I don’t know why, but these stories give me the motivation to help others make a difference and aim to stop this s*** from happening.
I am the 99%. My dad got colon cancer at age 53. He was a contractor for McDonell Douglass. Four years earlier, at age 6, I got type 1 diabetes. My dad went to work until just days before he died so that we could get our medical. McDonnell Douglass, an aerospace company with a ton of government money and 1% money DID NOT NEED HIS LABOR AS HE WAS DYING. Together, we can let the dying die. We have the money, and the heart. The rules set up by the 1% threatened my life and literally took his. I am the 99%. (I am a contractor now, and I have a daughter. I’d do it for her.)
I am a 36 year old veterinary technician with 20+ years of experience but I can not find a job that will allow me to afford a studio apartment. In July I was diagnosed with “Acute Stress Reaction” due to trying to survive day to day. I was hospitalized, my work fired me and I am being evicted. In 28 days I will be homeless. I can’t even afford to buy a RV or van to live in while I try to fix all of this. I am your daughter, I am your mother, I am your sister, I am your neighbor - I am the 99% and I am scared.
I am eleven years old and i always thought i wanted to grow up so fast. Then my mom showed me this.
She always tells me enjoy your life as a kid and that i have it good but after looking at the 99 percent movement i realized that nothing is free and nothing is always far.
I always wanted to have a big house and a lot of money but thats not realistic and i am lucky to have a roof and food and a family.
I wish all of you luck and i am so sorry to any and all of you struggling right now. i just realized i am 99%
Been a while since I’ve posted, but with the Wall of Grievances going on now, things are getting busy.
I am a 20 year old college student trying to better myself and my family by gaining an education although my husband and I both know that with the way things are, we’re both almost better off working our min. wage jobs that we have and are barely scarping by with than even attempting to do anything more. we rely on government assistance for food/medical/daycare, work insane hours each week to get by and still cant afford basic necessities. Our combined 100 + hr work week shows no profit. None of our jobs provide medical (which due to asthma, I cannot go without medications or I will die. Since a stable home for my children is more important that my own health, rent comes before my $150 prescriptions) My husband is trying to find another full-time job on top of the one he has so we can stop relying on assistance but due to a buy out and closing of the company my dad worked at , so are 900 other people in the area who are suddenly unemployed or like my dad, took a 75% pay cut and can’t afford their bills anymore. I AM THE 99%
How many of these do we need to see?
The Shocking, Graphic Data That Shows Exactly What Motivates the Occupy Movement
What are the Occupy Wall Street protesters angry about? The same things we’re all angry about. The only difference is the protestors turned their anger into public action. Occupy Wall Street lit the embers and the sparks are flying. Whether it turns into a genuine populist prairie fire depends on all of us.
Now is not the time for wonky policy solutions, as the media meatheads are calling for. Rather, it’s time to air our grievances as loudly as possible, which is precisely what Wall Street and its minions fear the most. Here’s a brief list of why we should be angry and the charts to back it up…
More at the link.
What gets me about all this is that you can find one of these posts up somewhere pretty much any day of the week. Yet the media’s line is “What do they want? They don’t seem to know!”
A handy tip for all those hard-nosed investigative journalists out there: you might try looking for the answers to the questions you pose.
Just a thought.
America will only return to real economic health when the asset-crazed insanity of the last 30 years is brought to heel, and America returns to a public policy that is far more interested in wage growth and economic stability than it is in asset inflation. Until then, we can expect continued political and economic shocks from an angry electorate and an economy that has run off the rails due to 30 years of deeply misguided anti-inflation, pro-asset-growth ideology.
I can’t agree any more with this statement.
(Source: ryking)
A 99% Campaign for Occupy SIUE
Here’s an idea I had: You know all of these “We are the 99%” photos you see in conjunction with the occupy movement? Can you guys submit a couple for the facebook and tumblr pages? Follow the link below for rules and email your picture to occupysiue@gmail.com. You’ll promptly be featured on the pages and possibly be used in our main event. I can’t wait to see the submissions. :)
Here’s a change in pace You aren’t the only one suffering… And I apologize that most of my reblogs are from the wearethe99percent tumblr. I’ll be more creative soon.
This is also sad… Not that I’m looking through this for happy thoughts, though…
In 2007, my wife and I both worked good jobs. We are both educated, we didn’t use credit cards, and qualified for a decent home loan. I worked for the Auto industry managing car loans. When cars collapsed, the bailout went to the manufacturers - not to dealerships, not to regional services, they all closed and laid off thousands. I lost my home, lost car, my life savings spent on the birth of my son because we had no health insurance. We did everything we were supposed to do to have a successful life.
I’m back in school, and it’s expensive but the only one that would take a 40 year old law student was a private school. Debt is mounting fast. My wife was supporting us, and we live with my parents, who also lost most of their savings.
My wife was laid off this week. By the end of this month, we will be totally broke. I don’t know how I can finish this semester. Half a law degree is worthless - but I’m already $25K in debt for this. How do I go on?
What did I do wrong? Where was my mis-step? What was my big mistake? I invested money in savings, I had very little debt, I bought a reasonable house for a good interest rate, I waited until I had been working at the same job for 3 years.
We haven’t felt safe since 2008. We haven’t taken a vacation, bought something nice, treated ourselves to anything in years. We’ve used food banks, and my son’s clothes come from Goodwill. I ride the bus to school every day. We don’t see an end to this. I graduate with a law degree and $60K in new debt, and this is the worst job market for law graduates in history. Will it be different in 2 years?
Will it be different in 20 years? Did the dream totally expire? I don’t see a fundamental change in how the system works, so I can’t see how the results will change from how it’s been during the life of my son. He’s three, and this is his America.
I don’t demand a total shift to socialism, I don’t demand we wipe the debt record, I don’t demand we outlaw insurance companies. I simply demand that someone in power give a shit about those who have lost everything, and the many more who can’t look forward to anything. Someone please care, someone who can do something, please do something.
I am the 99%. And so is my son.
occupywallst.org
If we don’t go to college and get AT LEAST one degree, we WILL NOT get a job. And yet… if we DO go to college and get even more than one degree, we STILL aren’t likely to get a job! If we do get a job, it won’t pay enough to live off of.
To top it off, I am chronically ill. I WILL NOT be able to afford the medications and various expenses NEEDED to KEEP ME ALIVE!
That’s my future.
I AM THE 99%
SO ARE YOU!
