Occupy Wall Street - Page 146

A quick response saved the life of a young man at Occupy Vancouver who overdosed on a narcotic, Vancouver city fire chief John McKearney says.

A man between the age of 25 and 30 went into full cardiac arrest at 9:20 am Thursday, he said in an interview moments after the man was taken to St. Paul’s Hospital.

“It was very serious,” he said, adding that the man was now breathing and expected to be okay.

Fire chief McKearney attributed the favourable outcome to the quick response.

The man received first aid and then was helped by city firemen who were near the protest site on the plaza outside Vancouver Art Gallery.

Mr. McKearney said it was not immediately clear what drug was in the man’s system but the speculation is that it was heroin, he said.

A visibly shaken man who administered first aid to the overdose victim was at the first aid tent at Occupy Vancouver. But he declined to be interviewed.

"I've just been through a traumatic experience and I don't want to talk about it," he said. He declined to give his name.

Cameron Bode, a member of the Occupy Vancouver media committee, said the young man received better care for his overdose than he likely would have received if Occupy Vancouver was not there.

"We have on-site medical staff who responded to his distress within seconds. Then fire and ambulance people came in," he said.

"We had a conscious person taken away," Mr. Bode said.

"If not for the Occupation, there would have not been the timely attention that he received," he said.

Mr. Bode did not speak directly with those involved in responding to the incident. Based on conversation with others, he speculated that the man who overdosed may have been a drug addict with mental health issues.

Drugs are as common at Occupy Vancouver as in any other community in Vancouver, Mr. Bode said.

The media comittee has a policy of no drugs, no alcohol and no smoking but the general assembly has not endorsed a non-drug use policy, he said.

Ok, I'm a businessman, and I'm at the top 1% of wealth in my area. Currently, I'm most likely in the top 5-10% in overall America. I've come from asian-immigrant parents living here in "poverty" to living lavishly. I just took what my father said to me and continued on that path. He said to me, "To have a huge amount of money, you must take huge amounts of risks." At first I didn't get what he meant until I was grown up, due to the typical asian-parenting. Do good in school, go to a good college, get a good job. That's basically the safe way of living life. What I realized was, becoming rich requires taking opportunities and the risks involved. "Every choice and every opportunity you make in life is an investment in one form or another."

I see America as the land of opportunity, not as the land of guarantee. The top is called the top for a reason. The wealth distribution is competitive by nature, because we are all competing with each other to better our lives. Some people just want to be at the top more than others, and will do basically anything to get there. Know that to become more rich, someone else has to become more poor, whether from the top, middle, or bottom in terms of distribution and proportion. Since it is so competitive, do some people have what it takes to compete?

Most rich people know what the playing field is. Rich compete with the rich, trying to be better themselves from one another. They do not like newcomers, because that is just more competition they have already have to compete with. If you are trying to get to the top in the same field as people who are already established in it, then you must take opportunities from them to rise above them. That is why usually the rich band together to try to keep other competitors away and only compete with each other. Rich people usually seek any opportunity to gain an advantage no matter the risks involved. That is just how the mind-set is to the rich. No matter what the laws or regulations are, people who want it enough to be at the top will take opportunities and risks to be at the top.

That being said, most people don't want to take the risks associated with the opportunities to become rich. Note that as you become more wealthier, your financial risks become less and less. That's why the rich become more rich, and the poor become more poor. I'd bet most people just want to live a more safer lifestyle, however if you're mature enough to realize this, safety is never guaranteed in life. Because of the competitive nature of wealth distribution of a "free market," other people will take the opportunities you decided not to take to have a chance to move to the top. There are many missed opportunities people have in life, and someone else is going to take them, because they're willing to risk it. It's a dog eat dog world out there.

You don't have to buy and use goods and services from the rich. It's not like they're forcing you with a gun to your head. If you don't like it or the price, don't buy it. However, most people usually find it an annoyance and settle with buying it anyways. If you hate or dislike the rich so much, why not invest yourself to compete with them? Yes it's a risky venture trying to form a business against them, but you're giving no competition if you don't try at all.