Marketplace Scratch Pad

Ideas, ideas

Scott Jagow Nov 9, 2009

A few days ago, on my After the Bell podcast, I asked whether the public’s outrage over Wall Street would produce real change. This was the week of the protests at the American Bankers Association convention. Here’s one of the responses I received:

From Kristina Runciman:

I would love to make things happen, but I am absolutely stumped. What CAN we do? If we cancel our credit cards our credit scores tank. We vote for change and we find out that our representatives are owned by their corporate contributors. Of course the media didn’t pay much attention to the protests in Chicago. Their advertisers wouldn’t like it. Thank God for the internet, at least we still have that. I know what we need but I don’t know how we get it. We need campaign finance reform so that politicians aren’t beholden to corporations. We need at least one other viable political party. We need to stop policing the world. We need universal, single payer health insurance. All of that is a long, long way from where we are. Show me how to start and I’ll be there.
Any ideas?

If you have an idea — no matter how radical it might be — let’s hear it. We could use a good brainstorming session…

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