I don't want to live on this planet anymore

[Al B. Sure!]

Saw this posted elsewhere. It's the list of demands of some Occupy protesters in Bellingham, somewhere. I think Washington state:

https://sites.google.com/site/occupybellingham2011/

-Free healthcare for everyone
-No more two party system, lots of smaller parties
-Bellingham minimum wage set at median wage of Washington state: $44710
-Bellingham public parks open to people to live in when they need housing
-CEO pay capped at 4 times lowest paid worker
-publicly funded elections for all local and federal elections
-new fair tax system without loop holes
-End the Federal Reserve!
-Legalize all drugs and eliminate the FDA
-90% tax on income over 1 million
-Open borders
-Government pays for all education through graduate school
-Bellingham waterfront turned into low cost, low impact tent housing with maintained public restrooms
-A cap on new home construction in Bellingham until all existing neighborhoods are infilled to 10 houses per acre
-No more housing built outside city limits
-No salaries for elected officials. It's public SERVICE! Only government staff get paid.
-Bellingham passes ban on national brand stores. Ban McDonald$ and $tarbucks and the rest!
-Pass constitutional ammendment giving power of war declaration to the people by referendum. Repeal war powers act.
-Eliminate electoral college
-Forgive all student loans
-Bail out homeowners, not banks. Reduce all underwater mortgages to 2% interest.
-Only organic vegetables and humanely free farmed meats in Bellingham restaurants
-100% employment for people who want to work. Government jobs for everyone who does not have a private sector job, doing maintenance on our public -parks and schools.
-More bike lanes in the dense, residential areas, and cross walks in the Roosevelt Neighborhood.
-Increase of public transit and lower fare while developing an electric rail/light rail system in order to decrease traffic and traffic accidents, and lesson our carbon footprint
-A push towards a progressive and constructive rehabilitation program for the Whatcom County prison/jail inmates

Immediate Demands
-Modular toilet and shower facilities at Maritime Park for occupying protestors
-First-aid tent with healthcare services in Maritime Park
-A written statement from Mayor Pike guaranteeing right to indefinite occupancy of Maritime Park
-Use of City Hill Toilet facilities for general assembly meetings on library lawn
-Microphone and speakers available on library lawn for meetings
-Branches of national banks like Chase must pay new Bellingham tax of 5% of revenue to fund for unemployed and underwater mortage holders.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore

[giblets]

They want to ban McDonalds and Starbucks? Are they nuts?

[Elok]

Interesting mixture of the reasonable, the debatable, and the absurd there.

[Hauldren Collider]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of "reasonable"

I like the "not paying elected officials" and "forgiving all student loans". Those are my favorites (after banning national corporations, of course).

[Al B. Sure!]

Makes me rage....

[Hauldren Collider]

I want it to rain unicorns. Make it happen, congress.

[DaShi]

They should ban national sports leagues too.

[Elok]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of "reasonable"

The Electoral College sucks. That's the only thing I see that I wholly approve of. Others have some merits but also serious problems. For example, limiting CEO pay doesn't sound too bad to me, but requiring the CEO of Wal-Mart to settle for about $100K, which is probably something like .5% of his present salary, is a bit much. And that $100K is assuming he really hauls ass that year and makes overtime. Likewise, elected officials at the highest levels don't really need payment, since most of them are millionaires before they get there. State senators might as well earn something for the hassle they go through, though.

[Al B. Sure!]

The Electoral College sucks. That's the only thing I see that I wholly approve of. Others have some merits but also serious problems. For example, limiting CEO pay doesn't sound too bad to me, but requiring the CEO of Wal-Mart to settle for about $100K, which is probably something like .5% of his present salary, is a bit much. And that $100K is assuming he really hauls ass that year and makes overtime. Likewise, elected officials at the highest levels don't really need payment, since most of them are millionaires before they get there. State senators might as well earn something for the hassle they go through, though.

BRB governor taking bribes to feed family
BRB governor working as a manager at IHOP to feed family while being a serving governor

And where do you get CEO of Wal-Mart making $100K? They said 4x lowest paid worker... what do you think minimum wage is? It's $7.25/hr. Times 40 hours times 52 weeks... $15,080/year. You're talking CEO's making $60,320

[Al B. Sure!]

Anyway, who are these people and why are they too stupid to live?

[Elok]

BRB governor taking bribes to feed family
BRB governor working as a manager at IHOP to feed family while being a serving governor

I'm only familiar with "BRB" as an abbreviation for "be right back." Too lazy to look it up, please explain.

And where do you get CEO of Wal-Mart making $100K? They said 4x lowest paid worker... what do you think minimum wage is? It's $7.25/hr. Times 40 hours times 52 weeks... $15,080/year. You're talking CEO's making $60,320

I take it you missed the part where I mentioned overtime? That was a very rough mental estimate assuming a sixty-hour work week; I've worked OT so rarely that I can't recall whether it's double or just half again. I just sort of fudged it since I assumed nobody would be sufficiently anal-retentive to care. Silly me. Anyway, I figured your average CEO probably spends more than forty hours at the office anyway, or else at "business meetings" on a golf course or whateverTF they do.

[Al B. Sure!]

You've got BRB right.

$60K is a lot less than $100K. It just magnifies the stupidity.

It's time and half for overtime. Double? When was it double?

[Elok]

Probably never. I've earned less than ten hours of overtime in my life, so I couldn't remember what the multiplier was. Sue me. WRT elected officials, I don't think they're going to starve to death, but I do believe compensation is in order. Not so much for the national level, where you have to spend millions just to get the damn job and the salary at present is less than $200K (might as well be zero), but I don't expect the lower-level ones to work for free.

[Al B. Sure!]

Probably never. I've earned less than ten hours of overtime in my life, so I couldn't remember what the multiplier was. Sue me.

Tell me when you get the sand out of your vagina and are a real man.

[Hauldren Collider]

Probably never. I've earned less than ten hours of overtime in my life, so I couldn't remember what the multiplier was. Sue me. WRT elected officials, I don't think they're going to starve to death, but I do believe compensation is in order. Not so much for the national level, where you have to spend millions just to get the damn job and the salary at present is less than $200K (might as well be zero), but I don't expect the lower-level ones to work for free.

This is an argument to raise the salary, not lower it.