Occupy Wall Street

Major Paper

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street was initiated by Kalle Lasn and Micah White of Adbusters, a Canadian anti-consumerist publication. The whole idea of the Occupy Wall Street protest was a stand against corporate greed, social inequality and the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement began on Sept. 17, 2011, when a disperse group of activists began a loosely organized protest called Occupy Wall Street, encamping in Zuccotti Park, a privately owned park in New York’s financial district. The plan for the movement was to camp out for weeks or even months to replicate the kind, if not the scale, of protests that had taken action earlier in 2011 in Tunisia and Egypt. The movement (OWS) had a slogan ‘’we are the 99 percent’’ The 1 percent refers to the banks, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry, etc. The 99 percent refers to everyone else. This movement reflected the frustration that many Americans that were struggling were feeling towards giant companies on Wall Street and their irresponsible actions.

This matter is considered of high importance because the financial service industry has the potential to impact the economy negatively like it did by the end of 2007 in the United States due to irresponsible actions from banks, and lack of strong regulations. The wrongdoing of financial institutions has an impact on average Americans because when things go wrong and the government has to step up, it is the taxes that average Americans pay that are used to stimulate the economy by injecting billions of dollars into the industry. Also, the wrong decisions from banks on Wall Street affects the well being of Americans by having unemployment rate increase due to the negative impacts on the economy. Furthermore, Americans are more than ever worried about the national deficit of about $16 trillion, and with all the reasons in favor they feel that in order to start reducing the deficit, it would be prudent to start making act of presence on the most connected industry to the problem.

This social problem of corporate greed among Wall Street, the social inequality and the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process is being addressed by the government in the following way. The president of the United States of America Mr. Barack Obama spoke sympathetically of the Wall Street protests, saying they reflected “the frustration” that many struggling Americans were feeling. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, sounded similar themes. It is still in question whether the leaders of the Occupy Wall Street movement really want the backup of the democratic establishment given that some of the movement’s complaints are addressed to The Obama Administration.