In theory, I should support the Occupy protests. But I’m having trouble doing so.
As a leftist, generally I believe in things like equity of income and a caring society, which is what the protests are about. But there are a number of issues with the movement that concern me. To the point where I might get myself kicked out of the left.

Firstly, I think it’s overly simplistic to define the debate as ‘one percent vs ninety nine percent.’ The idea that 1% of the population control 99% of the wealth is only true if you use particular formulas and ignore certain aspects of wealth. It’s also irrelevant. How much percentage of wealth each percentage of population owns is missing the point. In a capitalist economy (the only one that works) there are rich people and poor people. Complaining that lots of people are rich ignores reality. It’s possible to create a society where nobody is rich, but nobody likes living there much. What matters is how you are treated in society when you don’t have much wealth (and everyone has some), which sometimes, yes, can be unfair. That’s what social democracy is about. Being poor needn’t mean you starve. And indeed, even in America, it doesn’t.

The people claiming to be the “ninety nine percent” aren’t. For a start, they’re the one percent of the ninety nine percent who have nothing better to do but show up. Secondly, these are mostly middle class, relevantly well-off people. I don’t know about the ethnic demographics, but I would hazard a guess that they are predominantly white. They have iPhones. They wear designer clothes. Not all of them, of course. And being well-off doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to lobby for a better deal for those who aren’t. I believe in welfare but I don’t need it. However, complaining about the unfairness of capitalism looses a little traction when you have every product Steve Jobs marketed. You need food, shelter and clothing. You don’t need an iPad. This is a luxury. You cannot argue that capitalism is responsible for all the world’s ills while simultaneously tweeting from your tablet computer.

There are genuine problems in America today. The economy is very poor, unemployment is high and people are angry. They have a right to be, and on some level I sympathize. What I don’t sympathize with is the Australian Occupy movement. Our economy is okay. We don’t really have any major issues. So the Australian protesters are protesting issues that aren’t really problems. As usual, the far left have adopted the protests as a general ‘we don’t like capitalism’ movement.

There are legitimate points that could be made about the role of Wall Street in the financial crisis. But you can make these points in other ways. Which leads me to the main thrust. I don’t really believe this kind of protest actually achieves anything. Capitalism won’t go away, no matter who protests. Most protests, in fact, achieve very little. There is still no gay marriage. Refugees are still treated as a problem not as people. We got a carbon tax. Policy isn’t made in response to mass movements like this. In Australia it’s made by focus groups in Penrith. In America it’s made by Fox News.

The way to achieve long-lasting, substantive change is through the ballot box, not the placard. You vote for change. Of course, millions of Americans did and didn’t get it. But that’s a different problem.

I’m not against the protests, in America anyway. I just feel this hasn’t been thought through, and won’t achieve anything. This is action born of anger and not reason.

The Australian ones, however, are laughable. Just like most things the fad left does.

I’m a very bad leftist.