Yesterday, I attended a job fair in Arlington, VA. Afterwards, I met a dear, dear friend of mine for lunch. While I was collecting my thoughts and writing my notes from the job fair at a corner Starbucks before she and I rendez-vous’d for lunch, the Occupy Wall Street movement marched right down the street in front of me. Needless to say, they ruined my quiet afternoon where all I wanted to do was enjoy my cup of coffee and my thoughts amidst the city’s normal afternoon buzz.
I’m not a hugely political person. I really try to avoid getting wrapped up in political movements. It’s not that I don’t have opinions and don’t feel moved in certain directions or care about our country {that is HARDLY the case}. It’s just that it seems like those who have the biggest political opinions and points of view hardly ever make any good out of those extremely loud and overbearing perspectives. But that’s a whole blog for an entirely DIFFERENT day.
After seeing the Occupy gang march down the street, the ordeal got me thinking and I started to do a little research on the whole movement. I get that the original movement started as a way to protest the inappropriate relationships between big companies and the government. Ok, whatever. Believe what you want. But, it seems more to me, that this whole Occupy ordeal and the “We are the 99%” business has just turned into a big way for people to complain about how life has handed them a 5lb bag of lemons and they can’t seem to learn how to make lemonade out of them. So what does America do when life isn’t going so great? Blame the government, duh!
It pains me to see so many people distraught and struggling, it really does. I know that our country is in a world of hurt right now and that things could be a lot better. But, seriously people. Get up, get on with life and get over it! If your job isn’t paying the bills for your lifestyle – then GET A NEW JOB! If the big ordeal is that college graduates are now drowning in student loans that their jobs can’t pay for – then perhaps you shouldn’t have been paying that $100k to attend a university education that you knew you couldn’t afford.
My big question to those who were marching yesterday was, “If you’re so bummed and upset about not paying your bills and not having a job or being underemployed…then why were you out here marching (not at work earning $$$) and not at the job fair I was just at?? Which, oh by the way, I just got a phone call to come and interview for a position at one of the companies I chatted with. And all I have is an undergraduate education. I suppose I would be the 1% or some say the 0.001% because not only do I not have student loans to pay-off, but I also had a job for four years that paid me to live a comfortable lifestyle. Now, I’m not currently employed, but I know that I will eventually go back to work, but I saved my money and can now afford to take some time off. But I also know that I will have to sacrifice a little and might have to take a big pay or experience cut in my next job in order to jump back into the workforce.
It scares me to think that the American society is evolving into a culture of entitlement and laziness. The normal and accepted thoughts are, “If you have a college education, you should automatically be earning a $50-$60k. Or, perhaps that if you’re laid-off, you should be re-hired by another company at the same pay and experience level.” I’m not trying to be insensitive. What I AM trying to understand is where this feeling is coming from. What have YOU (you so called 99%) done for your community and for your country to feel so entitled to earn a large paycheck? Last night I watched an interview between Tom Brokaw and John Stewart where they talked a little bit about the Occupy Wall Street campaign, but more so on his book. In it, Brokaw proposes an idea where, much like ROTC programs and the service academies, students make a commitment to serve the nation and the world upon the completion of their students – but rather than through military service, they could do it through business, medicine, research, education, etc. It would be something giving back to the United States and the world. Just think of where we would be if that were the case!
A friend of mine recently shared this photo on Facebook.
Occupy This.
And it really got me thinking of my America Appreciation Deployment this summer. We complain an awful lot about our government, our country and our lives. There are, however, so many other countries out there where people live in fear of their governments, where oppression is the norm and thoughts of an education are not even fathomable. We may be in an economic slump, but we will always be the land of opportunity. We will always be the country that offers you the ability to make a name for yourself and you don’t have to be fearful in doing it.
If the 99% of America who seem to be so upset with how the country is running and taking care of its people, then my advice would be to step outside of our nation’s borders and see just how truly blessed we, as Americans, are. And then perhaps go to a job fair. Occupy THAT thought for a while.
Great post. I can’t tell you how many times I heard growing up “Who ever told you life was fair?” and “Wish in one hand and want in the other and see which gets filled first”
I may not have like it at the time, but it taught me that if I wanted somethng, I was going to have to go out and get it, work for it, myself.
Ali, this is wonderfully written! I like the part where you talked about how you don’t have student loans and had a job for 4 years that allowed you to live a comfortable lifestyle. That’s what I like to call thinking ahead, and you were rewarded for the choices you made to make a huge sacrifice for our country. I’m among those who have student loans, more now that I went back to school and earned a Master’s degree. But that choice, while there is the negative of student loans, allowed me to get a job that I love. In order to get that job, however, I spent my summer surrounded by applications and moving to the place that hired me. The point here is that you’re right, there is a large group that feel entitled to have what they want without putting in the effort, but I’m very proud that there are still people out there who are willing to work for what they have. Good luck with your interview!!!