You are all pathetic. The point is not that these people are lazy. The point is not that they were stupid and didn't plan well and went to a college they couldn't afford. Do you think these people planned on not being able to pay off their debt? No. They planned on living out the American Dream, working their a**** off and gaining success as they went. These are the people who didn't know the right people at the time, and weren't able to get themselves the job they needed. These are clearly educated and motivated people, not scrums. If you are saying you are unsympathetic you are a cynical and depressing being. People should not suffer because they want to go to the best college they can get into. People should not have to work in terrible work conditions in order to pay their medical bills. Free healthcare and student support is not an irrational desire. Get over yourselves, and realize that these are OUR people that are forced to live like this everyday. Life sucks and thats the truth. But if you are going to say that these people are Lazy, because they don't have jobs. You are an idiot. Look at the facts. Use your brain. And be a human being.

As someone that lived far below the poverty line for most of my youth, I really, truly want to feel bad and be 'gung-ho' with this movement but I can't find it in me to be so.  From my own personal experience paired with all of the stories I've come across, so many people seem to want to hold onto a certain standard or living they can't afford [anymore]. You live in a house with a 1500/month mortgage and you can't afford food? Perhaps you really need to cut your losses and think about moving to a 1000/month apartment and have an extra 500/month for food. Get rid of your smartphone and settle with a cheaper cell phone plan. Get rid of your house phone and only have a mobile. Suck it up that you can't shop at Whole Foods this month and settle for Sav-a-Lot slightly dented tins of green beans. Being poor SUCKS, however, you can survive if you know how to figure out what is a necessity and what is an extravagance.  As far as student loans go, tho, I haven't very much sympathy. I know I'll be paying 50-100$/month for the next thirty years for my loans and I have accepted this. I also know that I don't get to go to an expensive 4-year school until I have covered the first half at a less expensive community college. I know I don't get to go to a 30,000$/year private university and must “settle” for public universities. I also know that what my major is directly relates to the ifs and whens of being hired after school. (Hence why I switched to a more hireable major from History and Creative Writing.) I am well aware that I can't be a dreamer when it comes to college and it will NOT solve my problems. (My rant about those who REFUSE to go to a “lesser known” school or community college is for another day. I suppose what bothers me about all of this is there is a huge chunk of the 99% that make so much more money than me but can't figure out how to make it work and it all comes off as people being angry that their fantastical view of reality just isn't going to happen. Making 17,000$/year while slinging bagels makes me feel like a victor in the struggle of life because I'm not living on 150$/month like my mother was. Finally, I have a huge problem with this 99% number and how people seem unaware that it includes the near 14% of American households making 6-figure incomes and, of that group, you only have to make just over 343,000$ to be in the top 1%. And while it does contradict my egalitarianism, how is a 250,000$/year lawyer the same as a person forced into homelessness by job cuts? It all seems illogical.

Education and healthcare is a basis for any country. Students should not be slapped in the face with massive debts for wanting to pursue a degree, and then spend the rest of their lives trying to pay them off. People shouldn't be not able to go to a doctor for 8 years. Education and Healthcare are basic human rights.

I'm sorry but half of those signs talked about being in debt due to student loans. People today seem to think that they don't need to work if they just continue their education. My brother's gf is STILL in school pursuing degree after degree after degree and she STILL only works a part time retail job. People need to STOP being career college students and need to take the crappy jobs they can find. If anyone thinks I enjoyed working at Wawa and dealing with the drunks and the people who work at the developmental center, they have another thing coming. And if anyone thinks I actually enjoy working at CVS now, dealing with tons of cranky people who think that just because I'm in customer service it means they can abuse me and being coughed and snotted on all the time, again, they'd have another thing coming. Don't get me wrong, I understand where people are coming from and I agree. The big wigs need to be knocked down a few pegs. But the people who are 50 million dollars in debt due to student loans…. you have no one to blame but yourself for that. No one made you stay in school. I know teachers who have been teaching for 30, 40, 50 years and are just now working on their masters and doctorates because they couldn't afford to go back to school and not work.

There aren't nearly enough people commented on the hysterical WTF irony of Capital One sponsoring this post.

Australia. Free medical care, and the government pays for my university fees now, I just have to pay them back (in small installments) once I get a paying job. I work summers to afford my college rent. I don't have money problems. USA needs to pull themeselves together, free health care and student support for a start.

wearethe99percent dot net join us!!

I wish they would specify what their degrees are in. Mad respect if you have a M. of Philosophy (you're probably interesting to talk to), but that doesn't translate to shit as far as your employability. Masters in Accounting, Engineering? You can probably get a job. Masters in English? Meh. Unless you're entrepreneurial, consider your liberal arts degree a hobby/interest. Don't be surprised if a job doesn't land in your lap if you went to a bullshit college.

I'm not that sympathetic. I stopped going to college because they kept raising the prices. I save my money and only spend it on things I need because I don't make a lot of money. When I do buy things, I always look for the best deals. I'm not going to get married or have kids because those are big expenses I can't afford. I don't have thousands of dollars of debt because I don't spend money I don't have. People need to stop complaining, take responsibility for their own actions and adapt to the economy.

