TERRE HAUTE —
Here’s what makes ‘Occupy’ add up
I’d like to “audit” the article by Ryan Humphrey that was published on March 25, 2012. In it, he states that the Occupy movement doesn’t add up. He also used the standard line we usually hear from the GOP, that being, that the Occupy movement is made up of people “who made bad choices” and feel that “the government and one sector of society owes them something!” This is standard procedure when anyone raises the issue of financial and social inequality that exists in America.
The Occupy movement started by those protesting the fraud that Wall Street and the banks committed, that played a large part in bringing about the recession/depression we’re slowly coming out of. In any group of protesters there are always some who do want something for nothing and are interested only in their own personal gain. But most have legitimate concerns and issues. Those issues should include the following:
That in the last 30 years the bulk of wealth and power has gone to the top 10 percent. That the tax laws allow the CEOs of the banks and Wall Street who made millions, to pay less taxes that someone making $40,000 a year. Also that Wall Street speculators who have raised gas prices be prohibited from doing so. They should be protesting the ruling from the GOP-dominated Supreme Court that allows our elections to be bought. That someone be held accountable for the $20 billion of your tax money that “went missing” in Iraq.
But most of all they should be protesting the disparity of opportunity to achieve the goals necessary to gain financial and social stability! If you’re “born on the wrong side of the tracks,” what are your chances of reaching the above goals? Because the wages of your parents have flatlined over the last 30 years, your family is probably just “getting by” and you will probably attend a substandard school that the politicians want to close in favor of a voucher program that you can’t qualify for.
Let’s assume that you do well and graduate high school, what opportunity is there for you to go to college? Unless you or your parents have the proper credit score, you can’t get a student loan. If you do get a loan for college, upon graduation you’ll owe on average, $50,000. With jobs going to foreign countries, where do you find a job to support yourself and pay off the $50,000? At least 50 percent of high school graduates don’t have the financial or mental aptitude to attend college. Our manufacturing base that should pay living wages has been decimated, so where does the above 50 percent find a job?
The chances of them “making it big” in the entertainment or sports world is slim, and the chances of them pulling themselves up by their “boot straps” are few and far between. If you’re not born in a privileged social class, the deck is stacked against you. Sadly, in some form or another some will become a “throw away child.” Some of them may join the Occupy movement, not because of the bad choices they’ve made but because of the bad choices that have been made for them by society.
—Ron Hastings
Clinton
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