Occupation is no answer

By Roman Savchenko
Letter to the editor
The Vancouger: WSUV Student Newspaper

The Occupy movement is gaining popularity across the county. We even have local branches

of this movement in Portland and Vancouver, USA. Within the past few months, most young

people have heard of the movement, but how many of us actually know what it’s all about?

Ask this question to the common Occupy protester and you will get answers like: “It’s about

socioeconomic injustice” or “It’s about equality for the 99 percent!” or “We want a return

to ‘real’ democracy.” These so-called “goals” are more vague than a five-year-old’s college

plans.

Imagine yourself as part of the upper one percent. You see the protests. You realize that you

want to do something to help. What are you supposed to do? No one is asking for anything

specific.

Even if the protests convince some people that there is socioeconomic inequality, what do the

protesters propose we do about it? Should the rich one percent give their possessions to the poor

like the Communists’ suggest? Or maybe we should tax the rich to the point where all our good

business people move overseas. The movement simply doesn’t have a clear realizable goal.

The Occupy movement not only has vague goals it targets the wrong problem. The cause of

socioeconomic inequality is not a problem with our government or tax system, but a problem

with humans themselves. People are not inherently good. Therefore, even if everyone were to

suddenly become equal, it would not last. A new group of people will always rise to oppress

others. History’s brightest example of this is the former Soviet Union, which was founded on

ideas of regulated equality that never worked out. Protesting about replacing the upper-class or

corporations will not fix the root of our problem.