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.

Hey… CO just gave me a 500$ credit card that I seriously shouldn’t have. Maybe that’s how they sleep at night - giving poor people CCs and quote-unquote supporting the occupy movement?