As a non-American I have a lot of time for the aims and concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement, even if some of the excesses some people are carrying out in its name are doing the movement no favours.
The fact is that most people in the middle are moving downwards not upwards. The ways out have also proven phoney (get an education, qualifications usw, all of which lead to being "over-qualified", particularly when all that is wanted in the "McDonalds economy" is burger flippers! And these days stuck with a huge amount of debt, as the idea of quality education being paid for any other way has been abandoned).
They are "going global" with this (there is going to be an "Occupy Frankfurt" on Hauptwache at 1200 today - the shopping crowd will love them!). Fine - we also need it, many of us in Europe have been reduced to poverty in recent years and need a way out. Working your way out (in the "McDonalds economy" that we are also stuck with) is not an option - they send most of the "good jobs" these days to India and China as cheap labour - and do not start believing that the state benefit system does any more than provide a basic lifestyle. Unless of course you have dozens of children!
The only problem that I have with this movement is "will it achieve anything?". Rather like Communism fails as all it does is remove the creation of wealth leaving everyone struggling against poverty, so this movement could easily be great on the analysis of the problem, but lack positive solutions which raise people up, and restore living standards to the necessary level. I would have to hear how they intend solving it.
But as for their critics .... There was a brilliant item yesterday on Yahoo where the guy listed the various opponents of the movement. Fox News USA (run by millionaires), Rupert Murdoch (enough said), leading Republican Eric Cantor (a millionaire), radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh (a millionaire) usw. In other words people who have a vested interest in the movement's failure. Rather than criticising the movement, they should be setting in motion an alternative action policy where people can raise themselves up, and if by work and education - proving that it can be made to work.
For the masses, not the spoiled brat few!
It is definitely too late for me, but then I am not concerned merely about my own lifestyle. A better world for me means a better world for others as well. Being selfish is not one of my more pronounced tendencies. If I were to die in the next month, as is possible, then I would still wish the movement success in its aims.
Seeing an end to mass unemployment and mass under-employment, and no further impoverishment of the gifted and the talented, is vital to future generations, not just the current one.
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