The Occupy Wall Street protests are now in their third week, and seem to be catalyzing similar protests in other parts of the country.

How Occupy Wall Street is Getting it Right

Despite initial tepid media coverage, and critiques that the protest seems to possess an inchoate sense of focus, it actually well targets two key thoughts.   First, by the name and initial location of the protest, Occupy Wall Street highlights the financial industry’s evasion of full reform and proper societal oversight that, after repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, lead to a decade of risky behavior and the financial Armageddon of 2008.   Second, with the  ’99-percent’ refrain, OWS casts a spotlight on the appalling disparity in wealth and well-being amongst the citizenry of the United States after thirty years of the erosion of the basic social contract.    This graph from the Century Foundation blog is a helpful visualization of what that 99 percent is all about.

Average Household Income Since 1979

The result of the disparity in wealth, has lead many middle class families into an increasingly marginalized existence, thrusting many of them into outright poverty.      This 2010 Census report on income, poverty and health care coverage articulates the damage in numbers, and we can only surmise the heartbreak, sense of loss, and perpetual anxiety that are the facts of life for at least one third of the country’s citizens.

As the census report shows in 2010,

• One out of six Americans live in poverty (46.2 million)
• More than a third (103.6 million) were living below  $44,000 for a family of four.
• Some poverty may be obscured because many young adults (25-34) are living with their parents (if they were living on their own the poverty rate of this age group would be a whopping 45.3 percent!).
• Almost 17 percent of Americans, 49.9 million, have no health insurance with 1.5 million families losing employer-sponsored health insurance in 2010 alone.
• 20 percent of American children live in poverty (that’s less than $22,000 per year for a family of four) with the demographic poverty profile being 27.4 percent for African Americans, 26.6 percent for Hispanics and 12.4 among white children.

And it could have been worse, but:

• Social security kept 20 million citizens, 14 million of them seniors, out of poverty;
• With a buffer of unemployment insurance, 3.2 Americans were kept out of poverty in 2010.

Making the Second Bill of Rights Come Alive

The Second Bill of Rights provides an important framework and platform to address the economic and social fragility of our citizens.  The eight points of the Second Bill can be used to create a shared vision, to become organizing principles for action, to formulate policy objectives, and to catalyze a political debate that will enable the country to drive to a more equitable and just society.  In doing so we will create the foundation for a future of shared prosperity and well-being for all citizens of the United States.

I encourage those who are motivated by the Occupy Wall Street conversation that they explore and take up the Second Bill of Rights as a platform for dialogue and organizational focus.