Perspectives on "Occupy Wall Street"

Lately I've had the opportunity of experiencing the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and its spread to the Ft. Collins area. On Thursday, I participated in a university walkout at CSU, which gathered almost a hundred students together to protest and then walked over to the main protest at the intersection of College and Maple in the downtown area. The demonstration inspired cheers and jeers from onlookers and passing cars while we all chanted "This is what democracy looks like!" It was great to see a group of Americans demonstrating their voice despite the many that may disagree with them. I plan on doing a blog post filling in more of the information on the protest later on.

Meanwhile, this is an essay I wrote concerning an article on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. It compares the "Wall Street" movement with an new opposition movement, and also its affect on the "American Dream".

Essay on “Occupy Wall Street”

Recently I read an article on BBC website that was titled “Is Occupy Wall Street Bad for the American Dream?” The piece attempted to understand what the effects of the protest movement could be on the “American Dream”; an underlying concept holding that if one works hard enough, one can make a better, more successful life for oneself. In many ways the “We are the 99%” movement is against this concept, saying that the system has allowed the über-successful to take advantage of the rest of the working population – controlling the government with money and hoarding all the wealth for themselves. On the other side, the article spotlights a new movement called “We are the 53%”. This group claims that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement is a bunch of lazy people looking for government handouts and that hard work is all they need to get ahead. They also claim that the economic system is fundamentally fair.

The article attempts to take the two arguments and show how they are more similar than they think; that they both want to work hard and be productive members of society, and that they both believe in the American dream. I totally agree with the article on this point, and I believe that the “53%” is falsely accusing the “99%” of being lazy and wanting handouts. All the “99%” want is a fairer system where more people can be successful and fulfilled in life, which includes a better distribution of wealth and more corporate accountability. A great example being used in many articles is that since 1980, executives make five times the salary, while the average worker makes about the same. The “53%” movement is wrong because they have not taken the time to truly understand the “99%” movement, and because they believe in a system where some make it while many others are left behind.

Song of the Day: David Benoit - One Dream at a Time