The Occupy Wall Street Movement in Worcester

Occupy Wall Street! Occupy Boston, occupy Portland (Both of them), Seattle, Sacramento, Missoula Montana, Seoul, Hong Kong, Paris, Frankfurt…

Occupy Worcester!

What does it mean?

Does it mean truth to power?

Does it mean sharing over greed?

Does it point the finger at greed and say “Explain yourself, explain why what you live for is legitimate, explain why it’s more good than evil, explain how your values help anyone other than yourself and your own. Explain how your time on earth made the world better for anyone besides yourself and your own.”

If you do not feel the importance of righteousness, or sense of trying to live with goodness, maybe a reminder is necessary.

Truth – here are some facts:

• The top 1% owns 40% of the nation’s wealth;
• The bottom 80% owns only 7%;
• The top 1% earns more than the bottom 50%;
• The top 1% of Americans have only 5% of the Nation’s personal debt

A woman with two children and a deadbeat dad, who works all day in a factory or an office and pays for day care or after school or health care, a woman who has neither the time nor the money to go to college, does SHE have any opportunity?

No wonder 65% of all Americans will use public benefits sometime in their lifetime. These are facts, true facts, not opinions. This is not the America of our folklore; this is not the shining City on the Hill.

Does the person earning 8 or 10 or 12 dollars an hour trying to raise a family have any opportunity?

Do we need a minimum wage or do we need a living wage?

The government needs to increase the minimum wage for those with a track record of working to a livable wage – something someone can live on.

I’m not talking about welfare, I’m talking about pay that workers can raise a family on.

People should not need hand outs, charity, WIC or Food Stamps, or even unions to get a fair wage for those who have a track record of working – they should have a law that guarantees wages that provide a decent life, basic health care, and an education for all – as a right, not a privilege of affluence.

I’m not saying that people with money haven’t earned their money – they have. I’m saying that those who won’t share more of what they’ve earned are anti-social, selfish people – and our political system does nothing to force people to share more of their wealth with others, so that they can have a chance to be stable too.

You can’t go to college because you can’t afford it; c’mon.

You lose your house because you got sick; pathetic.

You can’t work overtime because day care closes at 5:00.

You lose your job because your kids got sick and couldn’t go to school and you had to stay home with her; mean.

Your used car broke down because your street never gets paved, ridiculous.

Your credit is terrible because Wall Street told a mortgage broker, “Bring me another sucker who doesn’t understand what they are signing so that I can bundle their loan with others that no one will understand and I will make a fortune. Heck, I’ll even tell my buddy in the next cubical to bet against you being able to make your payments and we’ll make a bigger fortune when you fail!”

“Oh you lost your house, your stability, your children’s sense of security, your ability to get a future loan? Hey man – it’s on you – you should have read the fine print – I got mine – I drew up the fine print.”

College loans you can’t pay back because you didn’t complete college, or your degree couldn’t get you the career advertised, happens all the time.

Go get a credit card. Don’t worry when you get behind – and oh brother – you will – you can pay 20% in interest and all sorts of bank fees. Though in Massachusetts it’s usually illegal to charge that much interest, move your credit card company to South Dakota, where it is legal to charge nearly 30%. Oh, all the credit card companies are there – it’s not a coincidence – it’s a rip off.

But why don’t we change the law?

Why are our laws so skewed to benefit those at the top and not to redistribute enough wealth to ensure all Americans have a true opportunity to advance themselves?

Maybe because over the last decade the US Chamber of Commerce has donated roughly $400 million to politicians, the American Medical Association almost $200 million, General Electric also $175 million, the American Hospital Association roughly $153 million, AARP $140 million, the Pharmaceutical Companies $135 million, Defense contractor Northrup Grumman $118 million, plus the Realtors Association $108 million, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield $104 million, Exxon Mobile $90 million, Verizon $87 million. Whether a company gives it to a politician directly or puts it into his re-election fund, what really is the difference?

Where do companies and rich people get the money to make these laws?

Let’s ask Warren Buffet, the fairest, nicest rich guy in the world. He says his secretary pays 36% of her income in taxes. Warren, one of the richest guys in America, says he only pays 17%.

All over the world, executives would be embarrassed and refuse to be paid so much more than their employees. The concern is that their workers, shareholders, and society would find it immoral. But not here in America. Ludicrously high salaries don’t seem to be immoral to our executives – they just want to keep up with the other CEOs. They appoint their own Board of Directors who make sure they continue to get tens of millions of dollars a year.

As for their workers, outsource the buildings cleaning so the company doesn’t have to pay $16 an hour plus health care.

And while you’re at it buy a lobbyist to buy a politician to make sure wealthier folks only pay 35% of their income in taxes – or less – not 39% like during the Clinton years.

And buy a lobbyist to buy a politician to make sure the tax code has enough exemptions so that General Electric and Verizon pay zero corporate income taxes – or that Exxon Mobile and BP are paid with incentives by the government to look for oil, when were paying $3 a gallon at the pump. How about rich corporate farmers being paid to limit their crops? Just buy a politician, buy a lobbyist – you got plenty of money because we don’t tax you – you’ve rigged that too.

The outgoing Chairman of non-profit health care provider, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, just got $8.6 million per year, including almost $2 million not to work-a severance package. A previous CEO at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a non-profit that supplies health care, was paid $19 million dollars per year. That’s one reason why health care costs so much. It got so embarrassing Blue Cross thought about changing themselves into a for-profit company and they backed off – because then they would have to pay taxes.

Martin Luther King: said “I have a dream.”

I have a dream too that one day all workers will be paid enough to have a decent life.

I have a dream, that children will get the support they need to have a chance in life.

I have a dream, that people will not live for money but to make the world a better place.

I have a dream that all people who live anywhere in of the world will be looked upon with love, not just those who live in our great country.

I have a dream that we will look at the way the world could be, and to work every day to make it that way.

I have dreams that I don’t intend to give up, how about you?

To the moneyed interests, bring on your power, bring on your money. People power demands a new justice that respects all people’s dignity and freedom, not just your freedom to make and keep your money. Your wealth is well displayed; now display your compassion for others?

The Occupy Wall Street movement is not particularly popular. Four in ten people are skeptical about those participating. However, the issues they highlight as objectionable; income inequality in America and the concentration of political power that comes from the amassing of wealth among a very few individuals and companies, is a shared concern and identified as a big problem by 63% of Americans.