"Many of the 53% crowd seem quite proud of their Christian faith. I am not religious myself, but I am reasonably certain that Jesus would not respond to the poor and unemployed with shouts of "Get a job!" I vividly remember what it was like to be poor. To be concise, it sucked, and my heartfelt sympathies automatically go out to anyone who has to experience it, especially children who are blameless for their circumstances. Whenever I meet someone who has not been as lucky as I have been, I recognize how easily our roles could have been reversed by the random forces of fate. And despite my lack of religion, I instinctively think "There but for the grace of God go I."
The above paragraph was written by someone in the 1 percent. Not a mega-wealthy person, but someone who makes enough money to be economically excluded from the 99 percent. Click here to read the entire text.
Not everyone in the 1 percent is evil or greedy. Many in the top percent want to pay their fair share of taxes in order to create a better society. Some want to hire people and expand their businesses. And few might even see that it is the Republican Party and certain corporate forces that are preventing a more fair and equitable system that would eventually improve the overall economy. I hope more 1 percenters speak out and support the movement to clean up a corrupt system that they have benefitted from but know is morally wrong.
To counter the 99 percent movement and prop up the Tea Party, a new group is forming on the right. They consider themselves in the 53 percent -- which I am still not certain what that number represents or if it's even accurate. Much that comes from the right never checks out factually, but I think their point is that they are employed, tax-paying citizens who want to put themselves above the protesters. To me, it seems the only purpose of this group is to place blame on the unemployed rather than the system that has led to mass layoffs over the last three years. These 53 percent live in an imaginary country based on a world that hasn't existed for decades. To them, everything is just fine. Opportunities for all still exist. All you have to do is work hard and pursue your dreams. Gosh, what a naive view.
Those who followed the rules -- worked hard and were loyal -- found out the system was rigged. Many of them lost their jobs. They are denied re-entry into the workplace because of the lack of openings, age discrimination or skills that are no longer needed. Those who are working are hit with furloughs so that massive bonuses can be paid out to top-level executives. Meanwhile, the people most responsible for the collapse of the economy remain free from prosecution and continue to profit from their unethical practices.
This doesn't feel like class warfare. This feels like class surrender. Yet, maybe the surrender was premature. There is an awakening in America -- one that hopefully can't be stopped by Wall Street dollars, political liars like Eric Cantor and John Boehner, or even police brutality. It's sadly ironic that police, who have been hit hard by layoffs and flat wages, are turning against the very people protesting to help them get back on track. I wonder if police officers will eventually realize that they are a part of the 99 percent -- part of the population screwed over by some in the 1 percent -- and join the protesters? Imagine how Wall Street and extreme right-wing conservatives will tremble at the site of the blue marching with demonstrators?
I don't think the 53 percent will get much traction, but then again, I never thought the Tea Party would actually sway elections in 2010 and create a Republican field of presidential candidates that is so scary, so intellectually inferior to any presidential field I've ever seen in my lifetime, that it makes me wonder if we are indeed done as a country.
The Occupy Wall Street folks are exposing some ugly truths about America and are ruffling the feathers of those in power who will use groups like the 53 percent and Tea Party to create smoke screens. But the OWS demonstrators have the truth and numbers on their side. They have the data and the facts that show how the political system in this country has catered to the elite at the expense of everyone else. Bad policies drove us into the recession and mass unemployment -- policies created by and for the 1 percent. No amount of b.s. or high-paid lobbying from the far right will be able to extinguish what most of us know to be true intellectually and what we feel in our hearts every single day.
The chart below shows the problem. Since about the Reagan-era, the top one percent (red line) has seen their income skyrocket. Everyone else has been relatively flat. What this chart doesn't show is the timeline of public policies that created the gross advantages for the one percent while everyone else was losing their jobs or not getting raises. That, in a nutshell, is what needs to change and why people are protesting.
Class warfare vs. class surrender. Watch YouTube video
I'm not positive, but I believe the 53% number represents the portion of the US population paying any federal income tax.
ReplyDeleteDon't have any idea if that's an accurate number since I'm not part of that movement, or any other movement.
I'm troubled by the widening income gap between the top earners and the rest of us, but I have more sympathy for the self-identified 53 percenters than for the Occupy crowd. It's mostly because I have a deep an abiding suspicion of anyone who takes it upon themselves to determine what is someone else's "fair share" when they aren't expecting to sacrifice the same fair share themselves.
Also, as a Christian--the kind that goes to church every week and actually has read the Bible, I really get tweaked when atheists and agnostics try to tell me how Jesus would have behaved in a hypothetical situation.
It's "how" that disparity came about more than the amount or the "fair share" component that bugs me.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is enough evidence over a long period of time to draw certain conclusions about how laws were manipulated in recent decades by those in power exclusively for those with wealth. It didn't get on anyone's radar screen until the system began to implode on large sections of the middle class. Those laws didn't simply help the already wealthy get wealthier, they wrecked the economy, robbed hard-working people of their livelihoods and stole hope from millions of people who were previously doing OK playing by the rules.
I am not talking about people who foolishly over-extended themselves by getting into huge mortgages or who enjoy going through life taking handouts. I am talking about people like me who worked for 30 consecutive years, never wanting much more than a place to live and a decent car to drive. I paid taxes. I went to work every day, even when sick. Did the best job I could under often difficult circumstance. And still, I got nailed by the economic collapse...a collapse that just didn't happen by chance, but that was created by people in power, whether on Wall Street, corporate board rooms or in Washington.
I am also talking about college kids who invest in a good education, only to find that their training is meaningless because there aren't enough jobs in their chosen fields. At the same time, we read about all these profits companies are sitting on and all these big bonuses being paid out to corporate execs. So I can understand why these college grads might be a little bitter about moving back in with mom and dad while facing the prospect of paying back college loans.
I have no problem with people getting rich through hard work or even random good luck. I have a major problem, however, with an alleged democratic system that caters to the rich at the expense of others. To me, that's what these protests are about. We have to get back to creating a more level, honest playing field. It's not that everyone needs to earn the same amount of money. It's that everyone should have a reasonably fair opportunity to work, put a roof over their heads, feed their families, etc. -- without additional worries and hurdles created by a small group of people who create the rules as they go.
In my opinion, these protesters are far more patriotic than folks who want to preserve a system that has increasingly become corrupted by institutional greed and, in many cases, downright illegal behavior. Unlike the protests of the 60s, I am intrigued by the wide range of ages, races and general diversity represented in these demonstrations. That should be a clear indication of how wide-ranging the problem is and how something needs to be done to fix what has become broken over many years.
I truly believe these protests are our last shot at righting the ship. I hope the protests don't deteriorate into something that will do more harm than good, but so far, from what I've seen, I do support the stance that is being expressed by these folks. I feel they speak for me more than the people who want to continue to help the wealthy or the people who are in denial about what has gone wrong in this country.