This isn't my work. One Drew Grav-Graham is actually the author of this. He's the editor of Sheridan College's student magazine "Travis".
I always thought I was a communist. Somewhere, that line is going to get me on J. Edgar Hoover’s blacklist. I believe that everyone deserves a fair shake when it comes to healthcare and education, and that the environment is something we’re all accountable for. But Occupy Toronto has got me thinking that maybe I’m not a communist.
I’m somewhere right in the middle. I think that certain rights should be granted to everyone, but that working hard should pay off. In 2001, the top 10% of Americans owned 71% of the wealth in America. The top 1% owned a whopping 38% of that. The shocking part was that the bottom 40% owned less than 1%. Out of context those numbers are pretty disturbing. But I just don’t feel right feeling like that top 1% owes us something.
That top 1% worked and struggled and sacrificed just like the rest of us. I think of it like a race, the people who finish at the top are the ones that ate right, worked out every day, and made sacrifices in their daily lives to achieve what they wanted. Then there are the average people, they tried, but it was hard to eat right and exercise every day, but when it came race day, they put their best foot forward and tried. And then there’s the bottom, who didn’t do either and probably slept in.
There’s a lot wrong with the top 1% but re-appropriating their hard earned dollars isn’t going to change anything. That 1% will eventually rise to the top, and it will be because they are the ones innovating and selling us cars, gas, iphones, and Artizia. What it boils down to is that we, the 99%, paved the way for that 1% to rise to the top. They’re selling what we’re buying and it’s making them rich.
I saw Fight Club a long time ago, and I guess that’s where I gave up fighting “The Man”. It’s ridiculously ironic that a commercial success like that sparked a generation of angst towards consumerism. That top 1% packaged our proletariat rage and sold it back to us and we fell for it.
It’s a mad world that we live in, but I don’t feel full of rage that we live in a capitalist state. My philosophy is that change comes from within. There’s a line in the Darcys’ new album, that’s really stuck with me, “stop thinking like a millionaire,” and in this financial climate it makes perfect sense. If we’re ever going to close the gap, we need to stop feeling entitled to the wealth in the country and start working for it. It’s so much harder to change our lifestyle for the better than it is to tell others their lifestyles are wrong. We can make conscious purchasing decisions, we can ask questions. We are part of the 99%, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have an individual responsibility to affect change.
I know we’re not American, but the Occupy Toronto event is based off the American Occupy Wall Street and their goal seems to coincide with the American economy rather than the Canadian.
If you want to check out the magazine this article came from, here's the link: http://issuu.com/sillss/docs/travis.vol.6.issue.2.web
