When you peel back the layers of the Occupy movement, if it can or should even be labeled such, past the filth and the yelling, beyond the bongos and the lists of ridiculous demands, and look deep into the very heart of the issue, you won’t find a burning desire for change. You won’t find conviction and purpose. You won’t find honor and you certainly won’t find solidarity. What you’ll find, instead, is apathy. There can be no desire to initiate change when you’re not sure what you’re looking to change, there can only be an indifference to the way things are and a hoping that they might somehow be different. It’s in the hoping and the bongo playing and in the cloud of tear gas that you’ll find a most apathetic soul looking for something without knowing what that is or how to find it.
The shame of this disgruntled movement is that they fail to see the bigger picture. If they’re upset about credit default swaps and tainted packages of mortgage backed securities, one can hardly fault them. But what they just now realized the rest of us figured out and moved past two years ago, and in their belated angst they’re missing a golden opportunity. As several have pointed out, the Occupy Wall Street crowd is good at the occupying part, as they’ve been occupying mom’s basement for years. I think the point being missed here by the very group that is protesting the times is that they should instead be embracing them.
The tumult of the last four years has left a golden opportunity for one demographic in particular. It’s been tough on retirees, those who banked on home equity to provide a comfortable retirement. Their loss is unfortunate and mostly unrecoverable. Those middle aged among us have been hammered too, both through home values and portfolio values, even if our job status has remained secure and unchanged. But the occupy movement, while tinged with gray around the edges, is at its root a young persons insurrection. It is a young generation complaining about what the older generation has done to them. The injustices, as they see it, have handicapped them and stolen their American dream. This is what they believe, and they couldn’t be more wrong.
The crash of the housing market demoralized millions, this is irrefutable. But in order to be severely hurt by the crash one would have likely had to have been an actual property owner. If you’re renting an apartment and the value of the home across the street has dropped 35%, does this matter? It matters in a macro sense, but on a deeply personal, selfish level, has it hurt someone who holds no stock and owns no property? Or does this drop create opportunity for the only group in a position that might be poised to take advantage of the misfortune of others? The truth of the moment is that the very group who is protesting supposed corporate greed is the very group who can benefit the most from it.
If you make $50,000 per year and you have three kids and a mortgage on a home that far exceeds the current value, this is not an enviable position. But if you make $50,000 per year and you own no home and you have no kids and only seriously deferred student debt to contend with, is this an apathetic position or one of strength? If that home, the one across the street and down a ways, the one that sold in 2006 for $370k is now listed as REO for $219k, and FHA is willing to accept a 5% down payment with a historic low rate of 4%, is this a difficult situation or an epic one? If your mortgage payment on a previously over valued home is now just $950 per month is this something to protest or is it something to be immediately seized?
You say that they don’t have jobs, and this is why they protest. I say that the numbers circulating show that 85% of them have jobs. I also understand that many of those jobs may be positions that don’t support a home purchase, and I say that perhaps not all of them could be house hunting instead of getting stoned on tax payer owned land, but maybe half of them could. They’re sitting in squalor protesting their inability to achieve the American dream when their American dream is probably bank owned right now with a for sale sign in the unkempt front lawn. Is this inequality or is this an opportunity that exists for this unencumbered group the likes of which hasn’t existed on such a polished silver platter since their grandfathers came home from the war?
I like to ridicule the Occupy movement. If you follow me on Twitter, you know this. But as much as I’d like to deride them for their behavior, I’d rather suggest to them that they channel whatever motivation they do have in a way that can actually change their lives. From a political, legislative stance, nothing will come of this movement, save perhaps some stricter laws regarding public assembly. A populist president will cajole his populist base, and they will sleep in parks and one of them, or tens of them, will find a way to freeze to death under some bench this January. The irony of a person protesting their misfortune when surrounded by unprecedented opportunity is one that I hope they’ll realize sooner rather than later.
Bravo!
David, YOU sound like the one who doesn’t understand what the Occupy movement is all about. You look like an idiot when you assume that the participants are all young, filthy and stupid. This country was founded on the ideals of people who were willing to put comfort and safety aside and rally for change.
I only assume the participants are young and stupid and questionably filthy because those are the ones that are shown on my television. I’ve also read plenty on the conditions inside of these "camps" and the accusations of sexual abuse and the like, and these sort of allegations do not jive with a belief that they are promising young, misunderstood, citizens. The country was founded on a belief that personal freedom was the key to success, this movement appears to look for a handout from those who have already achieved that success. Thanks for reading, David
Do you believe everything you see on TV? Everything you read in the newspapers? Shame on you for assuming and generalizing. The majority of the people you deal with in your profession are the "have more" (vs the "have" and the "have not"). It is difficult for this segment of the population to really grasp what the vast majority of Americans are dealing with each day. You are entitled to your opinion and free to write whatever you wish in your column but you clearly do not have an understanding of the problems facing the average person today. You come off as quite arrogant.
I do not mean to come off as being arrogant, but I have little time for those who expect something from others for nothing. I have a pretty deep understanding of the problems that face most Americans, as I am one. I made $21,000 one year not too long ago, and the strange thing about that year was that it didn’t trigger me to put my hand out.I kept paying my own health insurance, and defensively sold a house for 30% less than I had hoped it was worth. Then I tried to work a bit harder and a bit smarter. I didn’t ask for anything from anyone else, and I’ve been fortunate and blessed since. Perhaps if those in the movement that you obviously support would attempt to do the same they’d be better off too. Familiarize yourself with the ludicrous list of demands that this group is broadcasting and you’ll see this is about little more than populist class warfare and it ends the same way it started.