The Occupy Wall Street protestors were in Union Square yesterday. It’s one of New York’s largest squares, being comprised of a huge park with a gigantic fountain at the intersection of Broadway and 14th street. People fill the area when the weather is nice. On certain days, one side of the park is transformed into a farmers’ market.
I bought some vegetables from the market. A line of police vehicles caught my attention as I walked along the street toward home. Then I realized that a large group of police were gathered near the subway entrance. I went to the shade by the fountain. There, a few protestors were sitting on beds that they had spread on the ground. The area of the park along 14th Street was quite crowded. Here, the Occupy Wall Street protestors were holding their demonstrations.
Although Union Square is near New York University, there were few young people. The demonstrators generally tend to be middle-aged or even a bit older.
The police just watched the events without intervening.
Support Has Waned
The Wall Street demonstrations began on Sept. 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park. Later on, the park was emptied out by the police. On the six-month anniversary of the movement, demonstrators dared to try and occupy the park again. The police arrested about 60 protestors. As a result, demonstrators began to gather in Union Square.
(Because Zucotti Park is private property, the ability of the police to intervene is limited. Union Square, however, is public space. As a matter of public safety, the police may remove the protestors at any time.)
It impossible not to notice that as the number of protestors has decreased so has the enthusiasm for the demonstrations. I asked some of them, “So, what are you protesting?” Health care, social security and unemployment were the biggest complaints. Very few of them mentioned income inequality.
However, income inequality was the only topic that the Occupy movement tried to attract attention to when it first began.
While the top 1 percent of America’s population held 9.1 percent of the wealth in 1980, it came to hold 23.5 percent by 2007, before the economic crisis. Between 2002 and 2007, 66 percent of America’s gross national product went into the pockets of the nation’s top 1 percent.
The Middle Class Is Losing Out
While the income of the top 1 percent increased by 275 percent between the years of 1979 and 2007, the income of the middle class, which makes up 60 percent of the population, only showed an increase of 40 percent during the same time period.
In 2007, 34.6 percent of the total wealth in the country was owned by the top 1 percent. While the top 20 percent of the country owned 85 percent of the wealth, the bottom 80 percent only owned 15 percent of it.
The richest 1 percent own 42.7 percent of the nation’s capital, while the top 20 percent own 93 percent of the capital. The other 80 percent of the population only own 7 percent of the nation’s capital.
While the richest 1 percent lost 11 percent of their capital in the economic crisis, the middle class suffered losses of 36.1 percent. As a result, the richest 1 percent’s share of capital went from 34.6 percent to 37.1 percent, and the share of the top 20 percent went from 85 percent to 87.7 percent. The middle class lost out.
The Wall Street protestors, who see themselves as members of the 99 percent, are trying to explain these inequalities in distribution to the public. People must be content in their situations, however, as few seem to give them much support.
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