Occupy Wall Street Movement - Essay Example

Occupy Wall Street Movement Occupy Wall Street (OWS) can be considered as a continual protest movement, which began on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park located within New York city’s Wall Street financial district. The movement was originally initiated by Canadian activist group Adbusters before spreading around other cities in the Western hemisphere. The Occupy Wall Street protests brought to the fore issues of economic injustice, especially the unfair and irresponsible practices of the financial industry. Occupy Wall Street protesters advocate for elected leaders to represent the interests of the majority (the 99%) and not merely those of their rich donors (the 1%). The paper interrogates some of the lessons that Occupy Wall Street holds to the prevalent political economic climate within U.S., and related ethical questions. Occupy Wall Street Movement Introduction The main motivation of the protest movement revolves around issues such as social and economic inequality, greed, corruption, and excessive influence by corporations on governments, especially corporations within the financial sector. Occupy Wall Street movement slogan, we are the 99%, seeks to address the critical issue of growing income inequality and wealth distribution within the U.S (Gelder, 2011). Income inequality can be considered to be the fundamental motivator of the protests and the bulk of social friction. Income inequality has increased steadily over the decades coupled with economic stagnation and unequal distribution of wealth, which ultimately undermine a section of the goals of the working class. Statistics indicate that approximately one in every seven (46.2 million) Americans live below the poverty line. In addition, whereas income inequality has been rising, executive pay in most large U.S. companies has quadrupled since the 1970s. Sometimes, the media label the protest movement as anti capitalist; nevertheless, the movement can be perceived to be an urge to restore basic capitalist principles of accountability. Critics have pointed OWS’s strong leaning towards left-wing policies; antagonism towards free-market capitalism and support for drastic redistribution of wealth, tight regulation of the private sector, and enactment of protectionist guidelines (Schechter, 2012). The core aim of OWS encompasses minimizing the influence that leading corporations have on politics. In addition, the protesters root for better and more balanced distribution of income, as well as better jobs and bank reform. Moral and Economic Implications of the Occupy Wall Street Movement The Occupy movement represents a massive shift in the politics of the U.S., especially in the sphere of class politics. Occupy Wall Street embodies a re-emergence of an anti capitalism movement orchestrated by frustration and anger at the gross inequality in the U.S. society, especially by government’s response to the crisis. The context of severe economic crisis and accompanying devastating effects on U.S. workers (the rest of the 99%) can be considered to have reengineered the re-emergence of the widespread protests against capitalism. The central focus of Occupy Wall Street movement is moral economy by exploring the politics of financial morality and economics. The movement represents a proactive means of urging countries to “mind the growing gap” among the poor and the rich. Occupy Wall Street protesters are concerned about the rising income inequality in America and the deeply entrenched corporate greed, as well as the corrosive power of prime banks and multinational corporations (Gelder, 2011). The protesters point out corruption in a large section of the government, bought off and no longer working for the interests of the majority. In summary, Occupy Wall Street calls for an overhaul or restructuring of the existing economic, political, and social systems regarding areas such as healthcare, education, the environment, independence of media, equal rights, jobs, taxes, flash trading, nuclear disarmament, trade agreements, and term limits. The Implications of Occupy Wall Street Movement in Light of the Utilitarian, Kantian, and Virtue Ethics Virtue ethics, which contribute immensely in shaping professional ethics, emphasize the interconnectedness of agents and commitment to shared values beyond the institutionalized societal rules. Virtue ethics internalizes morality, not as a preference or a constraint, but an approach in which people pursue their perfection or excellence. Utilitarianism, on the other hand, allows individual agents to possess moral inclinations and operate in the interest of others in cases where action for others derives a net utility increase for the person. The other significant alternative to utilitarianism incorporates deontology, which considers morality as an obligation or a moral decree that should always be pursued. Deontological ethics encompass following universal norms that lay the foundation prescribing what people are supposed to do, how individuals should behave, besides outlining what is right or wrong. Deontology is essentially morality of principles, but not consequences. A core implication of deontological ethics, advocated by Kant himself, details that human beings are equal and thus should not be twisted into a means of attaining other people’s ends (Staveren, 2007). The best approach applying to OWS details virtue ethics. Virtue ethics can effectively deal with the issues that the movement raises such as deeply entrenched corporate greed, corrosive power of corporations, and corruption in government. Virtue ethics best explains OWS agitations