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Is capitalism the problem? Remembering Occupy Wall Street [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-01
Today I am remembering Occupy Wall Street. The Great Recession and the TARP bailout of big banks (2008) illustrated the dangerous confluence of weak regulatory policy and fear of collapse for the biggest of our private financial institutions. Then the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling (2010) further exacerbated the influence of corporate money and greed.
After months of occupying the financial district, on May 1, 2012 progressives staged a protest march in New York City. Sadly, the movement fizzled. Yet the underlying message of capitalism’s ceaseless drive toward ever greater income inequality is more obvious today than ever.
You can stock shelves at Target for $16 an hour or you can settle for $9.9 million annual compensation in 2024 if you are the CEO willing to take a pay cut in a down year.
While Main Street is hollowed out, Wall Street has stacked its imperatives—cheap labor, bought politicians, no regulation, no consumer protections—to produce a nightmare era that may sink our economy and our democracy for good. We have to ask whether unbridled capitalism is the root of our problem.
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