The inner populist in me is heartened to see the Occupy Wall Street movement grow and even spread to other countries. It’s about time the penny-wise-pound-foolish policies of careerist politicians and hamstrung governments came back to bite them in the ass.

I want to see the Occupy Wall Street movement not only gain more steam but also to become more organized and remain vigilantly peaceful. Right now I’m not sure what it stands for besides general malaise. The movement is not a response to the financial crisis or Wall Street barons as supporters might say. If Wall Street made boatloads of money and Main Street also enjoyed low unemployment and decent salaries, this movement wouldn’t exist. That’s why no one occupied Wall Street in 2008 right after the crash.

Instead, it took three years of high unemployment and falling wages and rising rents to slowly generate this movement. Occupy Wall Street supporters are demonstrating more against the political elite not the financial elite. It’s the political elite who didn’t fix things afterward the financial elite fucked up. Now the commoners are thinking “wait, if the people in charge are incompetent, what gives them the right to rule?”

Here’s some insightful analysis by George Friedman of Stratfor.