What the Occupiers really want

I recently saw a post linking to a “proposed list of demands” by an individual in the Occupy Movement.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-ows-demands
First I want to acknowledge that it says this is a list by an individual. However, for those that even know what they are protesting, they embrace many of these ideas, and I would just like to address the problems with them. As a whole the occupiers may want a number of things, or maybe just want to protest for the sake of protesting, however here I will just address this specific list.

Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Unionize ALL workers immediately.
What if I don’t want to unionize, what if I don’t want to pay money to support things I disagree with? Shouldn’t I be free to figure out how to deal with conflicts between myself and my employer? When people go on strike it is often for the smallest reasons and in the mean time the company loses money and it is overall bad for the economy.

Raise the minimum wage immediately to $18/hr. Create a maximum wage of $90/hr to eliminate inequality.
If you raise the minimum wage you will have an even harder time finding a job as the companies will have to lay off more people in order to be able to pay such a high rate. Setting a maximum wage will discourage advancement and so people will do a poorer job. People should be rewarded for the amount of work they do.

Institute a 6 hour workday, and 6 weeks of paid vacation.
That would not be efficient in many areas. Let the particular industry or organization determine what is sufficient.

Institute a moratorium on all foreclosures and layoffs immediately.
Good luck with that, how are you going to force employers not to fire people, if they don’t have the money to pay them, especially after you get your $18 an hour what other choice do they have?

Repeal racist and xenophobic English-only laws.
It is not feasible in many cases to be able to accommodate everyone’s language, that is why English is the de-facto language. When a country implements multiple languages it causes problems, look at China or Canada.

Open the borders to all immigrants, legal or illegal. Offer immediate, unconditional amnesty, to all undocumented residents of the US.
Will there be oversight to this process or will you just let people in willy nilly? What about the unskilled people who come here and contribute nothing to the economy, will they abuse the welfare system? We get enough of that with citizens. However, those who are here illegally often will take money out of the economy by sending it back to their families back home. What if they have a criminal background should they not be extradited? What we need to do is to simplify the legal immigration process. I could go into greater detail but I don't want to take up too much space here.

Create a single-payer, universal health care system.
Eliminating competition will allow for price gouging and decrees efficiency.

Pass stricter campaign finance reform laws. Ban all private donations. All campaigns will receive equal funding, provided by the taxpayers.
While that might appear to level the playing field you shouldn’t require everyone to get equal financing as not all candidate are equal. It is true that politicians can take bribes from companies but creating a set limit causes more problems than it fixes.

Institute a negative income tax, and tax the very rich at rates up to 90%.
I assume negative income tax is the government paying the poor so they are on the same level, classic redistribution of wealth. I am not a fan of income tax. If the rich are taxed 90% how will they pay their employees? Companies sometimes do get tax breaks that they shouldn’t although think an overall lowering of taxes for everyone would be better. Also, what constitutes rich? The 1% or from what I have seen those who make over $490,000. (By the way, if the whole world is included in the whole 99% vs. 1% then just about everyone in the US is part of the 1%)

Pass far stricter environmental protection and animal rights laws.
I think it is important not to pollute or abuse animals but these laws tend to go overboard, especially look at California and how the regulation of water to protect fish has caused a drought and cost the farmers a lot of money.

Allow workers to elect their supervisors.
Does that include CEOs? Usually people work their way up to those positions. I suppose if an office wanted to do it that way we should allow it but it could turn into a popularity contest.

Lower the retirement age to 55. Increase Social Security benefits.
Lowering the retirement age will make it even harder to increase social security especially as people live longer. Increasing Social Security benefits will just make it implode faster.

Create a 5% annual wealth tax for the very rich.
Again who are the rich and why should we tax honestly earned wealth? If they acquired it through shady dealings that is another matter but that needs to be handled in a courtroom.

Ban the private ownership of land.
That is probably the biggest step toward socialism, the collective ownership of land.

Make homeschooling illegal. Religious fanatics use it to feed their children propaganda.
This one is so ridiculous it is almost funny. The public school system is terrible, there need to be alternatives. Parents should have the right to teach their kids what they feel is important without the propaganda they are taught at public schools. Besides what of the first Amendment and not interfering with the free exercise of religious beliefs?

Reduce the age of majority to 16.
What would that accomplish? Many 18 year olds even are still pretty immature.

Abolish the death penalty and life in prison. We call for the immediate release of all death row inmates from death row and transferred to regular prisons.
This doesn’t make sense, in fact it contradicts itself, no death penalty or life in prison would mean they are released at some point. Even the dangerous ones? Don't get me wrong I understand the concern with the death penalty but then a violent criminal should not be allowed back on the streets. Transfer to regular prisons is not the same thing as ending life in prison.

Release all political prisoners immediately.
I think I can agree there unless the person was actually violent.

Immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Again I can agree

Abolish the debt limit.
So should people be able to acquire as much debt as they want? And I suppose you would also want that debt to be forgiven automatically if not paid off in a certain amount of time.

Ban private gun ownership.
How then will we protect ourselves? The 2nd Amendment is vital for a free nation. If guns are illegal criminals will still be able to get guns, the only people wo won’t will be law abiding citizens.

Strengthen the separation of church and state.
Church and state is one of the most misused phrases. The first Amendment says that Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. This proposal seems like a limit on the latter part which is clearly Unconstitutional.

Immediate debt forgiveness for all.
Like I suspected above, and what of those to whom the debt is owed? Are they supposed to take a loss because they loaned their money expecting to get it back? That would likely decrease the amount of loans given out, which is a good thing, but is even worse for the reason I just stated.

End the 'War on Drugs'.
The war on drugs certainly does have problems and it isn’t working to stop the drug trade and may in fact make it more violent. This is in fact one of the issues that causes more problems on our border.

It is clear to me that if a majority of Occupiers agree with most of these terms than it truly is a socialist movement. Many of these goals are self defeating.
To say something about the occupy movement it is true there is corruption in corporatism, however it is not Capitalism that is to blame. It is the fact that the corporations make deals with the government and the government gives them special privilege; In other words crony Capitalism as opposed to true Capitalism. Just look at GM it should have been allowed to fail, there would be temporary loss of jobs but then one of their competitors (most likely Ford since they didn’t take the money) would pick up most of the jobs.
A vast majority of the protestors from what I have seen don’t even know why they are out there.