Occupy Wall Street in New York

Occupy Wall Street in New York started in the fall with a few people who were tired of the financial inequalities becoming increasingly apparent in the United States. The leaderless movement quickly caught the attention of like-minded people who are frustrated with the economic downturn the vast majority of people are experiencing.

As huge banks and financial institutions are bailed out with taxpayer money, the wealthy continue increasing their riches at the cost of the average people, and unemployment takes a toll on the middle and lower classes, the frustrations experienced created a spearhead movement that quickly spread to hundreds of cities across the country and world.

There is no single message, no single demand, no simple solutions offered for the spiraling despair felt by so many. Yet, the statistics of the increasingly unbalanced wealth distribution in the United States offer a glimpse into what Occupy Wall Street in New York is all about.

The occupying protesters see banks and enormous and greedy corporations as the root of the country's economic problems. This concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the one percent leaves the 99 percent without a voice. This is what the Occupy Wall Street in New York and other cities around the country are trying to bring to the attention of the citizens of the U.S. and let the powerful and wealthy know that something desperately needs to be done to restore the balance.

Many side issues voiced by the protesters, such as environmental issues, the huge burden of student loans on an underemployed and unemployed population of young people, the seemingly never ending wars and a host of other issues are believed by them to also have the same root cause of corporate greed and power concentrated into the hands of the few.

As a leaderless movement, most of the occupiers have resisted being co-opted by any political party. A diverse range of politics is involved with many agreeing that our current two party system and a lack of regard for the Constitution of the United States has contributed to the financial catastrophe facing so many Americans.