An immense amount of controversy has

surrounded the Occupy Wall Street movement. The purpose of the

movement depends upon your source of media; in fact, a large sect

of mainstream media (and American society) has dismissed the

movement as illegitimate and relegated it to a so-called “fringe

movement” category because of the perceived lack of consensus and

legitimate demands amongst the group.

Protesters in the Occupy movement have been

pinned as anything from a bunch of unshowered, lazy hippies to

disgruntled and confused college students who just don’t understand

economics or capitalism.

After spending some time at Occupy in New

York, I can say from experience that protesters at the occupation

come from many political ideologies and backgrounds. There were

socialists, communists, libertarians, anarchists, democrats, tea

partiers and the apolitical to name a few. Contrary to popular

media portrayal, however, the protesters as a whole do have a

simple unified message: we are fed up with the economic inequality

in this country; it is simply outrageous and immoral.

After returning from Occupy in New York, I

attended the Occupy ISU event on Thursday of last week. A similar

message was echoed: we’re sick of the economic inequality. We’re

sick of large corporate powers increasing costs of services while

accruing record profits, paying zero in federal income taxes,

laying off workers and cutting benefits, and funneling money to

politicians who support the pursuit of insane amounts of profit

over the well-being of the rest of the country. Most of all, we are

sick of the broken system that allows all of the former to

occur.

Though the message from protesters is clear

and honest, the message given by the media is typically not. For

example, KCCI’s coverage of the Occupy ISU event last Thursday was

particularly troubling. The reporter stated that “their message is

clear: They want an end to corporate power and influence, but would

it really make a difference?” The reporter then poses the question,

“Is corporate greed really to blame?” To answer the question, ISU

business professor Tony Townsend is interviewed. Townsend

articulates that it is “misconceptions [regarding the nature of

capitalism] that are fueling these protests.” Protestors were

essentially framed as uninformed, uneducated students that just

didn’t understand the nature of capitalism.

To support his claim that protestors don’t

understand the nature of capitalism, Townsend states that “American

corporations are some of the most generous corporations on the

planet.” I scoffed at this comment. How can you possibly call

American corporations “generous?” Is it generous that the average

American CEO makes 343 times the pay of American workers? Is it

generous that this discrepancy is larger than in any developed

country in the world? Is it generous that the average CEO pay of

$11.4 million is 28 times the pay of the president of our country,

213 times the pay of members of our police force, 252 times what

firefighters are paid, 225 times what we pay our teachers and an

astounding 753 times the yearly pay of a minimum-wage earner?

Can these corporations really be framed as

generous when this disgusting level of pay has steadily increased

throughout the recession hitting the lower to middle socio-economic

classes hardest?

Between 1993 and 2008, the wealthiest 1

percent of individuals experienced 53 percent of income growth. Is

that generous? Is it generous that 0.01 percent of individuals

control 6 percent of the wealth in the country? CEO cash bonuses

are triple what they were before the recession. Townsend, do you

call “bringing in record profits while laying off workers and

cutting pay and benefits” generosity? What about the $131 million

salary CEO John Hammergren of the pharmaceutical distributor

McKesson gave himself? Is that generous to anyone but himself?

Since 2002, CEO pay has continually gone up,

and corporations bring in record-breaking profits while the pay of

workers has remained stagnant or decreased, benefits are cut and

jobs are eliminated resulting in record unemployment and poverty

levels.

In addition to the touting of American

corporations’ generosity to support his claim that Occupy

protestors just don’t understand capitalism, Townsend explains that

it is “unfair to stereotype all corporations as … fueled by greed.”

Really? Last I knew, American corporations are essentially

obligated by law to be motivated by the accruement of monetary

capital (otherwise known as greed). A CEO has a legal obligation to

the shareholders of a corporation to pursue the highest amount of

profit possible. If a CEO fails to do that, the shareholders may

bring legal ramifications against that person.

For example, if a CEO fails to eliminate

enough jobs to increase profit by X amount, they may be sued. When

the pursuit of money (an inanimate paper object) literally becomes

legally more important than lives and well-beings of humans

(living, breathing, feeling beings), I don’t think you can call an

entity “generous.”

According to Townsend, it is the “strange

blanket condemnation of a society that has been able to create more

freedom.” Townsend, is this what you call freedom? Is a society

where the wealthy get wealthier at the expense of the middle and

lower socio-economic statuses really free? Is freedom really having

$40,000 in student loan debt, working 60-70 hours a week simply to

get by and not being able to afford health insurance? In the

current system, the people enjoying this freedom are

disproportionately wealthy.

Tony Townsend (and the rest of the world): We

understand capitalism. We understand our situations a hell of a lot

better than you do. We understand that capitalism is the pursuit of

profit at the expense of everything else we know, cherish and rely

on: our jobs, our health care, our retirement, our leisure time,

our natural resources … our livelihoods. When KCCI asks, “Is

corporate greed really to blame?” we can wholeheartedly answer with

an enthusiastic “absolutely.”

In one of the wealthiest nations in the world,

there is absolutely no excuse for 43.6 million people and 20

percent of our children to be living in poverty. There is no excuse

for the level of economic inequality to be at its highest since

1929. There is no excuse for letting 59 million fellow Americans go

without health insurance. There is no excuse for us to allow 50

million people, including 17 million children, to go hungry while

corporations make record profits, pay zero in federal income taxes,

cut jobs and benefits, exploit workers and the environment, and

funnel money to politicians that will look the other way.

Is this really what the American Dream has

been reduced to? Occupy Wall Street protestors seem to have a much

better understanding of capitalism than you, Townsend.