Nearly one-in-two Americans is near economic poverty. Well not poverty exactly, just in damned sucky straits, as it were. The poverty level has been set at around $25,000 for a family of four. To get the "low income" level--and that's where the one-in-two statistic comes into play--you double the poverty level. Low income then becomes around $50,000 for a family of four. The average for the one-in-two, adjusted with costs like childcare for working parents, transportation, and out-of-pocket medical costs comes to $48,000.
And those costs are REAL. We've all read the "If homemakers were paid what they're due" stories of how folks like me are CEOs running a corporation called FAMILY. And if you have a long commute--and do not live in a city or other locale with public transit--you know that your transportation costs come directly out of your paycheck. These "adjustments" and "studied examples of worth" are viable arguments of fact.
The USA: Where half the people are doing just fine, thank you very much. And you wonder why people choose to OCCUPY things. You CANNOT argue that all the OWS activists and supporters are grimy, dirty, commie pinko hippies when you've got FIFTY PERCENT of the nation staring at you down the barrel of myopic truth.
Then there's the story of how bank loans to small businesses are in the tank. These same banks have had no problem lending to businesses making between $10 and $100 million per year, but if you're coming in at $1 million of less: We're fresh out. Reminds me of an experience I had at a VERY FAMOUS HISTORICAL hotel in Denver--that should narrow it down for you--when I asked if they had any vacancies. "How many nights?" the desk clerk asked. "One," I replied. "No, we're full," was the answer.
If you want only one night, we have no rooms. If you have only $1 million, we have no money.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY OCCUPY WALL STREET EXISTS!! THIS IS THE DAMNED MESSAGE EVERYONE IS SO EXORCIZED ABOUT!! Occupy doesn't need a leader or a "mission statement", banks and corporations need a SOUL. And if you have a small business or know folks who own them, ask them why they don't walk up to the "desk clerk" at the Chamber of Commerce and ask for "one night" of consideration amongst the highly-financed vacation bought and paid for by the GOP, because they cannot have it both ways. The Chamber cannot suck up to the 1% for favors while standing at that desk staring at their REAL customer and saying, "Sorry, we don't have any lobbying left for the 99%. We're fresh out."
Small business people: You ARE "job-creators" but you too are being shafted by the tilt of the current playing field. THEY DON'T LIKE YOU, THEY REALLY DON'T LIKE YOU. Face it, you're stuck with us hippies in the dirt of the neighborhood park, or under our internet tent. Please bring toilet paper.
The message, lost to so many who have identified with their own hidden devils, is clear:
If you are hungry...YOU ARE US
If you need a new warehouse in order to grow your business...YOU ARE US
If you are living in your car...YOU ARE US
If you need a truck to sell your bread...YOU ARE US
If you lost your house to a bank...YOU ARE US
If you barely paid the mortgage to the bank...YOU ARE US
If you are ill and cannot pay to get well...YOU ARE US
If your practice needs another examination room...YOU ARE US
If you rely on a homeless shelter...YOU ARE US
If you need a new oven for your soup kitchen...YOU ARE US
If you rely on a charity...YOU ARE US
If you've seen donations to your charity plummet...YOU ARE US
There's no lack of idea here, only a misunderstanding, by some, that this is YOUR FIGHT TOO. You are invited. Your presence is requested. We need you; we need each other. Please RSVP.
Occupier/activist, small business, low income, in poverty, at risk, foreclosed on, under-capitalized: The label doesn't matter, just the reality. You are the 99%. And half of us are struggling. One-in-five kids are hungry as hell tonight and every night. This isn't going to get the play that a nation under seige from a natural nor national disaster would, but it's just as devastating for many of us. There's no massive drought, no junta or warlord, no tsunami, no earthquake. We've been hit by the lobbyists, the financial sector's lack of oversight (and consciences), and gutless, callous politicians. They are our tsunami. Our disaster was caused from within. We're like the dinosaurs, looking into the sky at the bright, firey star wondering, "What is that?"
Then the meteor strikes and the result: Huge hole in the Middle Class. The school children (if we still have an education system) may study it one day: That uniquely American idea of a class of people-- workers mainly, buoyed by their union rights and love of country--who ran things, made things, built things, had ideas, started businesses, gave other people jobs, and so on and so forth...
And then the headmaster will come into the room, swat at the renegade professor with a cat-o-nine-tails and send him back to his duty: Day-long viewing of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (with appropriate editing).
Soylent Green, anyone?
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