Occupy Wall Street is misguided

This movement, at its best, is misguided. The protesters are misguided because of an inadequate understanding of definitions of terminology. This movement blames capitalism for being "unfair" and "unjust" and for being responsible for causing the occurring incidents that led to and eventually stemmed from the 2008 financial crisis that affected the world.

It is necessary to define the terms:

Capitalism - An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit rather than by the state.

Socialism - A political and economic theory of social organization that states that the means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

The blame for the most recent economic occurrences is being placed on what could be equated to "unbridled capitalism," and this is where I must disagree. The actions that led to these occurrences were caused by greed, as well as people who were given the wrong incentives. In many cases, people's pay was linked directly to performance (for example, how many deals were closed) or on a commission basis (bigger deals = more money).

The capitalist system is not responsible for this poor turn of events. In a true capitalist system, the institutions that received money from the government would have been allowed to fail. The culprit responsible for this bailout? Socialism. The resources of the people, tax revenue and new debt (borrowed money) were used to support these failing private institutions.

These factors played a large role in leading our economy up and down to rock bottom. The Occupy Wall Street protesters are angry at capitalism and the success of those at the top (the 1 percent). However, capitalism is the reason that many of the most successful people in our country have been able to reach the heights that they have reached. An analysis of the Forbes 400 (the richest Americans) would show that around two-thirds of these people's fortunes were self-made.

The OWS movement has attempted to argue that, "the richest 1 percent of people are writing the rules" in our economic system in order to stay at the top of the socioeconomic ladder. Meanwhile, many of the richest people have put in many years of hard work and persistence in order to reach the top of the socioeconomic ladder which they stand upon today. Our system may have some flaws as things stand today, but the current rules have allowed a new wave of self-made men and women to rise to the very top.

If the OWS movements were to have their way, our nation would veer toward socialism by increasing the size of the government and feeding the entitlement mentality that is beginning to affect our entire nation by increasing government handouts to the other 99 percent.

Last week, I sat down with one of my professors for a marathon, three-hour conversation, and at a point the discussion turned toward the OWS movement. My professor said, "I don't think that sleeping on a park bench for a month is going to help you get a job." I could not agree with him more.

Today, each person is responsible for creating his or her own success. Is the world fair? No. Do each of us receive the same amount or quality of education? No. Can we each enrich our knowledge and succeed today, if we put in the extra effort to learn more about topics that we are interested in? Yes. Nothing will ever be totally fair, but in the end we each have 24 hours a day and seven days a week to learn something that will help us in the future. What you learn is up to you.

We face creating either a society that continues to embrace education, hard work and persistence, or one that encourages an entitlement mentality, in which people are rewarded "just because" rather than "because of results," while placing a majority of the tax burden on the top 1 percent.

Is this how you want to encourage and to give incentive to citizens today? By saying, "We hope you succeed, and oh, by the way, when you do succeed we are going to punish you with sky-high taxes to pay for the unsuccessful people."

America needs to refocus, put an emphasis on success and create an economic environment where entrepreneurs will continue to dedicate all of the hard work and time necessary for creating the successful business enterprises that will help the U.S. remain a top-performing country now and in the future.

Think about the contributions that are made by entrepreneurs, with small and large businesses alike. These entrepreneurs create jobs that help the economy. Each new job is filled by a person who then pays local, state and federal taxes out of his or her paycheck.

Then each business owner is taxed on his or her net profits, after being responsible for the increase of local, state and federal taxes because of job creation. And then there are groups, such as the OWS protesters, that believe these entrepreneurs have not contributed enough to society. Do you think that is the case?

I don't know about you, but I want to live in an America that rewards you for your efforts, not one that punishes you.