Occupy Wall Street Movement Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Occupy Wall Street Movement - Research Paper Example The movement, which initially took off as a local one, went on to expand exponentially across hundreds of cities in the US, inciting equally vigorous movements around the world. The reason for such a rapid growth of the movement stems from the accumulated grievance of the people all over the world at economic and social inequalities. The movement is meaningfully significative and distinctive, as it was purely started by people who denounced corrupted multinational corporations and the exploitative rich. It has spread to more than 100 cities in the US and 1500 cities all over the world ("From Tahrir Square to Times Square"). It is believed that the movement took its inspiration from the Arab Spring and European uprisings, and all it took was a challenge from the magazine, Adbusters, to bring this movement to fruition (Gelder 1). The gap between the rich and the poor has been increasingly widening as greedy companies and corporates, who are solely interested in their self-interests, ig nore the consequences of their actions that affect 99% of the people, resulting in economic inequalities (Feller & Stone 1). The Occupy Wall Street movement aimed to lash out against the rich 1% of the society, which includes banks on Wall Street, big corporations, etc. who not only claim and amass wealth at the expense of the remaining 99%, but also have "their way with our governments" (Gelder 1). According to protesters, this 1% was bailed out by tax from people during the great recession, and it is now celebrating its superiority at the expense of the rest of the people by giving out enormous amounts of bonuses to executives (Gittins). According to protesters of the OWS movement, rich corporations take advantage of students who are under the burden of student loans, and also constrict the job market by outsourcing labor (occupywallst.org). Figure 1: A young protester at the Occupy Texas State protest (occupytxstate.org) The OWS movement brought the people's attention to societal and economic inequalities deeply rooted in the society. As part of their demands to decrease these inequalities, the people command equal educational opportunities for the masses. They assert that economic inequalities are related to educational inequalities and that by providing equal educational opportunities and eliminating the self-interests of corporations and for-profit organizations from the educational system, this endeavor would be possible. This raises the question whether such claims are justified. Is economic inequality connected to educational inequality, and has the educational system really suffered at the hands of big corporations and profit oriented individuals and organizations? In an attempt to answer these questions, the present paper asserts that the demands of the OWS movement for equal educational opportunities are absolutely justified. It is true that the educational system has suffered at the hands of big corporations and profit-oriented individuals and org anizations, and that equal educational opportunities are vital for ensuring economic equality in society. According to Goldstein and Chesky, educational improvement is "an economic imperative". This is because when a nation does not work towards the improvement of its educational system, development of its teachers, and improvement of students achievements in national and international tests, it goes into a "downward economic spiral", both at national and international levels (Goldstein and Chesky 1). Educational progress translates into economic progress of a nation. The OWS movement aims to achieve economic stability and equality, and for this, it demands reforms in the educational s