For the past few weeks the Occupy Wall Street movement is gaining momentum and spreading across the world – to Europe and Asia. Protests in the US are loosely organized, but a general theme is based on the theory that the richest 1% of the US population controls a disproportionate share of wealth and political power. Also, there are complaints on the 9.1% U.S. unemployment rate, the housing crisis and the expensive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The way banks and financials institutions were bailed out and social expenditure was cut are the elements of frustration and anger.
The feelings of the common Americans are easily understood – the situation has reached an inflection point with disparity glaring widely. Some statistics indicate, from 1981 to 2008, average incomes in the US still grew by $12,000 a year. But strikingly, nearly 96% of that growth went to the richest 10% Americans and the other 90% of people had to scramble for the remaining 4% of growth. CEO compensation in the US is now 350 times the average worker’s pay, up from 50 times during the period 1960-85. After adjusting for inflation, hourly average wages haven’t increased in nearly 50 years. Is corporate greed stemming from lack of fear for God and His justice?
The US President and the political circles are yet to voice any strong opinion for or against this movement. President Obama, at function in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., referred to the protests saying the civil rights leader “would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing those who work there” – probably indicating a tacit moral support for the move.
Over the past weekend, similar Occupy rallies were held in nearly 950 cities in over 80 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and even Africa. Cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo that have benefited enormously from the global capitalist free-market system, and have no strong record of Leftist radicalism, have also curiously witnessed rallies in solidarity with the uprising in America.
In an article in The Guardian, Tony Greenham commented on why this is protest is finding so many supporters across the globe: there has been no public inquiry into the causes of the financial crash of 2008; no calling to account of those who drove the ship on to the rocks; no assertion of the public interest over financial markets; no subordination of banks to the needs of the real economy; no politician to dare face down global finance; no challenging of the defunct dogmas of neoliberal economics and no attempt to reverse the breathtaking wealth grab by the 1% at the expense of the rest ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/16/global-economy-broken-how-fix-it ).
But the real question is whether this movement will make any change the way governments and policy makers deal with private financial institutions and large global corporations? The concern is, who is to be trusted to correct this situation to bring in an equitable environment? Why should the existing ‘political and economic and financial elite’ who are currently in charge of the system change the situation to benefit the have-nots?
Wealth and money seems to defy the laws of physics and have a tendency of trickling upwards to increase the wealth of the rich, rather than falling downwards to improve the living conditions of the poor.
So, do we give recommendations for profit limit and executive compensation to the global corporations? That defies the fundamentals of capitalism and rewarding performance?
Personally, I wish you good luck, OWS! I am not sure if you will make a change but Karl Marx must be turning in his grave.