Who exactly are the 99%?


Occupy DC by Howard Loveless

If you are not listed in the Top 2 Million Wealthy Individuals in the US, then you ARE the 99%!   If you believe that Democracy should be in the hands of the people, not in the pockets of the super rich, then you ARE the 99%!

If your 401K and/or house value tanked or you lost your job in the past 5 years because Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall act, you ARE the 99%!

If you are not one of the Wall Street barons that reaped huge paybacks from fraudulent activities and then got bonuses, bonuses paid for with YOUR tax dollars, then you ARE the 99%!

If your choice for Senate/Congress/President/State Rep doesn't stand a chance in hell of winning because he doesn't have the backing of huge, deep pocketed corporations that don't have to divulge how much money they chipped in, and to who, and why, then you ARE the 99%!

If your district is being re-mapped with the influence of your local billionaire, then you ARE the 99%!

If your child's daycare has been shutdown, your kid's class size has increased, your teen's sports programs have been canceled because the recent tax breaks for the super-rich have created budget deficits, then you ARE the 99%!

If you drive to work over dangerous bridges and rough roads because recent millionaire tax cuts have hurt the budget, then you ARE the 99%!

If your son or daughter is risking life and limb, or has died in Iraq or Afghanistan because he/she couldn't afford college, or was duped into thinking that fighting over there was somehow patriotic, then you ARE the 99%!

If your purchasing power has decreased in the past 20 years, then you ARE the 99%!

If your boss has a salary that is 200-300X what you make, then you ARE the 99%!

If you have little (or no) idea about what laws are being crafted and passed, on the behalf of special interests, in such a way that unless you are a lawyer, you would have no idea what effect its going to have on you, then you ARE the 99%!

If you are paying taxes that pay "retired" government employees to still work (double dip), then you ARE the 99%!

If you paid taxes to pay the salaries of folks who now work for the corporations that they used to regulate, then you ARE the 99%!

If you are a citizen that believes that a "corporation" is NOT a citizen, then you ARE the 99%!

If you lost your job because of a Free Trade agreement that allowed your company to ship its manufacturing facilities to a country without environmental standards and allows 12 year old children to do your old job and then ship the goods back to the US, then you ARE the 99%!

If you are under 55, but have been paying into SS since you were 16 and now realize that you will never see any of that money, then you ARE the 99%!

If your company doesn't provide health care, or if you are self-employed and can't afford a decent health insurance policy, then you ARE the 99%!

In other words, If you are not listed in the Top 2 Million Wealthy Individuals in the US, then you ARE the 99%!