Why Occupy Wall Street

This Article was published in the October 26 Dawson News and Advertiser.  Hopefully many of you have had an opportunity to participate in the Occupy Wall Street movement if not by attending a rally, by learning and supporting their cause through donations or conversations!

Why Occupy Wall Street?

A couple of weeks ago I worked at our Democratic Party Booth at the Dawsonville Moonshine Festival.  At our booth we had flyers to hand out and posters with pertinent information about our economy.   Reputable sources such as the Census Bureau, the Congressional Budget office, the Center for Tax Policy, and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (all non-partisan organizations) were used.  Much of what was in this information concerned what the people, young and old, rich and poor, white and black, are protesting at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the country.

1.        The top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth and 24 Percent of the National Income, which is more of the nation’s income since the 1920’s.  This great shift in wealth has taken place since the institution of “Trickle-Down Economics”, i.e., the wealthy pay less taxes in the hopes some of their money will “trickle-down” to the rest of us.

2.       Middle Class wages have not risen over the last 30 years, (the beginning of Reagan’s economic plan) and in fact over the last 10 years wages have gone down (since the Bush Tax cuts).

3.       Although the top 1% pay a large dollar amount in taxes, that is because they also have more money than 90% of the rest of the country.  But in percentage terms, they pay (after exemptions, deduction, loopholes) an average of 17% federal, state, sales, payroll, and property taxes while people in the low and middle income bracket pay an average of 37%( federal, state, sales, payroll, and property)

4.       Jobs!  The unemployment rate remains at 9.1% but is at 14.7% for high school graduates between 18 and 24 (23% for young black Americans).  Meanwhile corporate profits are at their highest level since WWII but corporations refuse to invest their more than $1.9 trillion in cash.  The so called job creators are not creating jobs!

5.       The corporate tax rate is 35% but no corporation pays this much because of loopholes and subsidies.  In 2011 corporate taxes equaled 1.2% of GDP, the lowest in the world (NY Times, 5/11). Big U.S. companies (among them GE, Exxon Mobile, Chevron, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs) have become experts at hiding profits in tax havens overseas.

6.       In 1959 the poverty rate among those 65 and older was 35.9%.  Since the broadening of social security benefits and the beginning of Medicare in the 60’s, the poverty rate among seniors has dropped to 9.2%.  But the Republicans want to do away with both programs!

These are just some of the disparities that have evolved over the last 30 years of cutting taxes for the wealthy (corporations and individuals) that the Occupy Wall Street movement is pointing out.  The conservative view of our economy is that everyone is individually responsible for themselves, but that they have no social responsibility to their country.  Liberals on the other hand also believe in individual responsibility, but also believe that citizens of America should also take responsibility for their community, country, people in general and the planet.  As Elizabeth Warren has said, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.  Nobody!  You built a factory out there—good for you! But . . . you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.  You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.  You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. . . . It turned into something terrific. Keep a big hunk of it.  But part of the underlying social contract is that you take a hunk of that and pay it forward for the next kid that comes along.”
If you listen to the pundits on Fox News or CNBC, these folks that are part of Occupy Wall Street are just a bunch of “hippies”, socialists, lazy or worse.  To quote Paul Krugman in an Op Ed in the New York Times, he explains these reactions very succinctly…. “The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.”
Occupy Wall Street is a patriotic movement based on a deep and abiding love of country.  This patriotism is not about the self-interests of individuals, but about what our country is to be.  Do Americans care about other citizens, or just about themselves?  99% of the people in this country are in the same boat!  That is why we need to stand up for the Occupy Wall Street.  Democracy is about citizens caring about one another as well as themselves.  Let’s get back to “we the people”!