After reading Mr. Henry’s piece, it occurred to me that pretty much anyone can write a similar
piece. All one has to do is listen to
Rush Limbaugh, then flip over to Sean Hannity.
Then, you just write down their talking points, and, bingo, you’re done.
Mr. Henry’s premise is that while the Tea Party movement is
a well- reasoned, deeply felt grass roots movement, Occupy Wall Street is just
a bunch of kooks who put on funny costumes and want the government to take care
of them. It’s an interesting idea, but
where is the support for his premise? I
searched through his article for facts and statistics to support his concept,
and came up empty.
While I don’t support every aspect of Occupy Wall Street, I
have no doubt that they are well-meaning people whose anxiety about our country’s
future is deeply felt. What enrages
Occupy Wall Street is that we are increasingly becoming a nation of haves and
have nots. Unlike Mr. Henry, let me
offer some facts.
In 2007, the last year for which such information is
available, the top 1% of the US population held 43% of the country’s financial
wealth and 35% of the total net worth. By contrast, the bottom 80% of the
population has only 7% of financial wealth and 19% of the total net worth. The
percentage held by the very wealthy has been steadily increasing during the
past generation, and dramatically so since 2001, when the Bush tax cuts on the
rich came into effect. The last time we
had this much wealth disparity was the gilded age of the robber barons. Many folks feel that they’ve been playing by
the rules, but the American Dream is just a game that is rigged against them. These concerns are the genesis of Occupy Wall
Street.
It is counterproductive to dismiss the concerns of either
the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street. Mr.
Henry’s right wing talking points bring us no closer to a solution to our
country’s problems.
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