AP photo - used with permission - An Occupy Wall Street supporter streams live as demonstrators speak out against corporate greed and social inequality.
The Wall Street protestors have been making recent headlines in news outlets across the country.
The group, calling their movement Occupy Wall Street has been camping out in Zuccotti Park , a plaza in Manhattan’s Financial District, for nearly two weeks. Numbers have varied day to day, from as few as 100 demonstrators to more than 2,000.
About 700 protestors were arrested on Saturday after a march effectively shut down half of the Brooklyn Bridge.
While the protests may be making headlines, confusion about what exactly their demands are abound.
Most news sources, including the Associated Press, have reported that the Occupy Wall Street group has several issues they are protesting. Corruption of Wall Street, poverty, genetically modified food, corporate greed, social inequality and global warming have all been cited as reasoning behind the demonstrations, among other grievances.
It is still unclear exactly what their demands are. However, judging by the issues they’re bringing up, Occupy Wall Street would like to create a society where everyone is treated the same and makes the same amount of money, not to mention get rid of America’s free market values.
Sounds a bit like a certain political system that has proven unsuccessful in countries such as North Korea, Germany and Cuba.
Grievances against corporate greed may be justifiable, but protestors should check themselves before they wreck themselves, to borrow a popular adage.
Any person who is born a U.S. citizen is already better off than billions of people around the world.
Our society is one of the wealthiest and most successful to have ever existed. We have a high standard of living, which means that even those who are below the poverty line in the United States still have so much more compared to those living in poverty in third world countries.
Take this quote, from Erin Larkins, a Columbia University graduate student who is participating in the Wall Street protests.
“I don’t think we’re asking for much, just to wake up every morning not worrying whether we can pay the rent, or whether our next meal will be rice and beans again,” Larkins wrote in an email to the Associated Press. “No one is expecting immediate change. I think everyone is just hopeful that people will wake up a bit and realize that the more we speak up, the more the people that do have the authority to make changes in this world listen.”
Larkin also wrote she and her boyfriend have significant student loan debt, which is another reason she wanted to join the protests.
Of course you are going to be scrimping for money after you go to Columbia. We are supposed to rally to the cause because you can’t pay off your private school loans? Give me a break.
Of course, this is only one person’s story. Many people are struggling to make ends meet, but most people will go out and find jobs, attend universities that make sense financially and try to positively contribute to society.
Some of the Wall Street protestors have been spotted with their MacBooks and digital camera equipment as they demonstrate.
If you’re so against social inequality, maybe looking outside of your immediate surroundings will help you realize we have it pretty good in the United States.
Bottom line: if you can’t afford to live in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. or attended graduate school at a private university, and if you don’t understand the drawbacks of what you’re asking for, essentially a communist economic system, then maybe you should reexamine your reason for protesting.
It’s not Wall Street’s fault people bite off more than they can chew.
