Misleading Labels

Paul here - I read the Financial Times a lot on my Nook. It's one of those few papers that, unlike most of the domestic media, breaks beyond the one-dimensional tit-for-tat political version of dumbed-down economic news and gets into some serious analysis of the interplay of economics and politics in a global context.

But while they usually have a very three-dimensional analysis on things, even they've fallen into this pattern of calling the Occupy Wall Street and similar movements "anti-capitalist" protests. Which, at least here in the U.S. I don't think is the case. People aren't against capitalism. They're against what it's been morphed into. They miss the old capitalism that existed earlier this century - when taxes were more progressive, income distribution was more broad, unions were everywhere and jobs were plentiful. When corporate profits went hand-in-hand with job creation, where now we have near-record profits with persistent unemployment. They want capitalism to WORK again.

So the media still doesn't 'get' it. Granted this is in part due the movement's nature - without clear leaders, the focus and messages have been a bit diluted and amorphous.