Marco Cuevas
Ms. Williams
English 1A
22 December, 2013
Occupy
Movement
The occupy movement it’s a national issue here in the
United States. The issue was brought up by mostly college students due to many
circumstances. The main focus being injustice of how the 99% is treated so much
differently than the top 1% wealthy individuals of this nation. The movement
aimed at changing aspects of unfairness in the education system and other
injustices of for example the effects of Wall Street and its decisions on the
people below those individuals. The movement has very large as it made an
impact in a lot of the states of this nation. Lots of students and organizers
went out to the streets in large crowds and protested for a change. The
political and economic side of this issue are well bonded so those individuals
with the money have all the power into influencing those decisions that they
want to see implemented and that it will only benefit them. For the past years
everything has been leaning to only the 1% while the 99% is completely put
aside and forgotten. The economic
inequalities amongst people are very unfair, especially for a lot of college
students that even with a degree they are unable to find a job and when they
do, the wages of pay of this jobs are very poor causing many to have to look
for a second job in order to sustain their responsibilities. The government is
lacking on stepping in to meet the demands of the citizens and work with the
occupy movement as its goals are to break the stereotypes on poverty, lower the
high amounts of debt of students, and put a stop to the injustices we have of
jobs and poor wages, in order to bring equality for all.
The
usual example one encounters when dealing with the top 1% is their beliefs that
people are poor for a reason and that reason must not be a good reason since
they are in such bad situation. The rich usually assumes many things about the
poor that do not necessarily connect with the real problems. They assume that
the poor are lazy, there violent, there crime committers, there uneducated,
etc. The government being the head of the nation needs to help to bring a stop
to this negativity but they don’t. “Employing the poor and eradicating poverty
is verbiage that has not been heard in the white House” (144). If the
government does not meet the request of the people, the issue is going to keep
in play, which only is going to enrage people more, which could lead to greater
things if the issue does not come to a solution. As the quote mentions, the
government does not do anything about poverty, it’s as if they do not care. As
a nation we are not going to get anywhere if the government and the people
don’t meet each other requests. It is important to see the demands of people
because they are the ones that contribute to the decisions of this country. Therefore
they need to be taken in consideration so that the differences of class and
poverty can be eradicated and this stereotypes can be broken in order to bring
equally to everyone because people are not poor because they want. They are set
up in a system to live by this circumstances.
The other big concern in which I believe the government
should really step in and help is with the debts of many of students in
college. The unexplainable amounts of money a student can own to banks or
private organizations, is simply insane. Educating one’s self should not get to
the point were once you have attain what
you wanted in life which is graduate with a good college degree, the amount of
debt is very high. The injustices this brings even though you are a college
graduate is completely wrong. Not to mention that even with a degree from a
higher educational institutions is going to guarantee you a job. Higher
education should be free. Being able to attain loans and then later paying them
should not be decisive whether or not one attends college and aims for a higher
education. Wall Street should not be taking the money that can be used for
higher education and then causing students to take loans out in order to go
into college. What is truly unbelievable is that when they are questioned about
the hogging of all this money and use of student loans to only get richer they
simply reply. “What? Me? No,” (154). Making it seem as if they were totally
unaware of the issue. Acting as if they somehow where suffering because of this
or were also victims of a game where they are the coaches. The true victims
being the students, which with the greatest of their strengths continuously
fight to move forward in life but unfairly they are the ones really affected
and it’s as if they had no importance. Therefore the government instead of
benefiting the wealthy should take a deep look on who is really being affected
and step in to create a better nation for the good of the country.
Lastly, the issue of jobs and wages are the other
concerns that need to be addressed. Jobs and wages are directly correlated and
is said to be that the easiest the job, the better the pay and the hardest the
job, the less the pay, which in my opinion is totally contradicting. A lot of
people that invested large amounts of money into a higher education find
themselves now a days, pursuing a job not a career even with a college degree.
The unfairness of this has been created by our people, the government. And why is
this the case we often ask ourselves? Well because the government has joined
the top 1% and left the 99% hopeless. Politically is as if the people had no voice,
there not heard, if there not the top 1%. Jobs are hard to find and hard to
keep, if the government keeps on benefiting the wealthy things will only
continue to get worst. And wages compared to the cost of living will only
continue to drop. “This is really the story of America… took away a lot of jobs
in America that used to provide a middle class income… instead of the
government helping to create new skills, new industries and so on, the
government teamed with the most powerful and richest…that’s how campaigns are
made and since those 30 years [they] have continued to side with the top 1
percent and totally ignore the bottom-the poorest people…” (138,139). This
passage clearly defines the circumstances that have been created and are pretty
much forced to live by since the top individuals have all the power to do as
they like. The inequality of wages and job salaries will continue to enlarge
the gaps of income between the poor and rich. We will continue to see a vast
difference in income of the poor and the rich and there will be no middle
class. This will continue to create more inequalities and injustices amongst
people, which will only bring more issues and raise more concerns on people. It
is important to involve the government and have them work with people in order
to create equality for all. The Occupy movement is hopeful that with unity of
the people we can see a change that will benefit everyone in the United States
of America.
As I have stated in the above arguments, the government
instead of helping and working with the people it has joined the wealthy and
completely gone against them. The occupy movement is serving as a revolt to
this issue which is completely necessary. If allowed to continue the top people
will only continue to take advantage of the lower classes and completely
neglect the 99%. As the slogan of the movement reads “we are the 99%” we must
infer to stop the 1% basically controlling every aspect of our lives with their
decisions. The movement has carried along the whole US so it has gathered
national attention. The government is lacking on stepping in to meet the
demands of the citizens and work with the occupy movement as its goals are to
break the stereotypes on poverty, lower the high amounts of debt of students,
and put a stop to the injustices we have of jobs and poor wages, in order to
bring equality for all. When the government starts to function as a real
government not as a group of greedy individuals we will then see a change in
society and students will not be afraid on wanting to attend a college
institution nor be afraid to stand up against the government on issues that are
vital to speak up for. If we continue to allow this, inequality amongst classes
will continue to rise only creating more gaps of injustice for people.
REFERENCES
The
Rich And The Rest of US by tavis Smiley + cornel West
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