Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York City on September 17, 2011 when thousands of protestors gathered on Wall Street to protest against corporate greed and wealth disparity. The theme of the movement was to close the country’s wealth gap, decrease corporate political power, regulate corporate activities, and to increase corporate social responsibility. Many protestors made signs that said, “We are the 99%”, aiming to draw attention to the injustice of the top 1% of the U.S. population controlling a majority of the country’s wealth.

Occupy Wall Street embodied the frustration of many U.S. citizens at the current economic state in the U.S. The purpose of the Occupy Wall Street movement was to rise up against political disenfranchisement and social and economic injustice. Citizens felt that over the past several years corporate America hadn’t done its part in acting in the best interests of the general population. Instead, corporate America only aided in increasing the wealth gap between the top 1% of American citizens and the remaining 99% of the population. Protestors wanted for corporate America to begin acting more socially responsible. Corporate America appeared to only be concerned with increasing total profitability, even at the expense of the general American population. As wealth disparity continued to increase amongst American citizens, a majority of the American population called for change in the behavior of America’s largest corporate leaders. A large portion of society blamed corporate America for the economic collapse of the county, which began in 2008. The financial collapse of 2008 was the worst recession that the United States had seen since the collapse of its financial sector during the Great Depression in the early 1930’s.