Some people have claimed that the rich financiers on Wall Street are the wrong target for protesters; that those people haven’t done anything wrong. They’re not out to hurt anyone, they’re just really good at getting rich. Should we punish them for that?

The problem is, that’s not true. The super-rich Wall Street bankers didn’t simply get rich by playing the game better than everyone else; they changed the rules to favor them. Those government agency that don’t oversee the banks like they’re supposed to? That’s because the agencies are run by investment bankers. (It’s actually quite common to have an agency that is supposed to regulate an industry staffed by representatives of that industry. They’re the ones who have a sustained interest in what the regulating industry does.) They bribe our elected officials to get their taxes cut, and laws passed to loosen the regulation of their business. They get taxpayer bailouts to cover their losses when their wild gambling spree finally collapses.

The competitive economy isn’t a matter of sitting down at a table with a poker player who is more skilled than you. It’s a matter of sitting down at a poker table with a player who may or may not be more skilled than you, but who can–and will–unilaterally change the rules to favor himself as the game goes on. It’s tough for anyone else to win that game.

If the Occupy Wall Street protesters sometimes sound as if they don’t know what they want, or if their goals sound foolish, that’s because of the nature of the problem. It’s impossible to reform the system because only the people benefiting from the system as it is now can do the reforming; the interlocking marriage of government and big business/finance can’t be broken from within the system, because they control the whole system. Any suggestion for reform sounds absurd when reform is impossible.

My own absurd idea (which couldn’t possibly be implemented, but which is no less absurd than any other attempt at reform) would be to fill offices by lot. Pick people at random from the pool of registered voters. Sure, some of the people you get will be corrupt, or crazy, or stupid, but some won’t be. The system we have now practically guarantees that _only_ the corrupt, crazy, or stupid get in. Adding 12 randomly chosen Tribunes of the Plebs, with laws making it high treason to give any Tribune or member of their family a bribe or ‘valuable gift’ would be a nice bonus. Corporations would still find a way to buy them, but having to buy all 12, and a different set every year, would get expensive.

(Tribunes of the Plebs are another Roman institution, one our Founding Fathers didn’t want to touch. We got a House of Representatives instead. In American terms, all 12 Tribunes would have the same Veto power as the President, plus the power to bypass Congress and bring legislation before the American people directly. Awesome, huh?)

Crazy? Of course. But what isn’t?