Occupy Wall Street: Are Big Corporations Leading to America’s Downfall?

The 99 percent consists of average Americans whose homes are being foreclosed upon, who have accrued colossal student loan debt and are most affected by economic setbacks. A definition of power is the “ownership, control, and distribution of resources”. In this way, the 99 percent is powerless in America because they lack the ability to exist independently of the one percent who has the power over the nation’s resources. The one percent has an advantage in its ability to influence the government and public policy. The protestors point to many societal problems as evidence of this inequality. Some of these examples are unequal access to healthcare, poverty, exorbitant student loan debt, unemployment, and unfair practices in the housing market. These are all indicators of the unequal distribution of resources and subsequently power that Occupy Wall Street denounces.

One of the strongest arguments against capitalism is the quote “It was a monster devouring with a thousand mouths, trampling with a thousand hoofs; it was the Great Butcher – it was the spirit of Capitalism made flesh.”(334), the description of monster depicts capitalism as barbaric instead of those under the influence of capitalism being barbaric. This quote lends itself to the idea that people must fight for what they

Occupy Wall Street symbolizes their frustrations through the various occupying demonstrations, signs, and most notably, their slogan: “We are the 99%” representing the growing inequality of the wealthiest 1% of America’s population and the rest of the country’s citizens. The top 1% has more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. In 2007, the richest 1% owned 34.6% of the country’s total wealth. After the Great Recession and economic crisis the amount of the country’s total wealth owned by the 1% grew from 34.6% to 37.1%.

He hopes that they will somehow find common ground, despite their extreme differences on most issues of policy. Yet he fails to emphasize how dependent this revolt, so celebrated by Chris Hedges, will be on the ability of these groups to respond to the anger and despair of struggling families and workers in productive ways. The $15 minimum wage campaign coming out of Seattle is showing the way for the Occupiers, even as Obama has abandoned them in favor of the corporate-driven Fast Track. But the Tea Party has only delivered for the Koch brothers and Wall Street. Even though the Tea Party has drawn on popular anger at Wall Street and corporations, their politicians have been easily bought off by those same money

As they protest the police can do very little to stop them because they will yell about police brutality and many other things and so as they march the horde grows and get bigger and they destroy small businesses and many people ways of living and they do not care what they do and when they finally get their point they the devastation they leave in their wake is unbelievable they say they want to make america good again befor that can happen the people need to help and fix the problem because the damages done cost people thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars.

A lot of these big businesses run similarly to dictatorship or communist countries, a person or small group making the decisions for the masses, which these policies only apply to the masses and not the group making the decision. Being above the corporate policies set forth for the worker allows these greedy employers to promise the world if the employee works hard to accomplish the company’s goals of profit. Then, when the employer wants more and the employee is not capable. They call the employee into the office to lay them off with no benefit other than the benefit of experience working in the company. Although there is still the opportunity for the American dream, big-business decisions are helping that dream fade away because of greed. These large corporations are pushing the percentage margin of profits to exceed well over twice the amount of capital; most of it goes into the pockets of the executives, that the company put in at the begin through the strategy of; laying-off employees, closing work sites, and buying out the smaller competition. However, the sovereignty of America is slowly dwindling away by the loss of buying power of the US dollar, through the impact of the decisions made by these small executive groups of big corporate America and foreign companies trying to beat the market leader. They clearly do this by lowering the cost of a similar product below what American companies can compete.

Within the Mexican American parties political participation has been a key factor towards getting representation within the eyes of the government. When people continue to protest for their rights they often show that they have not only begin the race, but they have put an effort to win. Organizations such as the UFW (United Farm Workers) have shown that political change can happen if people organize for a cause they believe in. This boycott showed that Mexican Americans are capable of organizing a group to voice their opinions against the dominant Anglo views. Mexican Americans were heard when they protested for their wellbeing because they were often being exposed to pesticides. Protests like this have shown that the voices of these protests

Despite the inequality in the United States, many Americans have been determined to have their voices heard. Recently, movements such as Occupy Wallstreet and the Tea Party Movement have formed in response to the growing wealth and control by the “1%”. These social movements have become very popular at times due to discontent among the populace and the wide accessibility of social media. While these movements tend to have rapid success early on; lack of cohesion, results, and true direction

To begin with, peaceful and violent protests can spark the change, or get the attention of more supporters until something is resolved for the equality. The article, “Making a Visual Argument:Inequality and the Occupy Movement” shows one of the most influential movement, the occupy movement. Occupy Miami showed a man with a dollar taped to his mouth reading “occupy.” Then, during the occupy Portland demonstration a young college girl Elizabeth Nichols is pepper sprayed at point blank. These acts caught the eyes of the American people, and rose in popularity. The occupy movement also showed American’s that there is a problem of economic equality through the occupy at Miami and Portland

Protests are still an essential part of America’s democracy today. Though times have changed a lot America still has many social issues. Most of these issues have to do with minorities. People are starting to realize how unfairly they are being treated and they want to do something about it. One of the more recent large protests was the women’s march that was held the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony. These women followed in the footsteps of the women in 1913 who were marching for their right to vote, civil rights, and economic equality. The large march widley known as the women’s march that was held January 21, 2017 was not only to bring awareness to issues such as gender inequality but it called for protection for immigrants,

For years now, business owners and political organizations have abused their power and position to corrupt the democratic process by using the American people for their own political and economic agenda. Millionaire business owners have been exploiting their position to make more money while also taking away their workers’ right to vote. This kind of exploitation exists across the country; in California, the Southern Pacific Railroad company has used their power to overprice their services and in New York, an large ice company has doubled the price of ice for their consumers. The situation becomes even more fraudulent when one discovers that many companies, including these two, have been paying government representatives to avoid legal trouble and forcing their workers to vote to keep these corrupt officials in office (“Progressive Era…”; “The Case for Tammany…”).

The protests that occurred after the elections consist of people with a narrative and collective identity. The protesters mostly identified as minorities who were and are still affected by Trump’s victory due to their own personal circumstance, such as being LGBTQ or undocumented. According to Polletta and Gardner, a protest or social movement typically

The purpose of the textbook, Who Rules America? by G. William Domhoff, is to explain his theory of Class Domination. My essay emphasises the relation of social class to power, the existence of a Corporate community, the relationship of the Corporate community to the upper class, and various methods used by the Corporate community to dominate the U.S Political System. Furthermore, my essay will discuss the potential limits to corporate power in America.

First, these protests woke Americans up from complacency, and combined with other forms of social activism. They helped to show citizens, policymakers, and anyone listening that there could be a better way. That hope was not just an idea, but a better future was both necessary and possible. The are

As citizens of the United States, we are members of the leading capitalist economy in the world. Our production and distribution is mostly done privately and we operate in a “profit” or “market” system. The capitalist system has been a target for criticism throughout the last three hundred years and is being discussed now more than ever due to the recent recession and financial crisis (Shaw and Barry n.d., 1). Its effects,