In the fall of 2011, a large group of protestors occupied areas around Wall St. in NYC for six weeks under the banner of “We are the 99%”

At the same time, there were protests around the world in financial centers. These followed the financial collapse of 2008, and the $ trillions poured into the financial centers to bailout them out. The socialization of private risk-taking. Not a single Wall Street big wig was brought to trial for all of the malfeasance and self-dealing that had produced this global meltdown. Only a couple of low level traders were found guilty of fraud and other financial crimes.

At the time, I thought the rhetoric about the 1% was overblown. In retrospect, I have come to see that they were completely on target. Even a few mainstream economists saw the truth. Joseph Stigler famously wrote a piece in Vanity Fair “OF THE 1%, BY THE 1%, FOR THE 1%”¹ that needs no explication as to its content.

This image, with its pleas about homeownership and student loans, remains on target today, perhaps with even more force.

As noted in other posts here, the 1%’s theft of income amounted to over $47 trillion between 1979 and 2018, and many more $ trillions have been appropriated since then.²

Unfortunately, excepting for Bernie Sanders and a few other Democrats, both political parties remain effectively in the hands of the 1%. The mass media, what’s left of it, and social media platforms are entirely in the hands of the 1%.

Occupy Wall St was right….

1. https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2011/5/of-the-1by-the-1for-the-1
2. See Carter C. Price and Kathryn A. Edwards, “Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018” (RAND Corporation, September 14, 2020), https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html.. The Rand Corp. has been a prominent research-consulting firm since the 1950s. It is no Washington Beltway leftist think tank. No, it famously mostly does research the Pentagon and other elements of the security state. This report from 2020 details how correct the 1% rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street truly is.