On September 17, 2011, protesters descended on Zuccotti Park in Manhattan and began what we now know as the Occupy Wall Street movement. Their aim was to shine a spotlight on what they saw to be blatant greed and opulence by the richest 1% of Americans. This was during the time of corporate bailouts, \u2018too big to fail\u2019, and golden parachutes for executives that left the rest of America simmering.<\/p>\n
The Occupy Wall Street movement gave voice to the 99%, the rest of America. In fact, that was the phrase that stuck from the movement, \u201cWe are the 99%.\u201d If you\u2019re in the top 1%, shouldn\u2019t you have some type of responsibility to share the wealth, to help out, to do something for those less fortunate? I mean, it shouldn\u2019t just be yours to hoard, right?<\/p>\n
What I\u2019ve always thought interesting is that if you change one simple word, the picture changes dramatically. Consider these two statements:<\/p>\n
The top 1% of income earners in the United States<\/strong> make an average of $506,000 a year.<\/em><\/p>\n The top 1% of income earners in the world<\/strong> make an average of $48,000 a year.<\/em><\/p>\n Congratulations! You\u2019re the 1%. While we can rightly complain against the greed of the Wall Street fat cats, the 7 billion people on this planet can rightly complain against the greed of the world\u2019s top 1% (half of which live in one country: ours). Many of the Occupy Wall Streeters who complained against the one per centers were actually one per centers themselves!<\/p>\n Don\u2019t think you\u2019re that well off? Consider:<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in the top 1%, shouldn\u2019t you have some type of responsibility to share the wealth, to help out, to do something for those less fortunate? I mean, it shouldn\u2019t just be yours to hoard, right?<\/p>\n QUESTION: How does it feel to be in the top 1-2% of wage earners in the world?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On September 17, 2011, protesters descended on Zuccotti Park in Manhattan and began what we now know as the Occupy Wall Street movement. Their aim was to shine a spotlight on what they saw to be blatant greed and opulence by the richest 1% of Americans. This was during the time of corporate bailouts, \u2018too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[161,529,1105,1539,1557,1583],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blessed","tag-food-for-thought","tag-poverty","tag-wealth","tag-what-im-teaching","tag-world"],"yoast_head":"\n\n