I Totally Support the Occupy Movement...Follow

...but if all you do is get drunk constantly, do a lot of drugs, go to concerts, and your parents pay for all of that PLUS your rent, you aren't in the 99%. And hey, you may not be in the 1%, either, but you're in the ************** You haven't had a job in years, you're almost 21, and you have no right to get in my face about not skipping out on work (work, which I have to do in order to continue to live away from home) to go to an Occupy rally to get arrested with you.

Seriously, grow up. If you have a legitimate grievance, let it be heard. But don't expect me to be sympathetic when mommy and daddy pay for everything, including the road trip that landed you in Colorado in the first place.



That being said, Occupy Denver is starting to crack down on people. Well, they started cracking down on the people camping out a few days ago. There was a march down 16th Street Mall and near the capital building yesterday that ended up with some people getting pepper sprayed and a few arrests. Nothing new. I'm glad the movements are gaining ground, I just wish I didn't have to hear brats preach about it constantly.

To be fair, they ARE still in the 99%. They're just still very different from those in the bottom half of that. And just because mommy/daddy pay for things, doesn't mean their grievances don't often match up.

I have a close friend whose father makes over half a mil a year. His family still isn't even top 10%. He's had an unpaid internship since he's graduated college (which is fine, because he lives with his grandparents in manhattan and doesn't need to worry about expenses). But he HATES living off his parents--he's been actively searching for a job more valuable than the internship since before he started there. But everything he can find won't help him at all career-wise, so he has to choose between making money (though still living with his grandparents, because there's no way he could afford to commute/pay rent with any of those jobs) and staying at the internship, where he can make connections/get experience that's valuable.

His life is obviously a lot easier than many peoples'. But that shouldn't invalidate his legitimate complaints about various things.

To be fair, the fact that he's self-aware of these things helps his case. He knows he's fortunate, but wants to be self-sufficient as soon as he can. But he can't figure out how to get there (and still maintain any career dreams, at least).

Regarding your more specific grievance, however, I agree. Protesters who harass people are really annoying.

Eh, I guess, I just haven't heard anyone really preach about it. I do constantly hear about how we have to "grow our economy" etc day in and day out though.

I support people's right to believe that, but I am ready to hear something different at the moment.

Also I challenge the stereotype you are presenting here. I went to a march yesterday, and there was a rather large diversity in the participants - a lot of older people, and yeah a lot of the "middle class" - sure there was no shortage of young people too, but seriously, assuming that just because someone is young they just leech off their parents is not particularly fair.

When I was working in the service industry I quite often worked either early mornings (starting by 6) or late nights (not starting till 6 pm)

So if I went to a protest during the day, it didn't mean that I was an unemployed leech.

Anyway, I don't doubt that you felt you were being imposed on when people tried to reach out to you, but did you really give them an equal chance to explain their hopes and goals to you as you give to say, reading product packages or advertisements in an average day?

I don't actually often hear the kind of messages this movement has been articulating in the media, or in general culture. I am much more tired about hearing about how we "all need to tighten our belts" while those who take the most are busy grabbing even more.

Maybe I am being small-minded, but I've seen her start to look for jobs around 10-12 times over the past two months, before she openly declared, "Why the **** am I doing this? I don't even want to work!" and then dropped acid.

I guess it's just frustrating that she never contributes to anything around the house, be it cooking, cleaning, groceries, etc., and then just rants about "The Man". Meh, I'll get over it, just felt like ranting. And like I said, I do support the entire movement, but when your roommate drunkenly rants at you, then yells at you for being a "corporate slave" and refusing to go to an occupy rally when you have work at 4am the next day, it gets to be a bit much.

Now I understand what's going on, lol. Carry on.

I can understand your frustration.

No doubt she isn't alone in being a spoiled twit and occupying, but just cause lots of millionaries travel to third world countries to have sex with children, doesn't mean we believe all millionaires are souless sex tourists, does it?

What I am trying to say is there are twits in every movement, jerks in every videogame, creepy people in every wage bracket, etc.

I think it is fair game to question your roomate's self-interested motives for latching on to the occupy movement/their ideology. Perhaps for her, it represents a codification of her abdication of responsibility.

Honestly, if that is the case, she doesn't really get it (at least from my perspective). The fact is, what the core of the movement appears to be trying to do is to create a new dialogue about democracy and the values of our society. Truly participating in such an "occupation" would actually be a lot of work. And honestly, people who have to work (within the system) to scrape by actually might be the least able to participate in such an excercise.

It sounds like you're frustrated because the message that you're getting from the movement is something that resonates with you - but it is utterly divorced from the hard realities you actually face.

I get that.

They can't all be unique little butterflies like you.

FYI: The article ThiefX linked was not fact checked, as one of the commenters pointed out.

While it's true that the 1%ers are all around us, and many have busted their asses to get there, the complaint from the #OWS crowd is that you shouldn't have to work 80 hours a week with no vacations just to make it in America. Our forefathers fought hard for the 40 hour a work week standard with 2 weeks vacation. Someone should make a decent living wage with that, no? And then let the go-getters who like to work themselves into the ground work those 80 hour work weeks - but they damn well better be well compensated for that time.

What we have instead is this lopsided world where the wealthiest folks sit and live off their investments and do maybe 20 hours of work a week before going off to play with remote controlled airplanes*, and then a respiratory therapist* who works 75 hours a week for 40K a year is told she's not allowed to have two days off for vacation to see her daughter graduate from college.

Oh, and her company health insurance is going up another $200 a month starting next January.

Oh, and the hospital is under a budget crisis so she's getting a 10% pay cut too.

And she should just be grateful she has a job, since there are plenty of people who were already laid off that'd love to come back and take her position.

*Actual 1%er I knew who invested in American Eagle Outfitters just before they zoomed up. First person I ever met that used the phrase "build your wealth" in a real conversation.
*Room mate's mother

Edited, Oct 16th 2011 11:13pm by catwho

I don't know, it would be pretty tough to only have 1 yacht when you're used to having 2

The "1%" referenced by the Occupy Wall Street movement supposedly represents the 1% who controls ~40% of the nation's wealth, not the top 1% tax bracket. It's a slimmer population than the top 1% tax bracket.

The average annual income of the "1%" referenced by the OWS folks is $1,130,000. According to the Washington Post, the minimum annual income to be in the 1% would be $516,633

jealous?

Especially since she attended school in another country.