Forum Post: Underlying purpose of the Occupy Wall Street movement comes into focus

The still growing Occupy Wall Street movement, now spreading across the globe, with some mixed results (see Rome for idiocy, Lower Manhattan for sanity), has been called out for not having a defined, cohesive agenda of items they are asking for or changes they want to see made. The problem with that is there are so many things they see as wrong in this country, like the idea that of industrialized nations, the United States ranks behind Egypt and Tunisia when looking at the income disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest earners. Bank of America, who recently announced plans to slash 50,000 jobs, released its third quarter earnings report, pulling in $6.2 billion for the time frame. No one has yet to go to jail for the collapse of the financial sector in 2007 which was wrought with criminal negligence, if not intent, on the part of big banks and investment firms who were bundling assets they knew to be toxic together and selling them to investors who were told by the complicit ratings agencies that these were solid investments.

This is why people are so disgusted, disillusioned, overflowing with contempt, things like this are going on in most giant corporations. It's almost as if they are trying to run off with as much as they can before the shit hits the fan and these politicians are forced to comply with their constituents demands, not special interest, or get voted out, regardless of party. This is why the cohesive message has yet to be articulated, it is, ineffable as it were, the list of problems is immense and beyond the scope of a single, silly rallying cry like "Don't tread on me!" Some in the media and political world are at least making an effort to shine a light on some of the injustices and outright broken systems that Americans have had enough of.

Dylan Ratigan, host of the Dylan Ratigan Show, is using the stump well, organizing Get Money Out, a petition he started, one supported by a host of political insiders like former DC lobbyist Jimmy Williams, which advocates for and brings together people from the left and right who believe that the auction system having overtaken American election needs to be cured by a constitutional amendment taking the money out of elections. With the Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited donations from undisclosed donors through Super PACs, the overwhelming majority of money being pumped into political campaigns comes from special interest groups and billionaire plutocrats. To be clear, to reiterate, this is applicable to both parties who are guilty of these morally reprehensible actions. Our election system is basically a system of bribery, lobbyists and elected officials working out quid pro quo arrangements behind closed doors that affect policy and laws every day.

Mark McKinnon, one of the co-founders of No Labels, a movement of like minded Americans who believe both sides share common values and must put those values before the rigid ideology of the political parties. He has worked on many political campaigns through the years, most recently on the George W. Bush campaigns, and he points out that candidates today easily spend 75% of their time raising money, whereas it used to be more like 15-20% of their time. It's no wonder things fail to get done in Washington anymore, as you basically start campaigning for the next term as soon as you begin serving one, unbelievable that this has been put up with by the American people.

As you can see, a variety of forces are coalescing around the Occupy Wall Street movement which wants America to be a better place, where with hard work, dedication, and drive, a person can succeed and live a comfortable life, something that looks more and more like a pipe dream for my generation as the economic outlook for average Americans looks fairly grim without fundamental changes to the way money is earned and taxed. Equity comes from an absence of greed generally speaking when you look at historical figures concerning income disparity, and the income equity in this country is in line with a time in the 1920s, when flappers, fads, lavish parties by the elite, top hats and coattails, all pronounced the inequity in a tangible way that people were eventually able to wrap their heads around and see it for what it is, injustice.

The people protesting around the world are speaking out for these ideas, they want change, and they are beginning to realize that in a democracy, there is strength in numbers, even when financial forces continue to further co-opt the policymakers with their agenda, because there are more of them than there are rich bankers and financiers. Hopefully, the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow and real change can be brought at a time when it is desperately needed, or else our whole financial system may go off the cliff, and no one needs that.

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