Occupty Wall Street

Today I'm going to refocus back to the domestic issues of class and discuss the other movement I mentioned yesterday: Occupy Wall Street. The movement began in Zuccotti Park in September, 2011 in New York City's financial district as a protest against corporate influence on democracy, and against the growing income disparity between the nation's top 1% of earners and the remaining 99% below. I found this (somewhat sensational) article that discusses the inequality that the movement is protesting against, and its underlying social causes. It first makes the point that the movement's "We are the 99%" banner is well-grounded by some science, citing a report by the Congressional Budget Office that

"...between 1979 and 2007 the top 1 percent saw their average real after-tax household income grow by 275 percent and that much of this increase had taken place in the past few years of the new millennium. It also noted that between 2005 and 2007, the after-tax income received by the 20 percent of the population with the highest income exceeded the after-tax income of the remaining 80 percent."

It also cites another study, which says that not only is the American middle class shrinking, but the increasing income divide between the upper and lower earners in American society is creating increased segregation between affluent and low-income neighborhoods. The author states that many social-democratic or socialist societies in countries in Europe, as well as Canada, "have systems of social distribution and  public provisioning for social security, and for  public goods such as education and health" that "ineffective" democracies such as America lack, and blames it on America's political right's view of redistributive measures of income and care as socialist, in direct contrast with America's ideology of the individual working hard to achieve personal wealth.

I'm not sure I agree with everything the author is saying (but admittedly him calling America's democracy ineffective is rubbing me the wrong way), but he does seem to be making a cogent argument that the inequality issues and class divide America is facing is fundamentally rooted in our political and economic systems. In recent years the movement has become a mere trickle of its former self, but it did bring to light important issues regarding the social structure of America. I don't think socialism, like the author seems to be suggesting, is an appropriate answer to the problem; I think it's possible to work within the democratic, capitalist framework we have already if enough individuals are able to organize themselves and give a voice to the issues.

But what do you think? Let me know in the comments!