Occupy Wall Street
‘We are the 99%!’ have been the words of choice by the ‘Occupy’ protesters since the protests first began on the 17th of September on Wall Street. This protest has since spread to over 70 major cities and 600 communities in the USA itself, with another 900 cities taking part worldwide. That is a LOT of people. So just what exactly are all these people protesting about?
The ‘Occupy’ protests are primarily directed against economic inequality, corporate greed, corruption and influence over government, particularly from the financial services sector. Their catchphrase, ‘We are the 99%’, is a reference to the difference in wealth between the top 1% and the remaining citizens of the USA. It seems that these ‘99%’ do have a point, as shown by the two graphs, the top 1%’s income has been rising exponentially, especially when compared to the other two groups, which have stayed pretty much the same for the past 30 years or so.
Inequality rising!
Check out the highest points, just before the two major financial crises of the last century, spot a trend..
However, what further infuriates the protesters is the fact that after the recession of 2008, a large part of the financial sector was bailed out by the government and the big shot CEO’s of these companies kept getting their fat pay checks and big bonuses, when the money should have gone into the restructuring of the economy to prepare itself for the imminent recession. These huge financial powerhouses were bailed out by the government because of the corporate concentration in the American political system which lead to the firms having huge influences on most government decisions and policies.
But why did it take 3 years after the implosion of Lehmann Brothers, which kicked off the financial crisis, for people to start protesting? After the election of President Obama, there was a feeling among the young that he would pass laws to regulate the banking system and take these ‘financial fraudsters’ and bring them to justice. However, as time passed the would-be protestors started to lose faith in Obama, and realised that his election wouldn’t lead to such a change, due to a number of reasons, reasons over which he has no power.
As always, there is also a different side to which the protesters are paying no attention. In 2008, after a downturn in the stock market, which primarily affected the top 1%’s jobs, bonuses etc, taxable income fell by $18 billion dollars. This shows just how big the dependency on the top 1% is, because they end up providing the unemployment benefits that so much of that 99% benefit from, considering that only 53% of Americans pay federal income tax.
Wall Street has not taken lightly to these allegations and protests, retorting that these complaining middle-income Americans will be the ones that will get hurt if they get their wishes. If the financial sector were to lose their jobs, they would probably be over-qualified for the vast majority of jobs in the market; hence they would easily be able to take these middle income Americans’ jobs which would be going against the ethos of the protests, because all it would do is increase income inequality even further.
So what is going to happen about these protests? I don’t think these protests will amount to any real change in the economy or the way its run. Even if the protests do continue to gain momentum as they have in the past few weeks, the financial sector has too much power in Washington to allow for a meaningful bill to be passed or even put up for suggestion. The truth of the matter is that the financial services sector has become too powerfully integrated into the workings of the economy for it to be taken apart easily or without any large collateral damage. What people should have been doing was protesting years ago when the markets were on the rise and this income gap was as imminent as ever. Oh, but why would they be protesting about the people who were helping them make several times their annual pay check in the matter of days via the stock market..
