By: Bradley Brincka

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I take strong issue with Ms. Prince’s column on the Occupy Wall Street protests. The usual left wing tropes are brought out about the rich getting richer, the evil top one percent and complaints over student loans.

Much like the protesters themselves, Price offers lots of gripes but few concrete proposals to remedy our “unjust system.” There is a stark disconnect throughout her analysis of the movement. She laments that most college students are saddled with increasing student loan debt, so therefore, what this country needs is to demand Wall Street executives to fork over more of their money.

What?

In other words, the logic goes: take out massive loans from the government so that you can attend a government school to get an increasingly worthless degree, and then blame rich people for your own choice of getting in debt. Sounds like a bad decision on your part. Why aren’t you occupying your college dean’s office for the exorbitant tuition costs?

The protesters represent a crisis of decadence in our country. Rather than looking at the successful members of society and seeking to emulate their success and getting rich too, the proposed solution is to camp out like a bum, pollute the streets and whine that you’re not rich. Well, who ever got rich by contributing nothing but used space in the street? I hate to break it to you, but the rich contribute way more to society than these moochers on Wall Street do. In fact, 47 percent of this country pays no income tax whatsoever, whereas the rich pay 35 percent of their income or higher!

Corporations exist to make money, not to give you things for free. And they certainly don’t force you to buy their goods. If you hate Wal-Mart or Starbucks, don’t shop there. The government is the one that forcibly takes your money without asking.

I am not rich. I left high school with $14 in my pocket. But since then, I’ve worked five different jobs and invested some of that money in the stock market. I live well within my means, and don’t begrudge rich people for having more money than I do. Why would I? I have never been hired by a poor man, much less an Occupy Wall Street bum, but I have been hired by rich men, and I am thankful they were rich enough to hire me.

The occupiers propose a Socialist solution and want to “bring down capitalism.” My solution? Get off your butts, dress and speak respectably, get a job and learn a trade and quit whining about people having more than you. It’s childish. As Winston Churchill said, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, a creed of ignorance, and a gospel of ignorance, and its inherent quality is the equal sharing of misery.”