Occupy Wall Street

If you've watched the news lately, you have surely seen something about Occupy Wall Street. This is a protest movement, people who consider themselves the 99% of the population, who are rallying against Wall Street, big banks, and massive multi-national corporations that they feel have created the down turn in the American financial situation. 

The movement is leaderless and calls for revolution. The problem I (and many others) see with that is a lack of focus. It's unorganized chaos with too many different agendas. This could lead to dangerous territory, as people who relish the idea of leaderless revolution could look for ways to cause mass anarchy. While I do believe some changes need to be made, a public call to anarchy does not seem to be the solution.

The 99% ideal is based on the fact that the richest 1% are ruling the world, making the decisions, and we, the rest, are dealing with the consequences while they continue living a lifestyle we could only dream about. That this 1% have abused the financial system in America with no legal ramifications and no changes being made by the government to stop it from happening in the future.

This quote from wikipedia really stood out to me, 

"On Oct. 10 and 11, the polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland interviewed nearly 200 protesters.^[76]Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, 98% would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and 31% would support violence to advance their agenda. Most are employed; 15% are unemployed. Most had supported Obama; now they are evenly divided."

We are told in elementary schools when we first learn of the constitution and in college when we pretend to study more indepthly that we have the right to assemble peacefully. Situations like Kent State and the Occupy Oakland protests suggest that maybe there is a little more to it than just showing up and marching where ever you choose. But to see that 98% would face the repercussions of civil disobedience is a little shocking to me.

Both sides of this issue, those who see it as chaos with little productivity and the side that is desperately trying to get some measure of change admit that Americans are frustrated. There aren't enough jobs, companies are rapidly moving out of the US sending jobs away, unemployment is at a 9% stand-still (which is scary after the near collapse of 2008), and yet there are still people and companies making massive profits off of the system. 

The top 1% is now making more money than the lower 50%. That number is staggering and scary.

In a conversation I had with a friend when our credit rating was lowered, my friend said, 'It's not the fault of the bankers/banks, they will only do what the market can bear.' And my gut, instinct reaction to that was, the market can't bear it. We're at the snapping point. Financially, and now politically. People are responding.

I will be following this topic and writing about any major updates. It's incredibly interesting to me and I only hope that those who are truly about positive change, not the anarchists who are after destruction, in America succeed.