“Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens. Yet they have paid no price.”
–Paul Krugman, The New York Times.
The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Movement was one of the largest demonstrations against economic inequality in the west, but it all began on Wall Street in September 2011. The idea was to occupy New York’s financial district in a bid to remind the wealthy operating there that the ‘99 percent’ – the masses that faced the brunt of the economic recession while the wealthy were seen as being let off the hook – could protest against economic inequality in vast numbers. On October 1, 2011, over 700 protesters were arrested in Ney York City for swarming the Brooklyn Bridge and stopping traffic for hours. Most of the protesters were charged with disorderly conduct and released later; and the Brooklyn episode reflected an inherent problem with the protest; an overall lack of planning and cohesiveness which also translated into a confusion of what the protesters actually wanted. Equality is a desirable concept, but the means to achieve it, as reflected with the wall street movement, was divisive.