It wasn't as big as I expected, but the little park was crammed with protesters who had sent up camp. A lot of people were working hard at tidying the place up, some people were drumming, some people were holding up signs, a lot of people were just lounging around. Everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits! There were lots of young people, but lots of older people too. I thought it seemed like a fairly diverse crowd. As we were leaving, we noticed people mobbing this guy with a guitar. It turned out to be Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. He was talking to people, and jamming, and everybody loved it!
In the spirit of Occupy Wall Street, I'm posting a great link with charts that show what everyone there is so worked up about. After spending years thinking about Gini coefficients and health disparities, it is great to see that other people care about these things too! I think one of the reasons people in the US seem, for the most part, content to live with such drastic disparities in wealth is that they don't realize that achieving the American Dream (making a lot of money and entering a higher income bracket) is virtually equivalent to winning the Lottery these days. It ain't gonna happen for the vast majority of people, even if they work their butts off. I'm including my favorite chart, one that illustrates that point pretty well. Poor people that work hard are probably not going to be able to make a good life for themselves no matter how many hours they log, while odds are good that lazy wealthy people can continue to enjoy their comfortable lives...there just isn't much mobility in terms of wealth in this country. Since most people seem to love the idea of a meritocracy, I think income and wealth disparities should concern Americans much more than have historically. So are all of the protesters at Occupy Wall Street super articulate? Do they all have workable policy solutions? No, of course not. But I sympathize with the protesters, and I stood them with them in spirit as I enjoyed my tasty lunch at a nearby restaurant.
-Kristin
9 comments:
Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, WA (if you can believe it) are in the game now to. They've been camped out downtown for a week now. We don't have any celebs there yet that I know of. ;)
Ooo. Maybe the Dandy Warhols will come and play at yours!
It doesn't seem like you shouldn't be pitting rich people against poor people. It seems like we just need more export manufacturing that create jobs that pay decent salaries. Jobs you don't have to be a rocket scientist to have.
I think that is just the kind of policy that DOES pit rich against poor though... because corporations and shareholders make their money by outsourcing and driving down worker salaries and benefits as low as they can go! I don't think you can fix the wealth inequity problem without asking "sacrifices" of people at the top, and so far nobody has been willing to do that (and, in fact, the top 1% have been hoarding more and more wealth every year). Americans have been logging more and more hours over the last three decades, but their income has fallen or stagnated in real terms. I think they have been asked to make way too many sacrifices!
Where do you draw the line on who is labeled wealthy? Maybe you are on of them and don't know it.
I'm fine with paying more taxes, as long as the money is used to invest in education, health care, public transportation, research, infrastructure, etc. I'm not a fan of the wars, though! I know there are plenty of affluent people who are fine with going back to the pre-Bush II tax rates and are open to bigger changes too. Who wants to be super wealthy when you are surrounded by misery? I'd rather pay more and have Elliot and Poppy grow up in a nicer world!
It will be hard to find congressmen that will spend the extra tax money they way you think they should.
You're right. I wish we could kick them all out and start over again. I also wish all congress people had to enroll their kids in public school, use public transportation, and use medicaid for their health insurance, at least while they are in office! I can dream :)
We agree! Yay! They should have to use all the public services and have only have 401ks or IRAs to retire on.
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