I am in the 2%.
As an American Peace Corps Volunteer my salary is around or less than $5,000 a year…of course, this is outside America where $5,000 a year is nothing. I am in the 2% because I chose to be.
I think I understand what the 99ers want and that they are seeking justice and fairness in the equity of money and to end greed and corruption. They feel that the government has left them stranded in this time of crisis and that only the super-rich have benefitted. But last time I checked the U.S. government was headquartered in D.C. Understandably, they are controlled by the money that comes from Wall Street, but if anything is going to change, it has to come from D.C., NOT Wall Street. The supposed "super rich" are not the ones granting you freedom of speech and probably are the least likely to care about our struggles. If you were obese would you cry to the fitness model and say, "Hey, give me some of your thinness and good looks! Stop your goodlookingness!" No absolutely not! You would want to go to the gym and petition for a free membership so you could become healthier and better looking.
Or if you were sick would cry out to healthiest people in the country, “You make us sick! Stop being so healthy! We want health…and healthcare. Stop taking it all!” No! You wouldn’t…would you!?! You would be pounding down the doors of the hospitals and doctor’s offices and asking for relief from your pains and illnesses. So then, why are we not petitioning on the Capitol steps in front of the people in the country who have made our super-rich even richer and allowed greed to run rampant? That is a more effective use of our voice.
I empathize with the 99ers, yet I will not take another hand-out or “The crisis could have much worse without one” bail-out failure from the government. I will also not ask banks to hear me. They won’t care. The ones who are obligated to hear us and do something need to listen. For over a month now they have been avoiding it because it is not in front of their faces and doorsteps. The steps of the Capitol should be full; full of men and women asking for change and asking for liberation from the tyranny of greed and corruption.
Can 99% change 1%? No, they can’t & shouldn’t try. There will ALWAYS be a 1% of super-rich! Can 99% change the face of how flawed American politics operates and controls our nation? YES! Although the 99ers may think they are barking up the right tree, there sits in D.C. an entire forest of greed and corruption that has a duty to listen.
I do not create my own wealth. My wealth is not cotton green paper. Oh how freeing it is to have little money and be content. I am in the 2%.
It's possible that the protests being in Wall Street serve a great symbolic function. They do, in fact, do just that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if we're going to admit that the capital is beholden to Wall Street, then we're admitting that Wall Street is in at least some ways the real seat of power - so it's a great place for protests.
DC would of course be a great place for protests as well.
Whether or not the 99% can change the 1% - sure they can. It's called fear. Society and government are grand social contracts, ones that fundamentally only exist in so much as we all agree to participate by the rules they create.
I personally worked for a hedge fund (Passport Capital) which, in 2007 made something like 200%+ profits (google it) because they anticipated the bank-mortgage failures which ultimately lead to our current situation. And they were only 1 firm of many. What did they do? They bet on systemic failure, along with dozens of other firms, not to mention those firms who helped orchestrate parts of the failure instead of raising the alarm. Do I expect self-interested companies to always have the greater good at heart? Of course not, but if we're playing games with peoples' lives it's good to look into the future more than just one move - if you bet on systemic failure, and that failure comes to fruition, those falling victim to it are going to be a little upset. If the richest 1% are willing to recklessly play a game of heads-I-win tails-you-all-lose they should also be ready to face the natural reaction of a people living in a destabilized economy - that is: freaking out.
In short, if people start to view the rule of law and government to not be of service to the greater good, but rather only a few, then they will heed it that much less, and try to harass and intimidate the people and industry that destroyed much of the wealth the biggest economy ever known accumulated in the last 20 years.
There are of course lots of factors that are to blame for why we are where we are. An over abundance of involvement in our legislative process on behalf of the finance industry (and business in general), disabling our legislative bodies from being able to react to impending threats is most certainly one of them. So if the 99%'ers are protesting those very interests, that seems like a good enough place to be standing.
In my humble opinion anyway.