Preoccupied With Occupation
The wheel has turned, and in my own country I am seeing a movement for change. I don't live in Egypt. I wasn't in Berlin when people caused The Wall to crumble (though people might take note of the ideals that led to the Berlin Wall in the first place). I'm too young to have been involved in Stonewall, but with its heart in New York, and other gatherings across the country (with emotional support from other countries), there is a storm brewing.
I guess.
Well, there are things happening that are disrupting day to day living for some people, anyway.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has been going on for some time now, and after a few weeks (though some would say months - with even the small rumblings going back a couple of years) it seems to be gaining momentum.
I have been tracking this, but until last night, I kept asking myself and others what I thought was a very important question.
What exactly is this?
At first, it seemed very disparate, to say the least. I say pictures of people protesting. Sleep-ins at Liberty Square. People with signs ranging from "We Want A Democracy, Not A Corporatocracy," to those advocating animal rights, the obligatory analogy to Adolf Eichmann's "Just following orders" line, effectively slapping a Godwin on the movement before it got rolling. Oh, and let's not forget the free pizza, bagels, and occasional attractive person, because there's nothing more powerful than hooking up in the name of a social cause.
Really focused.
Then came the zombies.
This may have been an attempt to satirize the "suits" who are ravenous for the dollar at all costs - dead to the suffering around them. It may also have been an excuse to dress up and act like zombies.
It wasn't until last night that I read an "official" list of demands, which are as follows (my questions and comments are in italics):
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hour. I'm all for taxing the heck out of other countries, and bringing production inside our borders - especially those countries that refuse our goods. I guess that would mean saying bye-bye to anime and things of that nature. So we're off to a good start about trade (which will come back to bite us by the end of this list) but now we want a higher minimum wage? I thought that in a competitive market, an employer pays what it thinks the employee is worth. If you're good at something, you get paid. If you don't find a suitable job-to-wage ratio at one place, you can look elsewhere - or you can learn a viable skill in a different field. If this is an epidemic, companies will raise the rate of pay. Adaptability and growth are not just for industry. They're for individuals, as well.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors. Again, a great ideal. But where does this money come from? The people who have studied to be doctors, nurses, etc. - are they now considered public sector workers? Would it be illegal for them to open up private practices? Are you ignoring that the government payout (state or federal) is so low for those physicians already enrolled in public health programs that THAT is one of the main reasons the cost of treatment is so high?
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment. So if I don't work, I still get paid? Even the guy breaking his back for 17 hours a day? Suckers! Sign me up! This is no incentive to learn or excel at ANYTHING. See: Public sector jobs.
Demand four: Free college education. I think we should skip this and just give everyone degrees. If you're guaranteed a living wage and free healthcare, where is the need to compete? Or are you realizing that going to NYU for a degree in independent film studies saddled you with a lot of debt and no viable working skills? I mean, apart form working at Starbuck's, which is the PAYING equivalent of what you'd be doing on the set of a movie, anyway.
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand. Agreed. You should note that these alternatives are mostly being cultivated in the private sector by people with money and good degrees. It's not cheap.
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now. Where does this money come from? Cutting social spending? Military spending? Increasing taxes? Can you show me the breakdown of how you arrived at this number?
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants. Plant a freaking tree. Don't litter. Tear down the dams. Even if I stop being reactionary about this one, please look at my questions in the previous point. How is this supposed to happen and how does this money become available, exactly?
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live. You mean within this country, right? Or did you mean "immigration" instead of "migration?" Because the tariff thing in point one really goes against this, economically speaking, if you want a global village and to hell with restrictions on who comes into or out of our borders.
Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system. I'm all for checking and auditing ballots before we declare someone a winner.
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period. Is this just filler? Were you guys dressing up as zombies or checking out the new iPhone announcement while an 8th grader got in and typed this? What I'm reading here is that you want your bailout, too. You were too busy, too young, or too ethical to jump on the bandwagon that was taking out loans left and right while the banks fell down, leaving people with nothing to repay. If you're in dire straits, and you know you're going to be financially screwing yourself by taking out a loan, you get resourceful or find assistance elsewhere. Tangentially speaking, if you're feeling a personal financial strain or things look shaky, it might also not be the ideal time to think about having kids.
Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies. Why? I mean, I'm right with you that the metrics aren't entirely standardized, and one little mark can mean the difference between getting a loan for a home and having to pay for things with money you actually have on hand (see what I did there?). This point (most of them, actually) tells me that you want a "do over." You made bad decisions, and now you find yourself responsible for the very real consequences - be they out of naivety or just plain hubris and stupidity. You feel disgruntled that some rich and powerful people/companies/organizations got "help," and, because they can't be held to the same standard you are when the banks shake their heads at you, or you get fired from your job for trying to organize a union, that you want yours. Power and money are wonderful things, and one of the most horrible feelings is that of helplessness. But no one gives power away. Just like people find ways of holding onto their money, if they don't want to end up in helpless positions.
Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union. You can do this! Workers(?) of the...um...country, unite! There actually is nothing preventing you from trying to organize the workers in your company. However, your employer is not obligated to accept your union, simply because you got together and demanded higher wages and a change in working conditions. Most likely, you will be fired. Oh, and don't get excited about the union members slated to join your cause. They're still getting paid during your demonstration, and a perfect example of the main flaw in unionization.