as it reinforces the call to restore morality as a prominent agenda of economics. The financial system should appeal to the moral philosophy leading to the adoption of ethical code for the financial system (Schechter, 2012). Any economic system must advance the public good, which means that public policy must be oriented towards the public good. Hence, the market economy and its agents such as employers, workers, buyers, and sellers should not act in their own selfish interests. Income Inequality and Wealth Distribution in the United States In the U.S., inequality between genders has reduced significantly over the years, while the inequality between races has remained fairly constant. Nevertheless, income inequality has overall increased steeply as manifested by a widening disparity between the middle class and the top earners. Disparity in income heightens as one goes up in the income distribution. An Overview of the Causes of Income Inequality In the U.S., factors such as disparities in expertise, productiveness and work experience, globalization, immigration, inheritance, gender, and race have a strong underpinning on the distribution of personal income. The growing income inequality has significantly been fuelled by political, normative, and institutional policies. However, income inequality in the U.S. did not happen suddenly but has accumulated over the decades to the present critical state. The soaring policy implementations such as rising executive compensation, regressive taxation regimes emanating from political decisions rather than market forces, and stagnating middle class income can be considered to be prominent causes of income inequality and wealth distribution in the United States. A bias towards the desires of the wealthiest Americans (the 1%) has also orchestrated policies that exacerbate the wealth and income divide. The “suspect” policies include reduced capital gains tax rates, deregulation of the financial system, and reduction of tax rates on high earners (Gelder, 2011). An Equitable Outcome from the Movement Appropriate to the Capitalistic Society In the U.S., wealth is comparatively concentrated in a few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of the households owned approximately 34.6% of all privately owned assets, while the next 19% (comprising of managerial, professional, and small business stratum) owned about 50.5% of the wealth. This means that, by 2007, just 20% of the population owned an incredible 85% of the wealth, leaving the rest to the bottom. Some of the outcomes from the occupy Wall Street movement that can be appropriate for today’s capitalistic society include jumpstarting calls for meaningful reforms on public policy on taxation, job creation and capping the influence of corporations on politics. There should be stricter regulation of global financial markets to ensure that the system is not riddled by malpractices (Schechter, 2012). The Fate of Occupy Wall Street: will the Movement Continue, Fade away, or turn into something else? The debate on whether the Occupy Wall Street movement can maintain its struggle for a more equitable America remains to be seen. However, OWS successfully raised two critical issues; the rising inequality and poverty in America and questions the quality of American democracy. Although the future of the movement is shrouded in uncertainties, the movements will likely metamorphosize into another protest movement, while still maintaining the same or close agenda with well articulated demands. This is informed by the fact that many countries across the world continue to experience rising cases of unemployment, spending cuts, and income stagnation, and worse, economic slowdown (Writers for the 99%, 2011). Hence, the catalyst of such a protest is still thriving, and with the ever increasing democratic space, such movement will be inevitable in the future. Thus, until the attainment of the desired goals of the movement, the agitation is likely to continue probably in a refined form. The movement is likely to emerge with more concise goals and stronger leadership. Although the majority of the population believe that the movement has a strong message, uncertainty looms concerning the path that the protest took. Majority of the people holds that the OWS put forward its message the wrong way and that the protest was lost focus and lack a unified aim. While concluding this study, it is worth noting that Occupy Wall Street movement successfully brought the topic of progressive moral agenda for the 21st century into active public debate whereby global business ethics were put to the spotlight, besides reinforcing the notion that market systems and virtuousness are entirely compatible. Virtues have a dominant role to play in the market place and are relevant to business operations. The movement has successfully stirred an active debate for the need to institute an economy that works for all people rather than a section of the population. Relentless protests such as Occupy Wall Street can aid in shaping policies that minimizes poverty, while shielding the middle class, besides furthering debate on aspect such as creation of the social safety net and reduction of unemployment. References Gelder, S. (2011). This changes everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. Schechter, D. (2012). Occupy: Dissecting Occupy Wall Street. Ney York, NY: Cosimo Inc. Staveren, I. (2007). Beyond utilitarianism and deontology: Ethics in Economics. Review of Political Economy, 19 (1), 21-35. Writers for the 99% (2011). Occupying Wall Street: The inside story of an action that changed America. New York, NY: OR books. Read More