Meet The 53%. Who are they? The term 53% refers to the people who are actually paying taxes for themselves and the rest of the country.
The 53% is a group of responsible young people organizing across the country. However, this group is not camping out in parks around the country and demanding the entire capitalist system be destroyed. These men and women have jobs (most of them work at more than one job in order to make ends meet), but they are talking about attending the Minneapolis Occupy Wall St. protest scheduled for today ? Friday, October 7th.
Here?s a statement from their web page;
So, like, when you?re, like, community organizing for solidarity and stuff, it?s totally cool to have this little hashtaggy thingy when you?re on twitter, so other people, like, totally know what you?re talking about and stuff. So if you?re, like, totally gonna spread the word about being one of the 53% of people who actually, like, pay taxes in America and don?t just, like, hang out protesting stuff all day? like, here?s the hashtaggy thingy. See you at the protest! #iamthe53
Filmmaker Mike Wilson (the man who gave us ?Michael Moore Hates America?) maintains the page. We spoke with Wilson this morning and he explained that the 53% tumblr page came from his brain and the clever minds of his pals, Erick Erickson of Red State and Josh Trevino.
Reports out of Minneapolis say that a protest is expected today in front of the Government Plaza in downtown Minneapolis. The movement states they are going to try and reclaim and rename this area ?The People?s Plaza.? Members of the 53% have mentioned that they will be in attendance to offer a counter opinion to the protest.
Click here to find out more!
As we were talking, Wilson explained that he was loading up his camera and headed to the Minneapolis protest to capture it on video. The Blaze will link to Wilson?s coverage as it comes in.
Mike Wilson told us the group was in the very early stages of organizing, but it is happening online ? mostly because they have jobs, families, and a sense of personal responsibility. And the 53% have responded to the people alleging to represent 99% of the country. Based on these photo messages, the 99% is patently wrong in their claim.
I remember being young like that once upon a time, and ironically these were the same knuckleheads that were 'living off the land' back then as well. It used to amaze me that they would take cross country trips for weeks at a time in a VW bus to follow the Grateful Dead while I was holding down 2-3 jobs and a band. (With a mortgage and utilities that I had to maintain.)
The only thing that concerns me about the 99% is - Regardless of how 'clueless' they might be. Never underestimate the power of stupid people, especially in large numbers.
In a local newspaper blog regarding the looming danger of the SS surplus someone suggested that SS is not an investment but like an insurance policy with reserves. That got me thinking, insurance companies treat any surplus as overpayment of premium, declare it as a dividend then pay the policy holder a small rate of interest on the accrued amount. The bulk of the surplus is leveraged to make money for the insurance company. In contrast SS loans the surplus to the government and all those in the 53% pay the interest. The 53% will also have to anty up to pay off the bonds when cashed in.
How does the 53% explain the fact that the bottom 50% of the population now owns just 2.5% of the wealth, down from over 4% in the 1990s, and down from around 10% in 1970?
How do they explain a corresponding jump in the wealth of the richest 1%?
I can explain it: Exploitative business practices have transferred that wealth from the poor to the rich. Now that the bottom 50% has no more cash to be exploited, the economy is tanking and everyone is acting surprised.
When there are companies out there who hire a majority of their workers below the poverty line, it's not surprising that poverty rates are rising.
The mere existence of a business in a region is not necessarily good for the economy. If the poverty rate in a given area is 10%, and a certain business hires 80% of their employees below the poverty line, that business is a net detriment to the economy. You don't want the government taking from the middle class and giving to the poor? Stop letting businesses rob the poor!
Require that all large businesses meet or beat the poverty rate in their hiring practices. If the poverty rate is 10%, every large business must pay at least 90% of its employees above the poverty line.
This will have no affect on those businesses that ARE good for the economy. They're already paying virtually all their employees above the poverty line. This will hurt only those exploitative businesses that are screwing over the economy.
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We work together every damn day. --Jon Stewart
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