So, is Occupy Wall Street a blue-collar or a white-collar protest? Arguably, it is both. High unemployment and underemployment, a volatile stock market, and other economic ills have combined to effectively blur the lines between America’s working and middle classes. Nobody’s economic position is truly safe, regardless of how they dress for work. In the grand scheme of things, white-collar accountants and engineers ultimately have little more job security than blue-collar assembly line workers.
This eroding class distinction could be what makes Occupy Wall Street so attractive a movement to the young and educated. Due to the lack quality entry-level employment and the stress of skyrocketing student debt, they are generally poor and financially unstable, causing them to identify with traditional blue-collar grievances—the education “vehicle” has failed to drive them up the socioeconomic ladder. At the same time, they have spent years in college (and often graduate school), and therefore have high professional and financial ambitions—causing them to identify with white-collar grievances, too.
It is a perfect storm of dissatisfaction. And Occupy Wall Street—with its emphases ranging from capitalist greed and corruption, to environmental protection, to Afghanistan—sits right in the eye of the hurricane.
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