The Protesters of "Occupy Wall Street"

"The mere existence of our demonstration will bring about major changes in our society." "The mere existence of our demonstration will bring down this society." A lot of the "Occupy Wall Street" and similar protesters seem to believe one or the other of these statements, at least according to the statements they gave to the press. They are unanimous about being against the "greedy rich millionaires" (mostly bankers) they blame for the country's economic problems — the "1%". That's why they are calling themselves the "99%".

The protesters have gotten a lot of support. Millionaires George Soros, Michael Moore, and AlGore are backing them. So are some union leaders and a number of politicians including Barack Obama and his top political adviser. In fact, when the owner of the park they're occupying wanted them to leave for a while so it could be cleaned, he got leaned on by a bunch of Democratic Party politicians to let the protesters stay.

It's not just the political Left that is supporting these protesters. The media have also been taking up their cause.

Contemplate this: The Occupy Wall Street folks drew more broadcast network stories in the first nine days of coverage (with 24 stories) than the Tea Party drew in the first nine months (with 19 stories). [emphasis added]

Their biases also show in the stories' contents, as captured by a cartoonist here.

To me, the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters seem to be mostly unemployed folks taing on protesting as their "job". Some of them are being paid to be protesters. And there are some interesting claims about the places the money for that is coming from. With all that, and with the additional things the protesters say they want, here is what I think is a more accurate view I found of the percentages that matter.

And yet they have the nerve to pretend they are the 99%!