The Occupy Movement: Origins, Motivations, and Purpose

Disclaimer: I do not speak for every Occupy, nor do I proclaim this as an absolute truth. This is my opinion and as a human being I am bound to get some of it wrong. The thoughts and views expressed are my own, and are a representation of my experiences at Occupy STL. With that said, please enjoy.  
For the people who don't get it:

America is in a crisis that the old "work harder and stop complaining" adage trumpeted by the defenders of oligarchy capitalism cannot nor is willing to solve. Approximately 312 million people inhabit a country with a 10% unemployment rate (which is higher considering there are many more unreported cases of unemployment, in addition to the levels of underemployment). That mean at least 31.2 million people are looking for a job in a market with no jobs to be had. The industrial, manufacturing, technology, pharmaceutical, and various other sectors have been uprooted and taken into other countries by American or foreign owners. The education, service, and retail sectors are either rapidly shrinking or grossly underpaying, and job applicants with college-level education are forced to take these positions to make ends meet while looking for a better job. The lack of actual production in this country coupled with the rise in importing means there are little employment opportunities, even for Bachelor's and Master's degree level college graduates.

"But competition spurs industry," you may think. "One should build a business from the ground up and claw your way from poverty to prosperity..." Incorrect. This would work in a country that is prosperous, however, we are currently in a recession. Banks will be even more selective than before about giving out loans. It is also terrifyingly easy to be disqualified from loans if you have no credit, bad credit, or not good enough credit, in addition to not enough income and other factors that will halt your loan process.

Of course, there are always some who will blame the victims in the sub-prime mortgage crisis on the victims. "The banks will no longer give out loans because all the poor people messed up the banking system getting loans they couldn't afford," you think. The banks fleeced people for their life's savings so they could afford the "American Dream" of fulfilling a comfortable life in a home with their family. There are SOME who took advantage of credit lines and loans, but that story is not true for most. Meanwhile these banks are bailed out and neglected to do anything for homeowners. The homeowners get no bailout or forgiveness and either live in debt for the rest of their life or commit suicide from the mounting pressure.

Our national debt keeps rising because we're overspending on defense and war while imports increase due to the lack of localized industrial and commercial ventures coupled with the lack of gainful employment. This is the fault of many entities, including Bankers, politicians, and business owners. In addition, the affluent members of society are holding vast amounts of wealth in a time of rising poverty and wish not to re-invest that money into our financial system to stimulate economic growth (which is the exact opposite for what Reagan said would happen when touting 'trickle down economics'). What we have is an impasse between those who have wealth and those who have none. When the wealth is in the hands of the few, and those few are unwilling to help their fellow citizens in the time of need, then those citizens can and often will rise up against those few to snatch prosperity back from those who would stand by and watch the world burn.

The Occupy movement is not a Democratic or Republican sponsored or motivated movement. It does not discriminate based on conservative or liberal viewpoints. It is not funded by George Soros or Moveon.Org. It is not seeking to create a new political party. It does not want to re-elect president Obama or any other political figure. It does not have leaders. It does not promote hatred and violence. It does not oppose, slander, or want to dismantle the Tea Party. It does not want to install communism or socialism in place of democracy. There are no leaders. There is no set of guidelines or demands by which we want to shape the world.

The occupy movement is you, your thoughts, your outrage on the one percent controlling this country's free fall, and the solidarity of your fellow occupiers. You make the movement, you can add as much or as little as you want, and you can say what you wish within the confines of the first amendment. There are a spectrum of people in the occupy movement from students to teachers, young and old, conservative and liberal, and everything in between. Our responsibility is for the rights to the freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be upheld for all, not just the 1%. We will not be bought, sold, ignored, silenced, intimidated, marginalized, or defeated. We are a human movement, in the purest sense of the word, and we are not going anywhere anytime soon.

-A Seeker of Truth.

Alan Grayson Gets it Right.

Or at least very close. OWS is not a political movement, it is a human one(for all you tunnel-vision conservatives out there).

Depite the fact that Grayson was a politican, he is refreshing, honest, and seemingly uncorrupted by Washington politics. However, OWS needs no spokesperson because the people ARE the spokesperson... Tea Partiers, when you are done participating in a protest that is bought out by corporations, come join your local occupies with your brothers and sisters.

Budget Bungling By Barack

Obama recently unveiled a new plan for his budget, and there are a lot of cuts that are on the way for people who are below the poverty line. If you're a graduate student, your funds are about to be cut. If you use assistance to heat your home in the winter expect things to get a little chillier, if you're a graduate student with federal grants start flipping burgers, and if you work but cannot make ends meet witness the rope getting shorter. The plan is to knock down the debt by 1.1 trillion dollars over the next ten years, which is actually a small number compare to the national debt being at 14 trillion dollars and climbing (Source: http://www.usdebtclock.org/). While there may be several people who think this is progressive and forward thinking, let me introduce you to a few ways this is actually counter-productive towards the debt.

First off, you are targeting people who do not have much money to give. When the rich constantly rob from the poor denizens of the country, they are bankrupting the entire economy. The lower classes are the consumers who buy the products manufacturers and corporations sell. When the money becomes spread too thin between paying student loans, taxes, and costs of living, then people are unable to stimulate the economy through buying items of affluence. It's like cutting the economy off at the knees. In addition, any money paid for imports leaves the country and does not recirculate into the hands of Americans. Couple this with the increasing amount of outsourcing we're doing, and you have a recipe for an economic apocalypse.

Next, why not take it from out of the hides of those who can afford it? The rich and affluent people constantly cry about paying too much in taxes. I say let them whine and eat caviar while doing it. We should be making them pay more; they earned more so it's only fair for them to pay a higher percentage. The tax cuts should not have gone across the board as they have done, they should have been reserved for the lower classes to make up for the huge deficit the real estate, banking, and automotive companies that the people in the higher income bracket own. Washington can hand taxpayer money over to rich people who think it's not okay for tax dollars to go to underprivileged or poverty-stricken families on welfare and other state assistance programs, but cannot help stimulate the American economy by demanding the rich pay more and give the lower classes a break? I suppose that's because Washington doesn't really run the country, they are just the front-men for the corporate influence that runs the United States.

Finally, the military industrial complex that has become so bloated that they gobble up most of those tax dollars at work. If you hate the war, find a way to stop paying taxes. The spending alone has topped 600 BILLION, and after you factor in everything that has to do with defense(FBI, Homeland Security, NASA Satellites, R&D, etc) price tag tops out at over 1.4 TRILLION DOLLARS. A YEAR. Ask yourself this question, before you ask any senators or congressman: "Do we really NEED that much defense?" When is the last time someone actually invaded American soil? The 1700's (Revolutionary War) or 1800's(Spanish-American War), perhaps? The defense budget's gargantuan number completely dwarfs the education finances which was 46.8 billion dollar in 2010 and is set for 49.7 billion dollars this year. All this for an "average" education experience that is ranked 14th to 17th among industrial nations. Shouldn't we expect better from out government? Why is there always enough money for bombs but never enough for books? According to the White House, the military is 19.2% of the budget for 2012. Education? 2.7% of the budget. There is a tank-sized elephant in the room, and it's called the military industrial complex.

Obama's pitching hope and change, but the only thing he has managed to do with this budget is maintain the status-quo: War is more important than education.