I strongly support Occupy Wall St. because I'm a CAPITALIST.

There has been a lot of talk about how the "dirty, bongo-playing hippies" in Zuccotti Park have a "muddled message".   I went down to the protest this weekend to look around and listen and I did indeed see a lot of drumming, and some of the uniformly polite and peaceful people there could've used a shower and clean change of clothes.  There was certainly a rainbow of different causes being pushed -- everything from Anarchism to something I didn't hear but I'm sure starts with the letter Z.  

That said, there were two core messages that most of the people there seemed to be solidly behind: they're angry that there was no accountability on Wall Street for the financial collapse of 2008;  and they're angry that while the wealthiest 1% of Americans own over 40% of the nation's wealth, there seems to be no prospect for any tax increases on that 1% to help fund the public sector services (education, public safety, health, and infrastructure) that the other 99% depend on and are being slashed due to reduced tax revenues and wholesale Federal budget cuts.

Sure, I'm a liberal and I'm very sympathetic on moral and human grounds to their demands, but I'm also somebody who has made money from investing capital in the housing and stock markets and is currently working to open a small business.  And as a hard-eyed capitalist I can see only an upside to reforming the financial sector and requiring the wealthiest to contribute more towards maintaining our economy.

The protestors' call for consequences for Wall Street is more than justified, it is necessary for the return to healthy operations of our capitalist system.  Capitalism isn't really that complicated; investors put money into an enterprise, and we investors (and "we" are the over 50% of Americans who own stock either directly or through mutual funds) expect the people we've hired to manage the enterprises that we own to follow a simple mandate -- "increase shareholder value".    Regardless of complexities like stocks vs. bonds and short-term vs. long-term value,  the core goal is to connect capital with enterprises for the benefit of the investor.   While many investments lose money, this isn't a zero-sum game where there's always a loser;  improved productivity from capital investment creates new wealth overall.

But instead of bringing together investors and entrepreneurs to create new businesses, new jobs, and new wealth, Wall Street has been rigged by self-dealing insiders to rip off the taxpayers and shareholders and shift that capital into exorbitant executive pay, overleveraged buyouts, or crazy schemes like the derivatives and CDOs that were the actual cause of the 2008 financial collapse.   This isn't capitalism, it's embezzlement, and as an investor who is looking for a level playing field I don't trust those insiders to handle 'self-policing.' And without accountability for at least some of these insiders, policing is a hollow threat and Wall Street will continue to betray the shareholders it is supposed to serve.

The case for asking the wealthiest to pay a bit more in taxes to maintain the public sector has an even more plain and simple capitalist justification.  A cold-eyed capitalist sets aside concerns about fairness -- the U.S. has the greatest wealth disparity of any major industrialized country, and even greater wealth disparity than plutocracies like China, Russia, and Iran -- or how our top income bracket taxation is almost the lowest it has ever been and significantly lower than it was during most of the Reagan years.  The first rule of a successful business is 'Protect your investment'.  The wealthiest 1% own over 40% of the nation's wealth, so maintaining the value of the nation's assets -- including the workers and infrastructure -- means that the wealthiest 1% have the most to lose from letting their investment lose value.

The U.S. has the most productive workforce in the world -- in manufacturing, U.S. workers are eight (8!) times as productive as workers in China -- and this productivity is based on the education of our workers, the police and firefighters who keep them safe at home and in the workplace, the health care system that keeps them healthy enough to stay at the workplace, and the transportation infrastructure that gets them to and from the workplace and makes moving goods and services around the country so efficient.  Refusing to pay to keep these valuable assets maintained is not as stupid as refusing to pay to change the oil in an exotic luxury car and ruining the engine -- it is much stupider because we do not depend on the exotic car for creating future wealth. 

Some of the most successful investors, Warren Buffett being the best-known example, are calling exactly for higher taxes on millionaires.  A recent poll found that 65% of millionaires would support higher taxes on themselves. 

So this all comes back around to why there are people camping out next to Wall Street.  If you see the markets as an opportunity for wealth creation instead of a casino where 'the house always wins', an entrepreneur looking for capital to build your business, an investor who wants to protect your investment and maximize your returns, and you really believe, as I do, that capitalism has been and will continue to be part of what makes this country great, then I suggest that you walk down to  Zuccotti Park or whatever 'Occupy' is near you. 

And if you just can't stand drum circles, call your Senators and Representative.  They listen to people like us.