If the Occupy movement continues to believe that corporations are the root cause of hardship in the world, they may be missing the bigger picture.
People are struggling because they have too much rising debt. Rising debt is heavily influenced by onerous interest rate charges on credit cards, student loans, and home mortgages. Excessive interest rate charges dilutes the buying power of whatever income the consumer presently has.
Target Credit Card is a perfect example. At some point a few years ago I think Target rate jacked their credit card customers. Rate jacking involves significant raising of the interest rate on existing debt, overnight. The customer might have been maintaining a certain level of debt, but once the interest rate is raised, their buying power drops dramatically. Additionally, the high interest rate charge makes it harder to pay off the debt as well.
In essence Target becomes a store that could be making more money off of interest rate charges than the merchandise they sell! At this point, Target becomes a jobs robber since money that could have been spent either paying down the credit card or buying necessary merchandise instead just goes into Target's pocket, the result is less product is sold or the consumer has less money to spend locally.
While one can say, "Aha, your Target credit card example provides proof that the corporations are the problem". No, the problem is not Target, the problem is that existing debt cannot be restructured without defaulting.
If a Target customer desires their 22.90% credit card interest rate be lowered, Target customer service will do nothing to help. A customer cannot come up with a reason, no matter how pitiful or tragic their life situation, that will motivate Target to lower that 22.90% interest rate. The best Target will do is lower the monthly payment so that every month, the customer is basically just paying interest with virtually no money left over to purchase an item in the store!
However, Target's credit card tyranny can be over ruled by simply passing a law. Pass a law that Restructuring debt is NOT GROUNDS for a default, and Target can be beaten. Pass a law that restructuring debt is NOT GROUNDS for a default, and the individual regains a significant portion of their power back over both the corporations, the banking industry, and wall street.
