The Message of the Wall Street Protests

The protest at the center of the world financial industry, Wall Street, in New York City, has spread to Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., over the weekend, and it looks like it will spread to Canada and other countries as well. In the beginning, this protest was miniscule, and its goal was not transparent. It started with unemployed young professionals and students gathering at a park near Wall Street, who came together to relieve stress and do face paintings. But as time went on, a consensus formed among the protesters against the extreme income gap in the U.S. and Wall Street’s casino-like practice of capitalism. They eventually developed into demonstrators and put out a slogan, “Occupy Wall Street,” garnering more people through social media networks.

The demonstrators showed their discontent, claiming that the top 1 percent of Americans have more income than the bottom 90 percent, and “the bankers fattened themselves when business was good, but when they are at the brink of bankruptcy, they push our citizens into unemployment and our government into debt.”* The demonstrators ballooned to thousands in New York City last weekend as celebrities such as movie director Michael Moore and actress Susan Sarandon, as well as activists from large unions joined the demonstrators.

The color of the Wall Street protest is different from France and Britain’s riots, Greece’s welfare protest and the demonstrations for democracy in the Middle East. There is no looting as there was in the riots in France and Britain, no intense street skirmishes like in Greece, and there are no bullets or missiles flying around as in the demonstrations for democracy in the Middle East. Only about 700 protesters have been arrested for marching on the street despite warnings from police to stay on sidewalks.

The Wall Street protest gives us an opportunity to reflect on the vulnerability of capitalism. Although it is hard to agree with the protesters’ anti-market ideology, it is true that the extreme egoism of banks and corporations has created mistrust and discontent in the world. The Wall Street demonstrators are demanding that banks reflect on whether they put the risks on society while devouring all the profits, and that corporations reflect on whether they allocated all the benefits to the management and large shareholders and not to their employees.

Capitalism and democracy come as a pair. The superiority of capitalism over communism is that capitalism can evolve and adapt through democratic means. Capitalism evolved through crisis. Capitalism took on different shapes through the Keynesian economy and Beveridge-type welfare policies during the Great Depression in the 1930s and through the Thatcher- and Reagan-type economies during the inflation crisis in the 1980s. Governments, corporations and bank capitalists in various countries must reflect on the current Wall Street protest.

*Editor’s Note: This quote, while translated accurately, could not be verified.