How Occupy Wall Street Turns Into Occupy Walnut Street
You might by now have heard of Occupy Wall Street, an anonymous movement in New York City meant to put an end to the corrupt relationship between government and Wall Street.
Although OWS was initially dismissed by major publications as juvenile and disorganized, the demonstration has quickly gained publicity, mostly stemming from reports of police brutality. An estimated 100 people have been arrested in the last week, including a handful of Columbia students.
In the past few days, the movement has garnered many supporters, among them Michael Moore and Penn alum Noam Chomsky. Some have gone so far as to compare this protest with those of Greece and Arab nations. As much as we all love to joke about that red tower of greed that casts its long shadow over the rest of campus, the OWS movement has serious implications for us, as Penn students and millennials.
Here’s the deal. Penn is great, we love it dearly, and it certainly deserves its top spot on whatever list another unoriginal journalist/statistician invents today or tomorrow. We can all agree on that. But if we’re being completely honest, then we all know that without Wharton, Penn would only have half the reputation that it has today.
Sure, we make fun of everyone in their penguin suits during OCR and “OMG did you hear Fine Arts major Liz like totally sold out and works for BlackRock now?,” but at the end of the day, Penn is a huge Wall Street feeder school with hundreds of graduates trickling into New York every year, and the brunt of our reputation comes from the CEOs who have Penn degrees framed on their office walls. Penn needs Wharton and Wharton needs Wall Street, so if Wall Street takes a hit, as Penn students and alumni, we all take a hit.
If you’re not buying that argument, it’s cool. Here’s another. OWS affects more than just Wall Street, Wharton and even—gasp—Penn. In fact, this attack on Wall Street actually serves as a rallying call for all millennials.
It’s important to note that the majority of protesters at OWS are Generation Y-ers just like us, and they’ve got the same controversial sob story you hear and read about in the news all the time. Have these millennials done everything right just to graduate at the wrong place and time into an economy tarnished by previous generations, or have these “trophy kids” simply emerged into the real world with a false sense of entitlement, quick to blame everyone and take no responsibility for themselves?
Like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, the OWS movement is a generational issue that involves all of us. If it’s to be taken seriously, the movement raises important concerns like whether this is perhaps the first real opportunity for our generation to take matters into our own hands and make an influential and positive change. It awakens in us something that we’ve known all along: that all these years of education and practice are about to be tested; the roles are turning over and soon we’ll be running the show. But how do we want it run?
Occupy Wall Street hits closer to home than we might initially think. It not only shakes the foundations of established institutions like Wall Street and Penn, but it also forces our generation to recognize the flaws in the system around us, to recognize the flaws in ourselves, and to hopefully find solutions and prove that we’re more than a bunch of passive tweeting Facebook stalkers still living with our parents. No matter what we individually decide is right, OWS emphasizes the importance of having an opinion.
Tags: News, generation y, millennials, new york city, noam chomsky, occupy wall street, protest, walnut street, wharton
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By Ben Bernanke on September 27, 2011 at 9:45 am
Please stop the bloviating – these protests are being led by unemployed, lazy, “free spirit” hippies that wouldn’t like Wall Street even if they donated away every cent of profit. To compare the protests in New York to anything in Europe or the Middle East, where people have actually died, shows such a pathetic understanding of the issues driving each protest and only makes your premise look more uninformed. Also, this is not a “generational issue”. The protestors will eventually leave New York and return to smoking pot and writing music in their parents’ basements, and Wall Street will continue on its way.
And then I’ll post it on my own blog and it will seem like this is an editorial for a “well respected blog” when in fact the contrivance is situated in my head somewhere because I remembered that Wall St is important and so is Penn, and this is on the news so its important, then if you put all the important things in my head together at one time you can see that this affects us all because UTB is important, I am important and you all at Penn are important –and wait– if you go to Wall St after you read this you will instantly realize, like I did after like 3 Whipped Creamtinis sitting around with my girlfriends (who are on financial aid or something but its all loans and no handouts cuz they Get It) and this is why we brought up poor people in the Wall Streets because maybe they are rich because those guys from Columbia are there but if they’re rich and protest maybe it affects us too since we are rich but in Philadelphia but we Get It because Wharton is Wall St and Vice Versa so you can practically see protesters outside Delta Tau but that’s a metaphor because this how English people write we don’t define or draw conclusions we Allude and paint you a picture of maybe how things are for the idiots who think protests amount to anything, then commenting on the irony of engendering change through writing passive tweets about disaffected young entitled idiots is like almost the blend of person I wrote about and you are too, that Penn affects the OWS Protestors and they should write a Twitter/Blog Piece on how Ivy League schools are changing their world and what this means to them they just need to wake up and realize the Fat Cats in their Silver Towers were once the Rich Girls (just like Liz from Fine Arts!) in the Ivory Towers Like OMG WOAH META
@ “Ben Bernake” – Did you for real just say make it seem like lazy and unemployed are related? I invited you to go into West Philly, or any urban inner city or small town, and meet all the people working their ass off at a minimum wage job, or recent college grads who did everything they were “supposed to” but can’t get a job, or people who worked for 20 years and then got laid off. Some people cannot get a job. This doesn’t mean they are lazy. Clearly if the system is failing the 9.1% of people who are unemployed, not mention the underemployed, it is not working.
