Unions Occupy Wall Street — where are the Realtors?

Those scorned by Wall Street before, during and after the financial crisisAn economic downturn resulting from the failure of banking and government agencies to regulate and adjust to developing market conditions. of 2008 have taken to the streets in a bi-coastal (and now very international) protest known as Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Although the media has zeroed in on their efforts, the OWS mob is mostly disorganized and has yet to send a clear message to their rentierThe class of earners whose income is earned passively, generated from owned tangible and intangible assets rather than through employment. oppressors. Their unofficial mantra — “We are the 99%” — heaps criticism on the wealth disparity between the top 1% of the population and everyone else.

first tuesday take: Readers, your time has come. The OWS movement is long overdue, but it does not matter at this point whether this particular protest will succeed since one eventually will. Time is very much on its side. A financial revolution will eventually erupt once the public is given enough information. The 99% know something at the top is wrong.

It is time for the trade union of organized brokers — the California Association of Realtors (CAR) — to get off their cell phones and choose their side. The real estate and construction trade unions are to be admonished for not quickly involving themselves in a movement that encapsulates every frustration of those negative equityThe condition of a property owner owing more on a mortgage than the current fair market value of the encumbered property. homeowners they claim the special right to serve.