Scenes from Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street protests continue. It is simply obstinate at this point to say that the protesters don't know what they want.

Wall Street hedge fund managers, bankers and other financial sector professionals, and CEOs pulling down more salary in a day than most people earn all year, own the vast majority of the wealth of the USA. They haven't got it all from hard work or entrepreneurial acumen, but largely from how well they've been able to game the system with the help of the US treasury. Meanwhile, unemployment is persistently high and it's harder than ever to achieve the American dream.

If you don't know that's unfair, then you don't understand the meaning of the word -- and most likely, you're in denial about just how thoroughly you've been screwed.

Not all of the Occupy Wall Street protesters seem to be on board with the plan. There is a lunatic fringe that parasitically hangs off the main crowd, spewing conspiracy theories, debunked Marxist rhetoric and other pet projects. But most of them seem to be pretty earnest, intelligent folks who are doing what Americans have always done: fight the power.

I spoke with a conservative-looking retired chemical engineer who had worked for decades with a major automaker. He carried a protest sign and was right in there with the PhD hipsters and retro hippies who had flocked to this site (no longer actually outside Wall Street -- the cops had moved them along to a nearby park). "With one percent controlling the wealth and a system that is increasingly unable to employ the young, with so many unemployed, we've got a system that just doesn't work anymore. What good are we doing here? We're raising awareness. We wish more were here. We hope the American people are listening."

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist