Since the beginning of this country movements and revolutions have long been present, in fact, this country was formed by a revolution against the British control of the colonies. There have been the Boston Tea Party, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War protests, etc, and now we have the Occupy Wall Street protest that has spread across the country.
When Occupy Wall Street started I just assumed it would be yet another small protest that would only matter on the east coast. I figured it would be similar to our protests of an increased tuition. I didn’t even bother to read about it in the news since I figured it wasn’t pertinent to the distant state of California. Wow, I was wrong.
The Occupy Wall Street Movement has spread though out the country, with protests in about 300 cities, some major, and some minor. Some of the prominent cities in California include San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, and the capital of Sacramento.
The main focus of these protests is to bring awareness to economic inequality throughout America, and to find a way to fix it. Protesters are furious with the fact that corporations are getting bailed out by the government while we are in a recession that is seeing a current unemployment rate of 9.1 percent.
While the middle class and lower class is struggling through out the country, these corporation CEO’s and high-level officials are receiving bonuses and increases in salaries because of government bailouts. Based on the information I have seen, I have to agree with them.
How can 99 percent of the population be struggling in these harsh economic times while the other 1 percent is enjoying an increase in salaries, while not seeing an increase in taxes. The government bailing corporations out is doing no good for the rest of the work force if those corporations are just using the money to give bonuses to the high-end officials, it needs to trickle down into the hands of the working class.
If the money did in fact trickle down to the working class, the rest of the economy would benefit. The working class would then put it right back into the economy by spending it on groceries or at other stores. But instead the money is going to what I call “money hoarders”, people that already have a bunch of money so they can’t spend it all.
The problem with these protests so far is that nobody has really offered a solid solution on how to fix it.
While I believe the protesters have something to gripe about, change cannot happen without a presented solution. I understand that they want to tax the rich 1 percent of people, which makes since, but the question becomes “how?”
People on the right-side of the political spectrum are starting to call the Occupy Wall Street movement a “class war”, which I can see the case for since it seems as if protesters are going after the upper class. But what is wrong with that? Why shouldn’t they?
The fact is this: much of the middle class and lower class population is being affected negatively by our country’s economic state and the upper class is seeing little, if any, of the pain. But the problem isn’t just with the upper class, it is also with the government in place. The government and the corporations need to do a better job with the bailout money and give some of it to the working class instead of being greedy.
When Occupy Wall Street started I just assumed it would be yet another small protest that would only matter on the east coast. I figured it would be similar to our protests of an increased tuition. I didn’t even bother to read about it in the news since I figured it wasn’t pertinent to the distant state of California. Wow, I was wrong.
The Occupy Wall Street Movement has spread though out the country, with protests in about 300 cities, some major, and some minor. Some of the prominent cities in California include San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, and the capital of Sacramento.
The main focus of these protests is to bring awareness to economic inequality throughout America, and to find a way to fix it. Protesters are furious with the fact that corporations are getting bailed out by the government while we are in a recession that is seeing a current unemployment rate of 9.1 percent.
While the middle class and lower class is struggling through out the country, these corporation CEO’s and high-level officials are receiving bonuses and increases in salaries because of government bailouts. Based on the information I have seen, I have to agree with them.
How can 99 percent of the population be struggling in these harsh economic times while the other 1 percent is enjoying an increase in salaries, while not seeing an increase in taxes. The government bailing corporations out is doing no good for the rest of the work force if those corporations are just using the money to give bonuses to the high-end officials, it needs to trickle down into the hands of the working class.
If the money did in fact trickle down to the working class, the rest of the economy would benefit. The working class would then put it right back into the economy by spending it on groceries or at other stores. But instead the money is going to what I call “money hoarders”, people that already have a bunch of money so they can’t spend it all.
The problem with these protests so far is that nobody has really offered a solid solution on how to fix it.
While I believe the protesters have something to gripe about, change cannot happen without a presented solution. I understand that they want to tax the rich 1 percent of people, which makes since, but the question becomes “how?”
People on the right-side of the political spectrum are starting to call the Occupy Wall Street movement a “class war”, which I can see the case for since it seems as if protesters are going after the upper class. But what is wrong with that? Why shouldn’t they?
The fact is this: much of the middle class and lower class population is being affected negatively by our country’s economic state and the upper class is seeing little, if any, of the pain. But the problem isn’t just with the upper class, it is also with the government in place. The government and the corporations need to do a better job with the bailout money and give some of it to the working class instead of being greedy.
I feel that many protests don't offer solutions. Seems like they would be great places to work shop ideas...
ReplyDeleteThe writer's shock at how this movement seemed to come out of nowhere reads quite genuinely.
ReplyDeleteQuestions are asked - a good idea in columns. Sometimes, the writer can posit responses to questions, too...
Good use of data (the unemployment figure) to bolster the arguments, too.