With every piece of legislation, every political decision, every empty campaign promise, we have moved further and further away from a democracy benefitting all Americans and closer to an oligarchy serving very few Americans – the 1%.
It’s a dangerous development that is perhaps best articulated in Joseph Stiglitz’s recent Vanity Fair article “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%,” in which he writes:
“When you look at the sheer volume of wealth controlled by the top 1 percent in this country, it’s tempting to see our growing inequality as a quintessentially American achievement—we started way behind the pack, but now we’re doing inequality on a world-class level. And it looks as if we’ll be building on this achievement for years to come, because what made it possible is self-reinforcing. Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth.”
The people – finally – are starting to take that power back. And they’re doing it in one of the simplest ways possible – by standing together.
In doing so, they hope to show the top 1% something they have forgotten:
“The top 1% has lost the understanding of their own self-interest, that the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being… there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.”
I’ll be helping to Occupy Wall Street later this week and will be back with my own story.
In the meantime, follow the movement at these online touch points. It’s amazing to see how social media has galvanized this movement:
- Occupy Together on Facebook: Where you can find or follow a protest near you.
- Occupy Wall Street on Facebook: Where you can follow the action in NYC.
- Follow the #OccupyWallStreet Hashtag on Twitter: For live tweets coming from the source of the protests.
- The American People’s New Economic Charter on Facebook: For a new, crowdsourced economic vision.
Do you think the Occupy movement will grow to have an effect on our political system? Leave a comment with your thoughts, ideas and experiences in the Comments Section below.
Jeffrey, thanks so much for the mention! And for the good work you do.
Visit THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’S NEW ECONOMIC CHARTER Google doc, w/the 9/29 OWS Declaration: http://bit.ly/pg5PN7 – Join the Charter Collaborative. Edit the 99%’s Economic Roadmap. Crowdsourcing change!
– The Charter Collaborative
This type of rebellion was a long time in the making but I sincerely trust it is here to stay.
Why would people accept such an unequal situation? Whose money is the 1% playing with anyway? And why should we pay for their bailout? Who’s coming to the people rescue to bail THEM out?
The world lives on its head: while gvt find hundreds of millions of the people’s money to bail big business out, they are incapable of finding the few millions necessary to support the victims of greed.
On the other hand, the gvt in place is a mirror of society. People all together decided to put their power in the hands of the very few, therefore only they will be able to correct the present situation if they dislike what they see happening today.
During this same time period, Citi Group, which received $300 billion in tax dollars from the United States Treasury, spent more than approximat-ely $13 million to influence lawmakers. Goldman Sachs spent $9 million on buying lawmakers in 2008.Gw2 Power Leveling