Over the past couple of years, I have tweeted and posted to Facebook about how the American economy is not working for the powerless, mainly young people: each day, the unemployment rate for young people creeps higher and higher (average is 18.4%, 45% for African American youth, and 27.1% of Hispanic youth).
For anyone who has been paying attention online, Occupy Wall Street didn't happen overnight. Across the world from Egypt to England, young people have been displaying their outrage online for quite some time. It just went offline in the United States 30 days ago at Washington Square Park, Foley Square and Zuccotti Park. It's time that we, as policy makers and activists, take this discussion for what it is: a plea for change.
Imagine being 22 years old, freshly graduated, proudly bearing a CUNY degree and dreams of embarking on a bright career. For generations, these are the things that represented the great promise of this nation. Now, fast forward to 2011. Youth unemployment is near all-time highs while the average student debt burden is rising over five times faster than inflation. For too many of our young people, that once-promised American dream has given way to an American debt burden and a bleak job market.
Many of these young Americans did everything that was asked of them. They stayed out of trouble, studied hard, and got involved in their community. Now, they are rightly wondering, "what went wrong?" The problem is the cards have been stacked against them.
There has been little to no attention from policymakers to the economic inequalities young people face. Instead of job creation policies, our country's youth are faced with tuition hikes. For the first time in country's history, this generation of young Americans may be poorer than their parents. Short-term thinking of government and near-term, quarterly views of corporations have put their future up for sale. For over a decade, the top 1% of income earners have seen their pay skyrocket, riding a wave of lobbyist-sponsored financial de-regulation. For the remaining 99%, wages have stagnated and employment has fallen off a cliff. After the lobbying pitches, PAC fundraisers, and PR campaigns have had their way, the interests of those least able to pay up are lost.
Simply put, the scale has tipped too far in favor of too few.
When our nation was founded, votes were largely reserved for the land-owning elite. Generation after generation, Americans fought and died to give a voice and enfranchisement to all. In today's dollar democracy where votes seem up for sale to the highest bidding lobbyist, the Occupy Wall Street protesters have the right to know what happened to all that progress we made. Since its inception, the "Occupy Wall Street" protests have been sensationalized, stylized, and misunderstood by policy makers, the media, and other people on the outside looking in. While the growing crowds come from all walks of life, what they share is a fundamental feeling that the great American promise of "equal opportunity for all" seems increasingly elusive. As @bori_214 tweeted, "dad said don't protest bc att stock is paying for your tuition. I said, that's EXACTLY why I'm protesting #ows."
The protesters out on the street today are the same kids that knocked on doors in 2008. Democrats activated them and empowered them to participate in the process.
Now the college graduating classes of 2009 and 2010 are out of work and still waiting for the change that they fought so passionately for. They feel angry and disappointed; not apathetically angry and disillusioned, but productively outraged and disgruntled.
As we speak, young people are having an actionable conversation about the obligation for corporations and government to create opportunities for everyone. This is more than an anti-corporate or anti-government movement. It's an offline conversation that is taking place online every day on Twitter at #ows and Facebook walls. It's a conversation about what kind of country we are. It's a conversation about the future of our country. The protesters have been successful in taking this conversation offline and into the streets, now let's take it to our elected officials. We have seen this movement spread across the country and around the world -- currently boasting protest sites in over 100 US cities and over 1,500 cities globally. Let's take this momentum and make some policy changes; let's #occupycongress.
Robert F. Kennedy once said, "If our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity." Those young Americans out there on the streets and across the Twitterverse see opportunity. They are protesting because they believe that a more equitable America is ultimately a more prosperous America. And I, for one, agree.
The title of this blog was inspired by a section of the film CONNECTED: An autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, by Tiffany Shlain currently playing in theaters. www.connectedthefilm.com.