Since protesters began camping out in Zuccotti Park last September, the chief criticism of the Occupy movement has been that it has no goal. Yet, among the several ideologies that make up Occupy Wall Street and its affiliates, there has always been one core message: Income inequality and government corruption are ruining the country.
In an act of solidarity, several aspects of this message were echoed last Wednesday in President Obama’s State of the Union address.
In his speech, the president emphasized “fairness” and a “shared responsibility” in the economy. Obama’s call for a “Buffet tax,” which would raise the tax rate of those making more than $1 million annually to 30 percent, and a bill to stop insider trading in Congress addressed the systemic inequality in the country and the corruption in government, respectively.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” Obama said. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of movement.”
Believing income inequality is the main issue facing the country today is not a radical notion.
Today, the top 400 richest Americans together have more wealth than the entire bottom half of the country. In other words, 400 people in this country have more money combined than the bottom 150 million. That is a significant statistic, which highlights the centralization of power and wealth in this country into the hands of very few.
Yet this trend has existed for years. The Congressional Budget Office states that since 1979, the top 1 percent of households have seen their income increase by 275 percent. Meanwhile, the median wage for workers has remained essentially stagnant while the cost of living has risen.
Still, not all of Occupy’s message has been addressed. Campaign finance reform is an essential part of the movement’s platform, yet the Citizens United case and the use of super PACs have not been addressed by Obama.
This is likely because Obama benefits from the use of super PACs himself.
Still, Obama’s attention to the lack of economic fairness and equality should legitimize the movement’s goals in the eyes of establishment figures and skeptics.
“Obama is clearly emphasizing fairness in a way that builds on Occupy Wall Street but potentially broadens it outside of the movement,” Goidel said.
However, people should take Obama’s statements with a grain of salt, seeing as this is an election year. Whether Congress and Obama take real action to address these issue remains to be seen.
What is clear is that although the Occupy movement has effectively gone into hibernation for the winter, the issues it fights are still real and relevant.
David Scheuermann is a 20-year-old mass communication and computer science sophomore from Kenner. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_dscheu.
—-
Contact David Scheuermann at [email protected]