Block letters scrawled into cardboard are hoisted up over the heads of the Occupy Denver demonstrators following Black Friday. One reads: “You can pitch a tent for capitalism, but you can’t pitch a tent for democracy.” We round a corner on the 16th Street Mall. There are probably close to 500 people and no discernible pattern in the demographic. Old, young, families or twenty-somes, socialists and libertarians alike chant, “We got sold out, banks got bailed out.” The cries ricochet off the Federal Reserve Bank windows; distorted faces of a dwindling middle class with ruined credit scores gaze back.
For those who are unaware, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has not died out; it has escalated. Even in the aftermath of what seemed like a conspicuous nation-wide attempt to remove Occupiers from financial districts and park plazas overnight, the movement refused to be quelled. And for those of you reluctant to identify with Occupy, take a second look and reconsider.
Like many of you, I was first skeptical. Now, I am a convert.
Income inequality in the United States is a real thing (current estimates reveal that incomes of the richest 1% are 67 times higher than the poorest 20%). Traditional channels for addressing these inequalities are defunct, largely because current political processes are increasingly determined by those who have economic clout. In the past, financial lobbyists have wooed Congress to the tune of $1.3 billion. Corporate lobbying thus has a chilling effect on your vote, skewing access to political processes towards…well, the 1%.
We have been convinced that these market “shocks” and “business cycles” will correct themselves, but these crises are often driven by the whims of hot-money-seeking investors. Where risky lending, investing and trading go amiss, the costs are pushed off on citizens. Unemployment, income disparities, home foreclosures and debt generated from this system are unlikely to decrease. The participants in the OWS movement are calling on Americans to discuss the faults of this system and ultimately transform it along non-partisan lines.
I went to Denver intending to find out what the specific demands of OWS are. Admittedly, I was frustrated with the movement because it seemed to attract a fringe group of na