For the past month or so, a small group of people protesting corporate wealth and greed on Wall Street has grown into a national movement spreading the “occupy” message to some of our nation’s largest cities. Even Tallahassee has an “occupy” group.

Many on the right are condemning the protestors as nothing more than a mob of unemployed, lazy young people. At the same time, proponents on the left are trying desperately to turn the group into the “Left’s Tea Party.” The truth is the protestors are neither.

First, some facts: the top 1% of Americans own 40% of national wealth. Further, the bottom 80% (aka the “rest of us”) own 7%. The top 1% of Americans take home 24% of national income. In 1976 they took home just 9% – that means their share of national income has nearly tripled in three decades. The top 1% own 51% of all stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The bottom 50% only own .5%. The top 1% of Americans hold only 5% of the nation’s personal debt.

I don’t provide these numbers to incite any kind of particular rage or action, but merely because if we are going to talk like adults, we must put the facts on the table.

I believe many of the people in the top 1% worked hard for what they have. I also believe that while some of them may have come in to money, they have no doubt done an excellent job of managing it. I don’t believe they should be punished for that.
I also believe that this isn’t what this is about.

This movement is about the 24 million people who can’t find a full time job, and the 50 million people who can’t see a doctor when they’re sick. It’s about the 47 million people who need government to feed themselves – not steak, just food. It’s about the 15 million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their home. It’s about the millions of people who may have been born into circumstances that they cannot control and cannot get out of.

This is about people who played by the rules, did everything they were told, and were still shut out.

There are success stories. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Warren Buffet. Everyday people pull themselves up by their bootstraps and go on to great success. But some people don’t even have bootstraps.

There are people who work two jobs to make ends meet. But can’t we all agree in America that nobody should have to work two jobs to make ends meet.

This isn’t about punishment, it’s about fairness. It’s about a system that works the same for everyone. The numbers don’t lie. Yes the top 1% of Americans are doing very well, and many of them probably deserve to. But the income disparity is telling. The fact that 1% of Americans own that much capital, and power and influence is an example of problem Number One.

The protestors in Wall Street and around the country aren’t particularly angry at any one person; although I’m sure there are those who are. They are angry at a system that doesn’t work the same for the rest of us as it does for them. They are angry that they American Dream they’ve worked so hard for is slipping away.

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Luke Ihnen is a graduate of Florida State University with a B.S. and M.S. in Political Science. He worked as an intern with The Village Square while he was a student at FSU.

(Photo credit: Mat McDermott)