Joyce Li's Blog

The following entry is a response to a blog post written by Robert Frank on Wall Street Journal Blogs.

Robert Frank discusses a new study by HNW Inc that reveals that half of the top earners in the U.S., or as the Occupy movement calls them, “the 1%”, don’t think that they are part of the 1%. Surprisingly, some of these people support the Occupy movement, sharing their dislike towards Wall Street, top executives responsible for the financial crisis, and they believe that the ever-increasing wealth gap is a problem. However, most of them believe that they already pay enough in taxes, and that they have worked hard to get to where they are.

Since we have heard so much from the so-called “99%” side, it is interesting to hear from the 1% who are being victimized. This sheds some light as to how the top earners think of the Occupy movement, and of themselves. They want to think of themselves as middle-class, and believe that “the rich” are always someone else (ie: it’s not their fault this is happening because they’re “not upper-class”). While the two groups do agree on some points, the 99% are pushing the wealthy to pay more taxes, while the wealthy feel like they already pay enough taxes, so why should they have to give up more of their hard earned money?

In my opinion, this is a dead end as neither group will budge, and nothing will get accomplished by protesting aimlessly. In order for the Occupy movement to work there needs to be a goal to move towards. In many places, it is too late because they have become a nuisance to the public, and people are getting impatient.