I do agree with you on one thing – not a generational issue. The system is failing people of all ages, and Ivy League grads definitely have it better than most. But if you watch videos of the protest, that’s not really who’s there. There are people of all ages there. Even more cannot be there because of their families or jobs, but are supporting the protesters.
While not necessarily linked, laziness (apathy is perhaps a better term) and unemployment are often related. Many studies have shown that if unemployment benefits were reduced to historically normal levels (and not 90+ weeks, as they are currently), the unemployment rate would drop by 2-3%.
The reality is that most people make an insufficient effort to better themselves or obtain employment, and protesting Wall Street in NYC is simply a way for these individuals to distract themselves from their own inadequacies, shortcomings, and lack of true motivation. The economy is not what it once was, and securing enjoyable, enriching, and well paying jobs will require effort and commitment most Americans are unprepared for. What share of terminally unemployed people are constantly and actively looking for a job (I mean searching 10+ hours per day continuously)? Networking/reach out to acquaintances in an attempt to uncover opportunities? Going to a public library to learn skills, knowledge, and about resources that would make them more employable? Willing to take unrewarding jobs and using that opportunity to build a skillset or resume for future opportunities? When society no longer values hard work, motivation, self-reliance, and personal responsibility for one’s failings, we all lose.
@BEN BERNANKE
To be fair, not everyone has networks. In fact, many only have networks of other unemployed people. And these resources at the library for learning skills (aside from books, and let’s not go there) are under funded and nearly non-existent, at least to the capacity that we need them. And what unrewarding jobs? What jobs? Where are they?
To deny that the fat cats on Wall Street are sucking away at the financial resources of most governments, local and federal…to say that the people are wasting their time with protest….to say that it all comes down to hard work and motivation…well, that’s just plain ignorant.
I won’t deny that folks on Wall St work hard. But they take way more than their fair share without regard for the society that got them there. That’s what these people are protesting, the fact that immoral behavior has been overlooked and unchecked and thereby has run this country into a financial gutter, which affects us all. To say otherwise is ridiculous.
Oh, wait. I suppose by your logic, people who protested for civil rights were probably unemployed and should have been working minimum wage jobs, instead of “wasting their time” with such frivolous pursuits. Riiiiiiight.
YOU ARE AMAZING, THANK YOU.
What’s wrong with writing music in my parents’ basement? I’m gonna get signed, yo.
While there is a seriously corrupt relationship between Wall Street and the federal government, this band of hacky sackers is not going to make a lick of difference. The real change comes when people in the industry and leaders of other industries come out against it.
Let’s face it, OWS is full of kids who have enough time to lay around NYC for 1 week. I bet its full of anthropology majors.
Nah, it’s probably English Majors…they’re just fulfilling their Core Writing requirement by reporting on themselves and uploading it straight to Blackboard.
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
i’m willing to let wall street, wharton, and penn take a hit if it means in 10 years employment, education and health care will be at least minimally accessible for everyone in the united states.
“…or have these ‘trophy kids’ simply emerged into the real world with a false sense of entitlement, quick to blame everyone and take no responsibility for themselves?”
Well I for one, am flummoxed by this superb question. Ms. Rubinchik, perhaps you have an opinion on this…maybe an inside scoop on every Penn grad who moves to New York City and works on Wall St.?
We’re still talking about the protestors right?
“We aren’t lazy hippies asking for handouts. We are tired and sore and beaten down and angry because we do exactly as we’re told, and receive nothing but the minimum amount of money for room and board for it, the very definition of a slave.”
The “we are the 99 percent” people are imbeciles and prove my point perfectly. Their situations are largely the result of THEIR poor decisions (my favorite is the graphic arts major who is surprised that he can’t find a job). Going to college doesn’t and shouldn’t guarantee you anything. With fluff majors, generous grading, etc., anyone with half of a brain can muddle their way to a degree. Society didn’t force you to take on student loan debt, so society shouldn’t have to listen to you whine about the burden imposed upon you by YOUR decision. Quit bitching, take some responsibility for your actions, and spend some time bettering yourself.
I concur!!!! And tell those moppets to clean the soot out of their ears!!!
Mittens!
So when Wall St makes THEIR poor decisions, rack up debt because of THEIR poor decisions, get bailed out due to THEIR poor decisions — mind you money that is leveraged AGAINST said 99 percenters — with Liz the art student making the only different choice than the graphic artist by taking a job Wall St firms.
So no Benny, both the 1 percent and the 99 percent are exactly alike. Except, as the author points out, Wall St only runs on Ivy. 99 percent of the nation do not get into the Ivy League. So essentially these people are not mad that there are rich people who were born rich and float to the top of society — they are sick of being punished for doing the same things that Wall St does and gets away with. As well they themselves are being punished by the hypocrites
This article, while poorly written, accident points out the fact that this does affect you, because the next time you tell your grocer, your neighbor, your priest, your dog walker: think twice before you casually mention that Penn degree. People aren’t idiots just because they are in debt and aren’t Ivy. Wall St is a mighty small portion of America, and dillentante effetism is not a position I would adopt when poor people riot (See- rest of world).
I like muffins
me too