work of all Americans. They control that wealth, and have you thinking your hardship is the fault of corporate America. It is not the fault of business. It is the fault of our politicians.
There is no difference between Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner...they are both multi-millionaires, getting richer off all of us, wealthy, middle class and poor.
Career politicians do nothing (intentionally), and get wealthy off of your economic hardship. They have you believe your liberal or conservative values are under attack, and you end up fighting with your fellow Americans, because it keeps you confused as to who the real enemy is. MSNBC and FOX News, spew the propaganda, in order to keep you fired up, but those networks are working for the same people...the political elite.
Americans can only win the battle if they unite against the enemy, and the enemy is in political office in Washington. Remove career politicians from office. Demand term limits, salary limits, fiscal accountability and measurable job performance, from all elected officials.
Occupy Washington...but bring more than a hand painted sign and a chant.