I remember studying the Boston Tea Party in the eighth grade. In case your memory is as foggy as a Boston night in fall…let’s examine what happened in 1773. The source of this information is www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Boston_Tea_Party.aspx. The encyclopedia says: “Boston Tea Party (1773) Protest by a group of Massachusetts colonists, disguised as Mohawks and led by Samuel Adams, against the Tea Act and, more generally, against “taxation without representation.” The Tea Act (1773), passed by the British Parliament, withdrew duty on tea exported to the colonies. It enabled the East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies without first going to Britain and resulted in colonial merchants being undersold. The protesters boarded three British ships and threw their cargo of tea into Boston harbour. The British retaliated by closing the harbour.” People who were involved both directly and indirectly in the Boston Tea Party were angry because of the way they were unfairly treated by the government. The people wanted a voice in the government’s decisions if they were going to be taxed. In the big picture, the feelings and protests exhibited during the Boston Tea Party led to the Revolutionary War.
War is a serious side effect from protests and anger. The remainder of this article is not about American citizens literally going to war against the US government. Although anything is possible in a severe bear market, I don’t think that is a realistic point-of-view. However, as the bear market continues to worsen and wear on people’s emotions, modern tea parties will start to emerge and gain strength. Protests will get more animated and violent as the disapproval for the government rises. Bob Prechter in his book Conquer the Crash writes, “In a bear market, people in whatever way are impelled to identify themselves as belonging to a smaller social unit than they did before and to belong more passionately” (p. 231).
In response to government bailouts and massive government spending, modern tea parties are showing their anger, albeit in a gentle way so far. Modern tea parties are not forming in the spirit of the original Boston Tea Party and lack of representation in the government. Rather, tea parties are forming as a way to voice disapproval of the government’s decisions on how tax money is spent. Instances of these protests have popped up across the country over the past year and a half, and several formed in the fall of 2008 when the government bailed out financial institutions.
On September 25, 2008, cnnmoney.com commented, “The public backlash against the Bush administration's proposal to use tax dollars to bailout Wall Street spilled into the streets Thursday. ‘People all over the country are up in arms about this,’ said David Elliot, a spokesman for grassroots advocacy group UsAction. ‘There is no agenda, no leaders, no organizing group, nothing to endorse other than we're not going to pay!’" This is an example of the initial anger, shock, and confusion of how people reacted against the government’s policies. However, the protests didn’t seem to have a focus, except for people walking around with picket signs outside buildings.
More tea parties began to show up and gain strength as the stock market was falling and making new lows in the early spring of 2009. On March 18, 2009, nbcchicago.com stated, “Several hundred workers have protested outside Chicago-area financial institutions, calling for an end to corporate bailouts. The Service Employees International Union organized Thursday's protests in Chicago and suburban Oak Brook. Similar events were scheduled in 35 states. In downtown Chicago, protesters carrying signs that read "Good Jobs for a Fair Recovery" and other slogans marched toward troubled insurance giant AIG from Bank of America.” This protest came very close to the stock market bottom that was registered on March 9, 2009. Compared to the protest in September 2008, this protest was more organized and of a larger scale. As noted in the article, people from 35 states were supposed to partake. Plus, notice what the sign read, “Good Jobs for a Fair Recovery.” People who participated in this protest had a mission, just like the Boston Tea Party: they wanted to be treated fairly.
Cnn.com also referenced several protests on April 15, 2009—tax day in America, of course. According to the article, “Armed with signs reading "no taxation without deliberation" and "stop bankrupting America," tens of thousands of people spent national tax day at organized "tea party" demonstrations across the country, protesting what some view as excessive government spending and bailouts.” Compare this protest to the one in September 2008, and notice that the number of people involved grew exponentially. Had the stock market not rebounded, surely these numbers would have grown, and people would have become more organized. However, as we know, the stock market has rallied for eight straight months, so some of the pressures of the tea parties have subsided for now.
Let’s look into the future. What will the tea parties look like if the bear market continues to gain strength, and if the stock market tumbles again? For starters, tea parties will become more organized and exhibit stronger, more radical views. Instead of people just picketing with signs, they will take action just like was done in the original Boston Tea Party. John Kenneth Galbraith in his book, The Great Crash, gives us a little insight into how people will feel about Wall Street. He wrote, “In the nineteen-thirties, Wall Street was exceptionally well endowed with enemies. There were some socialists and communists who believed capitalism should be abolished…There were some people who merely thought that Wall Street was bad” (p. 155).
As the bear market gets kicked into full gear, people will organize into stronger groups, and maybe even begin to despise the capitalism that built this country. Violence will probably break out at some of the protests as people learn more details about what happened behind the scenes in the banks and in government decisions. The anger will come from the fact that people have lost their job or lost their entire life savings in the stock market. Quite frankly, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more anger with regards to Bernie Madoff, the AIG bonuses, or the bailout of General Motors. But there is still plenty of time for anger to get a hold of people involved in those topics.
Finally, I leave you with some good news. If you or your family members are going to join one of these tea parties now or in the future, traveling costs are greatly reduced from last year’s prices. According to an advertisement, trips booked through their site will offer a savings of about 48% compared to prices in 2008. Not only will you be able to travel to your favorite protest area at almost 50% less, but you’ll be able to protest in luxury because those prices were for four-star hotels. More importantly though, and the essence of this article, I will draw your attention to the title at the top of the advertisement: The times, they are a changing. That can’t be any closer to the truth.
