Category: Musings

My first post (other than the generic welcome post) was a link to the LiveStream of the Occupy Wall Street movement not long after I learned of it.  Since that bare-bones post, Occupy Wall Street has grown into a sizable movement with franchise locations (to borrow business speak) around the country.  The mainstream media initially lagged in its coverage of the band of young protesters occupying Zuccotti Park (renamed Liberty Plaza in solidarity with Liberty Square/Tahrir Square) and has consistently downplayed its significance by characterizing the assembled group as lacking a clear message or set of demands.  Several weeks in, this seemingly hapless group of protesters has demonstrated a quality that I admire from afar – persistence in the face of doubt.

I’m inspired to say the least.  My first trip to Paris was in the midst of a grève (or strike).  At first, I was put off by the inconvenience I suffered because most of Paris decided to strike the day I arrived.  However, the day I stood on the sidelines and watched labor group after labor group march by in solidarity protesting France’s proposed retirement changes, I was in awe.  I was also confused.  Why didn’t we as Americans EVER protest?!  My short answer is that we have no safety net from which to operate.  If you lose your job, you lose your income (obviously) and your health insurance.  Replacement rates for unemployment compensation are not tied to your income in a proportionate manner but placed at a low-level threshold that offers no real safety net in the event of job loss.  Job loss in the United States comes with higher stakes than in Europe where the replacement rate for unemployment compensation is a percentage of income and lasts longer than the ad-hoc legislative extensions here in the US.  Survival in the US’s individualistic society pretty much dictates not rocking the boat.

After seeing news reports of The Arab Spring and how citizens took to the streets to effect drastic regime changes, the silence in the US was deafening.  Later, The Indignados’ protests in Spain seemed as if the concepts of protest were moving closer to something we, as Americans, could grasp.  And still, the silence was deafening.  Now, we have OWS spreading around the country and it feels as if somehow those on the streets have joined an elusive fraternity centered around solidarity instead of special and individual interests.  Viva OWS!

Now for some data…

It’s news articles like this that demonstrate how out of touch policy makers and politicians are with the sad reality of American life.  It was almost surreal to hear President Obama talk about how the country was out of recession and how the economy was improving in June 2009.  Yet, the indicators to which he referred were for the business sector.  After having shed thousands of jobs, corporations were seeing huge profits quarter after quarter.  However, if one were to compare the corporate reality to that of everyday citizens; recovery, recovered or recovering were not words that could be used to describe citizen reality.  Unemployment was at an all-time high (and still is), Congress left many dependent on unemployment compensation to suffer while they debated the merits and downfalls of extending unemployment compensation.  This, during a period of high unemployment.  To be exact, this much unemployment (by percentage of the population over 16):