Yeah, these people just need to work harder. Those 14 million or so Americans who can't find work right now? Lazy. All those people who got good grades at top schools and now can't find steady employment? Lazy. The fact that the richest 1% of Americans have approximately 7 times as much wealth as 80% of the population combined? Well, 80% of the country must just be lazy! It can't have anything to do with laws, regulations, corruption or any other systemic problem - nope, those 248 million people just need to pull themselves together! You know, there will always be some people who choose to fail, and some ambitious people who beat the odds, but come on - how bad do things have to get for working and middle-class people before folks admit that there's something wrong? 9% unemployment overall, and 40% of the country's wealth concentrated in the hands of 1% of the people isn't enough? What if it was 16% unemployment (as it is right now for Black communities) or 25% (as it is right now for teenagers)? What if the poorest 80% of the country had 6% of the wealth instead of the 7% they have now? 5% of the wealth? 4%? Seriously, what's the threshold?

They don't care about us. We will help each other in spite of them.

The unemployment rate for those with a degree is what 4-6%.  There was no way I was going to take out loans for school so I went into the Army to pay for school.  Very few people get their wealth handed to them. A lot of them worked their butts off to get there including some lean times along the way. Wall Street does deserve some blame. You guys are just protesting at the wrong places. You need to protest at the White House and DOJ as to why they aren't prosecuting people for wrongdoing in the financial mess. I seem to remember Bush had the Enron fiasco happen on his watch and his DOJ prosecuted a lot of people over that. So what's Barry doing?

I'm a single parent living off of student loans and grants, and welfare. When I am done with school, I will have to try really hard to get a good job I will have to pay back my loans. I will fucking deal with it.  I might not have been born into a wealthy family, but it's my fault that I ended up in the position I'm in, and I'm the only one who can dig my daughter and myself out of it (with the financial assistance of the State of California and the US government… how's that feel?).  The birth of my child was an accident. In my early 20s, I was living a fantasy of writing and drinking, couch surfing and renting rooms short-term. Rather than go to college, I dropped out of high school and went to art school for a year. Now I'm 30 and just started school. I'll be in school for another six years, transferring from community college to earn my bachelor's in computer science.  Yeah, it's unfair that there are tons of low-income to poor people in the country while others are born rich, go to great schools, go to even better Universities, and then get even better jobs that make them even richer. But it's not impossible to WORK and PUT TIME INTO improving your life. You might not end up rich yourself, but you can get by. I'd bet that most of the people in these photos don't know what real poverty feels like. There's a whole world outside of the US where people live in hand-made shacks and don't eat some days. There are people whose houses were destroyed in favor of highways, apartment buildings and offices. People steal from others who are slightly less poor then they are. People beg for money, on to (sometimes) have their earnings taken from them as they're escorted out of the area by police. You should be grateful you're not homeless and that you have a nice laptop with a webcam on it and can afford the internet to upload pictures of yourself holding up signs.  If you don't think you'll ever get to travel the world to see real life, read “Poor People” by William T Vollman. America is far from perfect, but it could be a lot worse. A LOT worse.  First world problems…

people should stop their bitchen how do people on wall street have anything to do with them.. you just arnt good enough at anything to get a good job

I hope this movement does not turn into a pity party for the many suffering right now. People who don't understand what Investment Banks did to our economy the past decade might view it as such. Wall Street executives knowingly lent large amounts of money to unqualified borrowers, bought back the debt from the smaller lending banks, sold the bad debt for profit and bought insurance against it because they knew it would default. They banks that weren't able to sell their bad debt before the bottom fell out were forcefully given money by our government at no cost to cover their ass. Wall Street has plunged us into a global recession. Investment Banks have successfully accomplished the largest robbery in history and not ONE chief officer of these banks has been held legally responsible.
I know nobody forced the unqualified borrowers to take the money but Wall Street would not have lent the money if they didn't have a backstop. Gov. and Wall Street are in collusion to redistribute wealth in order to create a global working class and a small elite managerial class. WAKE UP!! The masses are being manipulated. Turn off your sitcoms and reality tv, do some research and fight back.

Boo-fucking-hoo! I came from a poor family where, when I was old enough to work, I had to buy food if I wanted to eat. I managed to go to college but had to work my way through, build up a credit card and student loan debt just to make it by.  No cell phone, 15-year-old car (but little to no gas money), living in a ghetto and way too much top ramen. I managed to graduate college, got a better job that barely payed our bills. My wife had to quit her job because her work visa expired. We scrapped and sacrificed on my single income that could barely support one of us (during the 2007 market crash), all the while we managed to pull together enough money to file her immigration for a green card and pay her school tuition every semester. Now, after years of busting our asses, I have a comfortable job, my wife is a licensed family counselor and we did it without even considering government help. And everyone I know has a similar story. This is a little thing called life. If you want a better life, you'll have to work your ass off for it. You can't expect everything to be handed to you. It never worked that way and it never will. Learn things and grow the fuck up! I am the 100%

Is it wrong of me to say that I partly blame over-population for massive amounts of people vying for jobs. Think about the baby boomer population, and how all of them had children, which would be the 99% generation. The increase of people means the increase for competition. I'm not saying that the current system isn't making it where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, that is part of the reason too.Also I do feel sorry for these people, hell I am one of these people but something needs to be done like yesterday! We need to figure something out where we can spread the wealth around with an increased population. Does that make sense?
Also please stop telling people that they should blame themselves for going to college, there is nothing wrong with wanting to get a higher education! Maybe if those who are saying this did, they wouldn't be so ignorant.

Hey, here's a thought: college is for chumps.

A Quick Primer on Corporatist Rhetoric TO REGULAR WORKING PEOPLE: Got a problem? The government isn't responsible! TO WALL STREET BANKERS: Got a problem? Take this blank check for a trillion dollars!