by Chelsea Birchmier

In an Oct. 5 interview with Wall Street Journal, Republican candidate Herman Cain’s message to Occupy Wall Street protesters was, “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!” Hearing this, I decided to evaluate Cain’s statement in light of the Occupy Wall Street protests and our own Occupy protests in Kansas City.

First, I compared the Occupy movement’s purpose to Cain’s statement and noticed some inaccuracies. Cain makes it seem like protesters are blaming Wall Street alone for their own economic woes, which I disagree with for two reasons. One, Occupy Wall Street’s website says that the movement is “fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process.” Clearly, the protesters don’t just blame Wall Street. They also criticize the government’s role in allowing banks and corporations to take over politics and the economy. The idea that 1 percent of a nation’s population controls half of its wealth reflects just as poorly on the country’s government as it does on its economic system. Two, the Occupy slogan “We are the 99 percent” shows that protesters don’t just want change for themselves but for for all Americans. Cain cannot say that all 99 percent of people have brought about economic inequality in America through their own mistakes; 99 percent is just too large a majority to make such a generalization.

Next, I analyzed how well Cain’s views coincide with statistics. In an Associated Press-GfK poll, 37 percent of people said they support the Occupy Wall Street protesters. In the same poll, seven in 10 people said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. In a New York Times/CBS poll, seven in 10 Americans said they think Congress’ policies favor the rich, and 89 percent said they distrust the government. While these views may not reflect the sentiments of all Americans, they do represent a sizable population. Most striking to me, seven in 10 Americans believe Congress’ policies favor the rich, meaning that a majority of Americans do not agree with Cain’s idea that people are solely to blame for their own economic situations.

While researching the Occupy Kansas City protests, I also had the pleasure of talking to a diverse group of people involved in the movement. Almost every person I interviewed, from civil rights activist Ron Taylor to college student Monroe Perez, defied critics’ descriptions of the protesters as lazy, uneducated, anti-capitalists without a clear message. In fact, I found just the opposite; most of the protesters were well-informed, hardworking people who simply disagreed with the way the government has handled corporate influence on the economy. Many of the protesters expressed concern for future generations and for the direction America’s government and economy are headed. Teachers were concerned for their students, parents for their children, and human rights activists worried about a loss of Constitutional rights. And in response to any claims that protesters should “get a job,” most of the people I met not only had jobs but also families to support and would come to protests during their free time.

After evaluating Cain’s statement, I find that he underestimates how many people in America are struggling economically. As the gap between the 1 percent and 99 percent of the population widens, we can no longer blame individuals alone for their dismal economic situations. Income disparity this great does not occur because people are lazy and do not want jobs, and politicians like Cain exacerbate the problem when they pretend economic inequality only exists for a small minority of the American people. “We are the 99 percent” is more than just a slogan for the Occupy Wall Street protest; it is a reality that is rapidly dividing the American population.