Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Changes National Conversation

An amazing transformation in the national conversation has taken place over the past six weeks, thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement.  What people are talking about has moved off cuts, layoffs and deficit reduction. It is now focused on jobs and inequity, the inequity of a system that watches out for the interests of millionaires, billionaires and corporate giants and neglects the needs of the overwhelming majority of middle and working class Americans.

This change has resulted in a spate of attention to stories about how income inequality has risen since the introduction of trickle-down theory thirty years ago.  Click here to see the chart based on Congressional Budget Office statistics showing a 275% gain in income for the top 1% compared to the nearly flat performance for other income levels.  It's noteworthy that the link in this paragraph is not from a liberal source, but from the staid Economist magazine's site. 

What began in New York's Zucotti Park September 17 has spread nationwide and even internationally.  You can get reports from a wide range of "Occupy" goings on in Richmond, Nashville, Portland, Oakland, and from London to Cairo's Tahrir Square here.  There have even been a couple of Occupy marches here in Visalia.

The reaction against those with the money and clout to hire an army of lobbyists, bankroll anonymous political action committees and skew legislation and the tax code to their special advantage is widespread across the political spectrum.  It is worth noting that before it was co-opted by the Republican Party, even the Tea Party movement was originally set off by the bank bailout.

Remarks by figures such as House Minority Leader Eric Cantor that the movement is motivated by "hatred" or is "pro-Communism" show how poorly some understand the ideals at work here.  What spawns the perspective that children should have decent public schools or senior citizens a dignified retirement is hardly hatred.  The notion that banks and brokerages should be careful with their depositers' money and cover their own losses is hardly antithetical to the principles of real free enterprise.

Whether Occupy Wall Street has legs will be determined by its staying power and its ability to crystallize and lead opinion.  Its basic premise: that ever-lower taxes for plutocrats and corporate giants should not come at the expense of basic human services, retirement security, and jobs for the rest of the population is one that has struck a chord and ought to resonate in these times.  We could be in for a wild ride.

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