Facts for Occupy Wall Street

 The Occupy Wall Street movement has come under some criticism for being pointless or short-sided. While some individuals might not understand every economic fact or be able to completely to explain economic trends, there is a great deal of justification for the movement.

But for participants who are less familiar with this kind of information, I thought it important to include links to sites that can help explain some of the rationale behind the demands of Occupy Wall Street.


 First of all, there is the issue with corporations being identified legally as individuals (which has been around since 1889). Through a variety of laws and judicial rulings ( http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_speech/rehnquist_dissent_bellotti.php) this has allowed corporations to have what is considered (likely correctly) a disproportionate influence on politics.

In addition to that, there is a great deal of argument about the fact that corporations are obligated, to a degree, to make decisions that benefit the shareholders the most (stemming from this judicial ruling: http://www.businessentitiesonline.com/Dodge%20v.%20Ford%20Motor%20Co.pdf). There is still debate over to what extent this is true, and though specific evidence is hard to nail down, it helps explain many untold trends (here are two dissenting opinions:http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2010/09/articles/series/special-comment/ebay-v-newmark-al-franken-was-right-corporations-are-legally-required-to-maximize-profits/,  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1013744).

Finally, on top of all of this is the issue of the growing wage gap. Evidence for this is not hard to find (white male worker's real wages peaked in 1973), although the extent of wage disparity varies between studies. On average, however, you will likely find that qualified studies show the income of average workers versus CEOs in America is not only many hundreds of times lower (lowest estimate was around 200 times), but is the highest gap of any industrialized country. (As a general note, though, be careful of what studies you cite. Not all are quality studies).



All that being said, you do not need a ton of information to tell that something is wrong. Ratigan makes that point clear here, although he personally has had the education to be able to confidently say so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcqb9hHQ3E