Who are the 99%, what are the goals of the protesters, and why should I care? I don't think most people really understand what the movement is about, and I aim to rectify that. This isn't a bunch of homeless, jobless hippies protesting war and the military industrial complex, this isn't poor, lazy people complaining that people have more money than they do, and it isn't a bunch of students looking for the latest trendy cause to join. Sure, there are some of all of those people in there, but only because those people are part of the 99% of all Americans that are affected by the current economic crisis.The basic fact that most people don't understand is that the inequality of the distribution of wealth is greater than it has been since the twenties. The richest 10% of the population controls 2/3 of American's net worth, and the top 1% holds almost 35% by themselves. This is where the 99% figure comes from. I'll get to why this is a problem later. I found this great article that uses graphs to show income distribution in an easily understandable fashion, and I suggest everyone read it before you continue, even if it's just to increase your own understanding of just how skewed things are. Pay particular attention to the rates at which the top earners have had increased incomes vs the middle to lower income earners. For those of you that don't want to read it, here's one of the better graphs.
Now that we're all on the same page as to what it means to be part of the 99%, and please bear with me even if you disagree, let's tackle why it's a problem. There will always be super rich people in a capitalist society, just like there will always be poor people. The richer people will always control more wealth than the poorer people. This in itself isn't the problem. The problem is the factor by which the gap in distribution has widened, and effectively eliminated a middle class. To give an example of how big the gap is right now, if 100 people symbolizing the American people were put into a room and given $500 to split the way wealth is currently distributed, one person would have $173, nine people would split $192.50 (that averages $21.38 per person), and the remaining ninety people would split $134.50 (that averages $1.49 per person).
Politicians argue about the best way to stimulate the economy. Tax breaks for corporations are popular with conservatives, and an increase in corporate tax paired with tax breaks for the lower middle class are popular with liberals. I found a fascinating article from the Harvard Business School that makes the answer to that debate pretty clear. A couple of physicists from the University of Paris developed a model that shows that a large disparity in distribution of wealth is inevitable, but can be mitigated. You can read the full article if you want a more detailed explanation. Here is the summary of their findings:
Bouchaud and Mézard's network model can track those degrees of inequality and show how Pareto's distribution can be influenced. Specifically, the two researchers found that the greater the volume of money flowing through the economy and the more often it changes hands, the greater the equality. Conversely, the more volatile investment returns are, the richer the rich tend to get.
There you have it in plain English; The more money changes hands, the more equal the distribution of wealth. Giving tax breaks to people that are already rich doesn't help that. If it isn't apparent at this point that "Trickle Down Economics," has failed us, then you and I probably wouldn't agree on much anyway.
Now that we've tackled why you're part of the 99% (I'll be very, very surprised if any of the 1% read this), let's move on to what the protesters want. If you ask fifty protesters what they want, you might get fifty different answers, but that's not the point. The point is the big picture, and that's what everyone seems to be missing. There is no list of demands, and many people don't even know what's broken or how to fix it, they just know that something is broken at a fundamental level and it needs to be fixed. We live in a society where big corporations have more influence over the government than individual citizens do. We have a system of law enforcement that doesn't actually protect the people. If you don't believe me, then do the research for yourself: How many #OWS protesters have been arrested while protesting their declining quality of life, the unfair treatment the government is giving the American people, and how many bankers have been arrested for robbing the American people blind and almost crashing the world economy through mass sales of fraudulent mortgage-backed securities? What #OWS wants is opportunity, fairness, and equality. This isn't about handouts, and it isn't about political orientation. This is a problem that everyone needs to pay attention to, because it affects you whether you like it or not. "The American Dream" is dying, and this is America trying to save it.
Top photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey
