[nknight]

Let's assume for a moment that the richest 400 people in the US "create jobs" in some reasonable proportion to their personal wealth.

Let's also assume that all of them disappeared tomorrow.

Do you believe that half the jobs in the US would go away?

Let's assume none of them were ever born.

Do you believe the US would have half the jobs it does today?

I hope you can see what I'm getting at.

That aside, take a look at who the 400 are:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

Just go down the list. Google them and their companies. Take a look at how many people they actually employ.

Some of them you might argue made significant contributions to the creation of entire industries, but many are just investors. Hedge fund managers. Bankers.

OWS isn't pissed about Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos or Michael Dell. They're not looking at the guys who started value-creating businesses and contributed directly to their success. That's not who this is about, and it never has been.

[hkmurakami]

If OWS isn't outraged at the Tech Leaders, then they shouldn't generalize "the top 400" in this manner. When you abstract "the ultra-rich" into the symbolic cause of America's current woes, you're going to automatically incriminate those who do drive value-creating businesses as well.

I don't think OWS's purpose or message or mantra is wrong. However, if they continue down this path of generalization and polarization for the sake of PR impact, I'm afraid they're going to become even more unfocused in their messaging.

[nknight]

It's a combination of political slogans/rallying cries and observations about wealth distribution problems in general. The former will always be wider than they ought to be, the latter can't exclude the "good guys" from the conversation entirely, because they have benefited to some degree from the broken system, even if they don't intend to perpetuate it.

But the name is "Occupy Wall Street". They know who their opponents are. They know who screwed with their mortgages and retirements. They know who paid off the politicians. They're out there with MacBooks and iPhones, tweeting and facebook-ing. Silicon Valley isn't their problem, and they know it.

(Edit: They're not even hammering Wal-Mart, and it'd be so easy. I think that says something.)