Now we'll move a couple of degrees and look at "We are the 99%." Go through the pages upon pages of people who have obscured their faces with notes about why they are scared or feel disenfranchised. (On a side note, obscuring your face with a complaint isn't showing me how committed you are to this. It's showing me that in the event of OWS falling through, you may actually have a chance to be hired by potential employers doing background searches. So at least there is some forethought involved.)
I'm certainly not a fan of Federal bailouts, and I loathe the Tea Party, but the longer you spend on this site, the more conservative (at least fiscally), you will find yourself becoming. I almost guarantee it, and it takes a LOT to garner that sort of reaction from me.
I see one or two anecdotal stories with legitimate complaints about failings in the healthcare system, and a few hard luck stories. The rest are people who have gotten degrees and can't find jobs in their chosen fields and have tons of debt. There is a complete lack in telling the public what these "highly specialized" degrees are. One was bold enough to claim that it was in Theatre Arts and another in Fine Arts - and I can tell you where the root of your problem is: Your flights of fancy over pragmatism.
There are others who are complaining about how they have put their debt on credit cards, and are now wondering how they are going to make ends meet for themselves and their babies (or babies to be). So the fiscal outlook seemed grim, and you decided to not only put your debt on a credit card, but also bring a child into the world? You've not only financially condemned yourself, but you've also pretty much stunted the kid's opportunities due to impractical planning.
Then there's this person:
Oh, and this one, who makes a great point that waving signs isn't going to get anything done - it's actual voting that changes policies (or at least lays the groundwork).
I am far from the 1%. My dream job was in journalism, and I got into that field right when every home was being populated by a personal computer. I was working toward a useless degree in a world where anyone with access to a computer could write an article and be a pundit. Oddly enough, there were (and still are) a number of jobs out there, and money to be had. If you're innovative, you can find niche employment without giving to the model you're protesting which you think screws over the little people. If you just wanted honest pay for honest labor, there's that as well - but it seems that it's been proven that American workers don't like actual work, and feel entitled to something - because you studied so hard for that communications degree so you could contribute something of value to society. And you wonder why employers outsource. (Remember this when Michael Moore is taking it upon himself to speak on your behalf. He is not the 99%, and his endeavors aren't essential to the day-to-day functioning of society. No artist's work is. It's nice, and sometimes fascinating, but it's not necessary nor is working as an artist an entitled right - it's a choice to be met with success or failure, like anything else.)
No job is permanent.
I wasn't guaranteed a job because I could spin words, nor was my college debt absolved. I took jobs dishwashing, bartending, writing reports for people too busy partying in college, and even took a job in a factory. I never joined a union. While I was learning about various aspects of the IT field, I was working retail, slinging books, clothing, and coffee to the people who actually had disposable income.
Luckily, I didn't have to sell my house, because the market's been too horrible in most places to buy one and throw money into it in the first place (it would've been a stupid fiscal decision on my part). I learned how to cook - not just restaurant cuisine, but so I could feed myself within my budget. I still do that, and it saves a TON of money. Self-reliance can be a very addicting and satisfying drug.
I don't have the latest gadgets. I'm not buying the newest cars. I'm not giving into the latest trends that will ultimately do nothing other than eat my wallet from the inside. If something confuses me or angers me, I tend to research it to find out the root of the problem, and what can be done.
I'm also not the 99% by any means, and that has as much to do with luck as it does adaptability and common sense (and not in a Thomas Paine sort of way, but a very common way). I don't buy the Mont Blanc when a simple pencil will do. I can wait when I have things shipped to my house, rather than blow more money for immediate satisfaction. Home-cooked meals taste better, and are cheaper than any prepared dish you'll ever have. All this, working jobs (as in multiple at once, instead of demanding some mythical permanent career with a union and benefits) I may not necessarily want, but ones that let me sleep at night, not worrying about the future, and I'm managing to save money.
I'm also human, and prone to mistakes - and many of them have been financial in nature. The easy thing would have been to refuse responsibility and possibly find someone else to blame. Better still, I could find a whole bunch of people with just enough pride to refuse ownership of failings and rally against some faceless organization who was only mildly involved in the decision-making process. That sort of wallowing and wasted energy wouldn't get me a job, wouldn't make me feel genuinely better, and wouldn't promote any change - either in myself or those around me.
As tedious and un-fun as it sounds, bureaucratic methods (except in egregious and immediate transgressions) are the way to accomplish things. Dressing up as zombies doesn't do it. Sleep-ins in Liberty Square don't do it. Drum circles don't do it. Yelling doesn't do it, no matter how loud and skewed you shout your watered-down version of John Locke's philosophy.
Investigation. Organization. Communication. Participation. This is how things get done. You guys are almost at the half-way mark in that chain, and if you're serious, I know you can do it.
Until then, you might want to focus on getting an actual message across to the people/organizations you're protesting, because if they can't figure out why you're angry, then you've lost a lot of ground and your finish line is even farther away than when you first started.
Jonathan Farr is a freelance contractor, writer, and all-around nerd. Please direct your comments, questions, rage, and angst to his inbox at jonathan.e.farr@gmail.com where he will be more than happy to respond when he's not working.