Three years ago this week, Zuccotti Park in
downtown Manhattan went from being a place bored office workers went for a
cigarette break to the center of Occupy Wall Street.
Today the protesters are long gone, and the public
disgust with the financial system that the movement inspired and embodied has
faded. But Occupy's effects live on, in the way we talk and think about the
American economy, and in the continued work of a core group of activists.
In 2008, just 31 percent felt the same way.
Introducing Americans to a dramatically different
way to talk about inequality is a big achievement.
And while much of the change over the past six years
in how Americans view the rewards of work is due to the recession, giving that
shift a way to express itself is impressive.
Where you won’t find Occupy’s legacy is in American
attitudes toward banks. Despite its initial aim, Occupy did not spark
continued, mass disgust with the financial industry among the U.S. public.
How American’s feel about banks isn’t really even
the best way to judge Occupy.
Its goals were always both bigger (changing the
dialogue about the American economy) and smaller (specific policy proposals and
concentrated activism) than just getting people upset at one industry.
The legacy of Occupy can be seen in things like an
recent Senate hearing that is
looking into “Who is the economy working for?
The impact of rising inequality on the American
economy.”
Or the determined, complex work of Strike the Debt,
which just bought and canceled $3.9 million in debt from
students of a for-profit college.
Since 2012, it has wiped out $15 million in medical
debt.
Occupy’s real but limited success shows just how
hard a fight they picked. A fight in
which the outcome has already been decided by the 1% who control the way
American currently live and will live in the future.
But, without the 1% it is doubtful American would
live at all.
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