Rainman Suite

“I don’t know what to do about the depression, inflation, and the Russians, and the crime in the street. All I know is first, you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, god dammit. My life has value.'”

I stopped by the Occupy Wall Street protest in Washington Square Park the other day. It was pretty chaotic. Lots of angry hippie-looking people shouting and holding signs. Some of them seemed to be enjoying themselves. I’m just beginning to wonder if it’s worth it. Will they enact change or even make people look at the world a little differently? It’s been hard to get a unified message out of the Occupiers but then again, America is so fucked up it’s hard to pick just one thing to rail against.

The difference between Occupy Wall Street and other protests is that the protesters are the majority. This isn’t women fighting for their right to vote or African-Americans fighting segregation, this is 99% of the population fighting against the 1% who are taking advantage of them. The protesters have a right to be angry. America is a capitalist country but it is also a country built on compassion and brotherhood.

People with innovative ideas and strong work ethics no doubt deserve to be compensated more than the rest of us, but not at our expense. America is not going to evolve if only a select few are able to live comfortably while the masses struggle to survive. We are only as good as the people around us. What good is having money if others are so hungry that they’re willing to steal it? That’s no way to be as a country.

I’m not complaining about the price of Yankee tickets, an HDTV, or a pair of jeans from Express. It’s the basic things. People shouldn’t have to take out a loan to afford medical care. Just because you can charge more for a appendectomy, doesn’t mean you should. Kids are going massively in debt to go to average schools and then are met by an empty job market. Just as bad is the janitor making $150,000 in “overtime.” Spread the wealth.

There are people that are buying homes and cars while school funding is being cut. Companies angle for tax cuts to help their bottom line so that stockholders (and especially executives with stock options) can cash in when senior care centers are closing. Why is executive pay increasing exponentially when employees are getting laid off? Is a $4 million salary really that much better than $3 million when that difference can pay for 20 employees that may be currently unemployed? It’s not a bad thing if profits go down because you hire extra workers.

Somewhere along the way, greed became acceptable in this country, and not just amongst the upper class. The sales for luxury brands like Gucci and Prada keep rising while the economy stays stagnant. I have friends that complain about being broke but still go out and buy $200 sunglasses. Sure, everybody deserves to splurge every once in a while but this culture of spending and consuming is out of control. Everybody wants more, so prices go up, first on jewelry, then on gas, then on milk. People can’t afford to feed their kids while some punk banker is buying $600 bottles of vodka at 1oak. That’s not fair.

That brings us back to Wall St. The reason it’s being targeted by the Occupiers is because the irresponsible bets made by the banks are the major cause of our current economic situation. At the same time, there was minimal accountability for those who were in charge and salaries and bonuses are still high even as the banks suffered massive losses and ordinary people lost their homes and life savings.

How about if a bank loses $1 billion, then its employees lose $1 billion worth of salary? Let’s see how many bros stay in finance. There are so many smart people that do nothing but push paper and money back and forth working for these banks. It’s a shame they choose to work there instead of making advances in medicine and technology or solving important problems like global warming. Why are people only considered successful when they can afford cars and boats and not when they actually accomplish something?

It’s hard to figure out how to make a change. That’s why Occupy Wall Street exists. They don’t know what they want; they just know that things need to change. When a bully picks on you, there are two choices: do nothing or stand up to him. Judging from their new members and monetary and emotional support they’ve gotten from around the country, more than just the Occupiers are starting to do the latter.

The trick is to convince the general public that the movement isn’t just filled with crazy people which is kinda hard considering that most of them look like they are. Some people think they’re just jealous or angry about being unemployed, and publicity stunts can only work so much before people tire of them. A few intelligent, coherent, and attractive (hey, it helps) leaders need to step up to give this movement a real voice with smart ideas. Occupy Wall Street is not going to overhaul the system, but really now a push in the right direction would be a big help. This is America, people! We have to be good to one another. A buck isn’t worth putting in your pocket if it hurts another person.