The recent Occupy Wall Street campaign has now spread to 650 cities worldwide, according to their website, and it seems like everyone and their mother has picked a side in the protests.
But what will suffice to end the protests? Should we simply take the income the top 1 percent legally earned and distribute it among the rest of the population? And even if we do find a way to distribute the wealth more evenly, won’t we still be ticked off about the new top bracket of income makers? Of course we will. The truth of the matter is that unless we are in the top 1 percent, we will always see people who have it easier or have more than us.
Now don’t get me wrong, injustice still makes me mad and the economy is still a problem that needs to be fixed, but blaming the rich isn’t a real solution. So let’s take a step back.
How did we get in this mess to begin with? We overspent, over-speculated and overextended in the name of personal standard of living. Let’s face it — we haven’t been upset about the glaringly obvious injustice in global distribution of wealth for decades, but when it’s our jobs on the line we are suddenly up in arms.
For example, the poorest Americans — the 2nd percentile of income — are at the 62nd percentile worldwide. And that’s not taking into account the more than one billion people in the world who live on less than $1.25 per day. One billion would be about 15 percent of the world’s population (for those of you who seem to be crazy about percentages lately). We don’t care that this has been happening, until all of a sudden we start losing our jobs and we need a scapegoat. So who is the easiest person to blame?
Now you might be saying something along the lines of, “Man this guy just doesn’t get why they are protesting.” If that is the case then let me put this in different terms. Chances are if you are reading this newspaper you are attending the University of Idaho, which means more likely than not you will receive a degree of some sort, which statistically speaking will put you in the top 2 percent of the world’s population. That also means there is a good chance you will be in the top 1 percent worldwide. So be my guest and occupy Wall Street. But there is a much more effective and far less hypocritical alternative.
The truth of the matter is even those who are claiming a desire for “justice” and “fairness” are being motivated by their own self-interest and a desire to make money. Recent commentaries have claimed the “Occupy” movement has had a similar impact as the anti-war protests of the ‘60s and ‘70s. But beneath the surface they have been motivated not by justice, but by self-interest.
During the ‘60s and ‘70s it was people’s desire to avoid the draft and at present it is their desire to be well fed, clothed and comfortable. These are all understandable desires. But the motivation of the protesters is not different than those they are protesting: Self-interest.
If we want to change the world then let’s change our motivations. Let’s be the generation motivated by love. Let’s stop worrying so much about our own well-being and start living our lives for the benefit of others. If love was our motivation from the start then there wouldn’t be a 99 or 1 percentile. There wouldn’t be 15 percent living on less than $1.25 per day.
Because I can’t say it better than the best I’ll leave you with one of my favorite passages. “Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'” (Matthew 26:37-40).