Occupy Wall Street, Could It Find Its Way To The Hamptons?
Could the Occupy Wall Street movement come to the Hamptons? It’s very possible if you ask me.
It’s now been three weeks since a group of people have been standing around Wall Street, holding up signs and protesting. Nobody is quite sure what it is they are protesting or what they want, but let me tell you exactly what it is they want and what it is they are protesting.
Simply put, they are protesting that all of the money that is supposed to be “stimulating” our economy, is really just going to banks. It’s not going to schools, it’s not going to infrastructure here at home, it’s not creating jobs, it’s simply going straight to the banks. They don’t like that, because they are all watching as the top 1 percent get richer, while they are literally struggling to put food on their tables just for themselves, even when they are working 40 or even 50 hours a week, if they are lucky to find a job. They are also just in general, pissed off, that there is no real financial future for them and they see that the clearly and have been for years. This is keeping them from having kids, getting married and settling down. So they are protesting.
How do I know all of this? Because I have eyes. Look around, just even in the Hamptons. How many twenty or early thirty year olds do you know that are set up well for a good future financially? If you know more than one, I’d be amazed. An entire generation of young adults cannot afford anything of any real significance without dramatically putting themselves in terribly debilitating debt. Whether it’s a college loan, a house loan or anything else. On top of this, those that do take out these loans, become paralyzed financially, and those that don’t, are basically forced to live off the grid unless they find tremendous financial support thanks to a set of wealthy parents.
That’s why they are mad, and also, it’s happened all over the world, so it’s spreading.
The older group of people that are down on Wall Street are mad for different reasons. They are against the wars (so are the younger people) and have seen this rodeo of endless wars before during Vietnam. And they are sick and tired of watching the towns that they come from and grew up in change from being a wonderful all American town, to towns without a schools, with roads falling apart and with factories shutting down and moving to China.
This is all very real today for a lot of people, more than I think most of us are willing to admit.
I don’t know what will come of Occupy Wall Street, but one thing that I’m sure of, it’s not going to go away until something changes.