Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street has been called many things including: unfocused, ungrounded, and silly. Others coin it as “America’s first internet-era movement” (Rushkoff). In quintessence, Occupy Wall Street is a series of protests and demonstrations that oppose the influence that corporate greed has on American Democracy. The protestors manipulate marches and nonviolent demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the state of American Politics and economy. This relates to the political science concepts of power, performance democracy, and protective democracy.

On September 17, 2011 hundreds of people began to gather in Zuccotti Park, New York which is Wall Street’s financial district under the banner “Occupy Wall Street”: these three simple words are causing an uproar in America (Engler). Additionally, these three words happen to be protesting the current status of America’s financial condition. With the economy in America being as terrible as it is, and the unemployment rate skyrocketing, it is absolutely necessary for some sort of change to occur. The Occupy Wall Street protesting is most positively a progressive step for the economic state in America and it is a step in the right direction.

The vast wealth inequality in America (and the rest of the world) has been cited as a problem by Obama in many of his State Of The Union address, the Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen, and many other liberal politicians and economists. Their talk about the problem of how the “1%” help perpetuate the wealth inequality has brought this issue to the forefront of society. In America, many citizens believe firmly in the idea of equality. The fact that some people have more money than they could ever spend, while others live in poverty on the streets conflicts with that value of equality. The most famous reaction to this rampant inequality was the Occupy Wall Street movement that started in 2011. Tens of thousands of people camped out next to Wall Street offices in New York and several other financial centers across the nation to protest the inequality between the 1% and the other 99%. This infamous movement gained media attention as the vocal protesters wanted to make it known that the wealth divide is unacceptable and politicians must rectify the situation. One important policy tool the United States has implemented to combat wealth inequality is a progressive tax. This means that people with more income are taxed at a higher rate than those with lower income. However this tax system has many loopholes in the United States, and the wealthiest individuals are routinely able to avoid being taxed at a higher rate by distributing their wealth in bank accounts

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

September 17, 2011 is the day the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City. The main issues include social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government according to The New York Times. The mix of moral foundations based on ideas from the anthropologist Richard Shweder, outline six clusters of moral concern - care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority, or sanctity. OWS main moral issues include: fairness, care, and liberty. Fairness – the rich (the “1” percent) got rich by taking without giving. OWS protesters viewed the

On September 17, 2011 an unorganized, rudimentary, and diffuse group of activists set up camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park, a privately owned green space in New York’s financial district. The group set out to battle social inequality, corporate greed, and the super power that financial institutions and multinational companies hold over the democratic process. What started out as a grass roots movement has since become a major hot button in media and politics alike. Newt Gingrich has called the “concept of the ninety-nine and the one” both divisive and “un-American.” (Stolarik) When asked about the OWS movement, former President Jimmy Carter has said “Helping the less fortunate should be viewed as a moral obligation and not an act

On September 17, 2011, in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis, thousands of protestors amassed in Zuccotti Park, New York City to protest against wealth inequality and economic injustice. “We are the 99%” was suddenly a phrase traced onto pieces of cardboard, printed on front pages of newspapers, and rolling off the tongues of both sympathizers and critics alike. The newest unwelcome tenants in Manhattan’s Wall Street financial district began amassing something akin to Hoovervilles out of tarps, tents, and cardboard. Seemingly overnight, a social movement was born.

In current times we often observe that many members of our society receive less than other members regardless of whether they are no less deserving. In contrast, there are some who have ownership over assets and earn income that they may not be deserving of. The distributive balance is upset and wealth distribution today can thus be seen as a social injustice. This injustice that is becoming more noticeable as people start to become aware of the facts, as we can see through the start of the occupy wall street movements that, first started on wall street in America, have spread to other countries (one of which being Australia). As a consequence of how wealth is habitually distributed and the way in

In 2008, the United States of America (US) experienced a financial crisis which affected the rest of the world. Investment banks and Wall Street crashed. It left a good portion of US citizens in debt, unemployed, homeless, etc. As a result, Occupy Wall Street became a movement to demonstrate that the people have had enough and started protesting and voicing their opinions. In terms of globalization, the development of ‘Occupy’ movements have altered the notion of social movements to which it is not just about highlighting and fighting for causes, rather it desires to place the power back into the hands of the people. The term ‘movements’ has become a catchall definition about the mobilization of people from short term causes to longterm

One claim is that corporations have been given unfair advantages over the American people. From being exempt from taxes to being able to bypass giving health insurance benefits to employees, there are many loopholes the government has created between themselves and the corporations. Both the OWS and the Tea Party seem to agree on this point. But are the corporations to blame for that? Sure, the American people are suffering from this greed, but the corporations are capitalizing from what is being given to them. And from what these protestors are stating, it appears that they would do the same too. Seeing the need for change throughout the United States, the” 99 % of Americans” are stepping up. They are determined to make a change in today’s society and refuse to let government cronyism and corporate greed lead to the further downfall of the economy and another depression. And although corporate greed is a major problem in our society, it is not always the case. Corporations do not always end up on top and many have gone bankrupt since over the last several years.

This reading was about social movements, how they are started and why, which is ultimately, to bring about important social changes. This chapter also talks about the important social movements which took place in America, from the women's suffragette movement, to the civil rights movement, to the legalization of same sex marriage and the LGBTQ movement. These chapters also defined social movements as “collective challenges, based on common purposes and social solidarities, in sustained interaction with elites, opponents, and authorities”. These two beginning chapters also delve into what is to be expected later on in the book. These first two chapters made me realize just how many different social movements there are, whether in the past

On a brisk September day in 2011, in the commercial district of Manhattan Island, a minute protest in Liberty Square began against the fiscal atrocities committed by economic establishments that led to the financial crisis and subsequent economic recession in 2007 and 2008. Over the course of the month, the movement protesting the miscarriage of justice and democracy following the economic catastrophe and the overall inequitable and unfair wealth distribution diffused to over 100 American cities as well as 1,500 cities worldwide. The revolutionary movement would be called Occupy Wall Street and through occupying and protesting the symbolic location of the financial elite, Wall Street, the crusade aimed “to fight back against the corrosive

Occupy Wall Street’s opposing expression of the disparity between the wealthy and the poor may have begun in good faith by utilizing the Freedom of Speech and General Assembly amendment rights, but the strategies some of the protestors have demonstrated are resulting in adverse reactions against themselves. The Occupy Wall Street movement will assuredly cost affected cities in the double digits of millions of dollars. Increases in payroll, overtime, and business expenses will inadvertently backfire and increase layoffs. The burden the protestors physically place on a city is weighing down an already financially stressed situation. The mass of people and their tent lifestyle is causing a drain on city finances, and alas, the money is coming

Have you heard in the news about the Occupy Wall Street Movement of recent years? Starting in September of 2011, people began protesting around the globe about unequal distribution of wealth in the world. Their slogan, "We are the 99%" represents the idea that the general public is the 99 percent and that the other one percent is represented by the wealthiest members of

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the name given to a protest movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district. The Canadian group and magazine Adbusters initiated the call for protest with assistance from the Manhattan-based public relations firm Workhorse, who was well-known for its successful work on brands including Mercedes and Saks Fifth Avenue. The ensuing series of events helped lead to media awareness that inspired Occupy protests and movements around the world. In awarding Workhorse its Platinum Award, industry publication PRNews noted the results, obviously, have been spectacular. There’s hardly a newspaper, Internet