The more I see of the Occupy This And That crowd, the more they annoy me. One of their most annoying habits is claiming to be the “99%”. Even the most math challenged should be able to understand that this is decidedly not the case.
I’m going to be generous (and lazy) and give them a total of 500,000 protesters in Canada. Judging from the reports in a variety of media sources, there aren’t that many, but like I say, I’m feeling generous. A quick Google search for the population of Canada reveals that in 2009 there were 33,739,900 people here. If you divide the protesters by the population, you find out that the Occupy Whatever movement actually accounts for less than 2% of the available bodies.
Of course, “We are the 99%.” sounds much more impressive than “We are less than 2%.” But hey, what do I know? I’m not part of a magazine that specializes in inflammatory, anti-capitalist images and soundbites like AdBusters. For those of you who hadn’t heard, that’s who’s behind the “spontaneous” Occupy Wall Street movement. The nice people at AdBusters claim they were inspired by the Tahrir protests in Egypt. Because of course we have so much in common with people living under a military backed single party system. Sure we do.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. The people in Tahrir square weren’t there because they were too lazy to get involved in the democratic process, they were protesting the total lack of a democratic process to be involved with. The issue in Canada and the U.S. isn’t that people can’t change the system, it’s that they can’t be bothered.
The tragedy of Democracy is that you end up not with what you wish for, but rather what you deserve. The system isn’t broken, it’s ignored. It gets ignored for the same reason our personal debt is so high. (If you said “Corporate Greed”, consider yourself slapped.) It’s all because people want short cuts. They want what they want, and they want it right now. Thank you very much.
Instead of saving up to buy a house, car and big screen TV or pay their tuition, they borrow and then blame their debt on the “greedy banks” with easy credit and high interest. Instead of years of political action and organizing and hard, slogging work, they expect the system to change because they spend a few weeks or months camping in a bunch of parks. Yeah. That’ll work for sure.
The biggest indicator of how the protests are failing is the media coverage they are receiving. Think about who owns the major media outlets. Those nasty, “greedy” corporations. If the Occupy Yourselves Protesting movement offered even the slightest threat to them, do you think they’d give them any ink at all? Sure, you’re reading this online, but answer me this. Who gets more voting eyeballs, YouTube, or CNN? That’s my point. Those big corporations don’t feel threatened because a couple of thousand people in a park are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
They are just another part of the Roman “bread and circuses”. They occupy the attention of the people and repeat the message that the system is broken. That means that people won’t engage with the system, and that ensures status quo, and that’s good new for all those evil corporate types.
So to wrap up, the math is pretty clear. half a million (inflated to salve the organizers egos) divided by thirty four million is not ninety-nine percent. Nobody voted for you, so you should stop saying you represent the ninety-nine percent. Next time AdBusters decides to stir people up , it would be nice if they could do it during an election year and try to stir them towards the polling stations.
Oh yeah. One more quick note. When movie stars and directors show up in support of people protesting against the “economic divide”, it looks a little bit… what’s the word I want? Oh yeah…. HYPOCRITICAL!
Cheers, Winston
Brain Bits To Go 
Winston!!
Meanwhile, all these protesters have been using products by Sony, Apple, AT&T (I’ll stop here, y’all get the point) to advertise their disgust at corporate America…
Yes…there is corporate Greed…But there is also Consumer Greed…the fact that we refuse to pay the cost of products that are made by people making first world paychecks, with first world benefits and 401k’s, forcing companies to move production overseas which kills jobs.
Consumers are every bit as much of the problem as corporations…and government regulation, especially over the “little guy”, also contributes to the problem.
There are pro’s and con’s to all three entities…Government regulation over the origin of electronic equipment means that Companies that manufacture and sell computers and like products have to make those products in the US, so companies like Centon Electronics will ALWAYS manufacture some of their memory products in the US, and Consumer desire to save money drives competition, which causes prices to drop.
Even a die hard capitalist like myself is adamently opposed to “Bonuses” being paid out to corporate executives of companies that go bankrupt. I doubly pissed when those companies recieved stimulus monies from the Federal Government to the tune of 1/2 a billion dollars.
…or they take the money, and use it to build a car plant in Mexico (GM), ensuring that the “Jobs” created by the stimulus monies don’t create the jobs here at home.
Interesting fact…one of the biggest complaints these people have is that theft is rampant. Night before last, I heard two sound bites…one from a woman who had a 5500 macbook pro stolen, and another from a woman who said $3500 from the communal kitchen was ripped off.
Really? Now that it is YOUR hard earned shit being taken by someone who didn’t earn it, it is theft?
Anyways, I have to get some sleep…my corporate ass has agreed to provide guys to work (free) at a charity fundraiser tonight…and tonight is the swimwear evening of the 3 day fashion show…
There is no such thing as “Corporate Greed”, only Human greed. From CEOs, to Shareholders, to cleaning staff, everyone wants to get as much as they possibly can. Consumers are no better. We buy our products from overseas manufacturers because we don’t want to pay a fair wage. We don’t want to pay the cost of environmentally responsible manufacturing. We the people refuse to pay higher prices for domestically produced products, then blame corporations or the government when manufacturing jobs disappear.
I believe in a balance between free markets and federal regulations. I know you don’t, and I respect your views. I fully support the idea of closing tax loopholes and offshore tax havens etc. No I don’t think billionaires should pay stupidly high tax percentages. I think they should pay a proportionate rate. I also think that the working poor, living below the poverty line should be income tax exempt. Oh yeah, I also want a federal scholarship program for students of families living in poverty.
As for the protesters, I want them to get out of the parks and into the political process. Otherwise, they should just shut up and go home.
Cheers, Bro