Occupy Movement needs better Public Relations

Whether it is people who work in the Public Relations arena who volunteer their time to the movement or what, I think public relations consultants should help this movement get its message across in a better more efficient way. Here are some of the facts that would help them:

begin quote:

Opening a discourse on income inequality in the 21st century U.S. is no small feat, argued Nina Eliasoph, a sociologist with USC's Dornsife College.
"What's really interesting is the way they've forced open a line of questioning that people have found taboo ... This used to be a non-question - you were not allowed to ask why there's more inequality now than in the 1950s, especially if you were in media or a politician."
That opening has also generated more information and exchange among researchers and in the public sphere, Eliasoph said.
"Now people are coming out of the woodwork with data they had in some academic journal that they published years ago ... saying now it's even worse and no one paid attention to this inequality," she said. "So all these people who didn't know about each other's statistics are finding out about them."
Eliasoph calls some of that data astounding - like the fact that in the prosperous 1950s, the top 1 percent earned only 8 percent of the income. Today, the much-maligned 1 percent earns more than a quarter of the income, with taxes on their highest earnings capped at 35 percent - compared to over 91 percent in the 1950s.
In late October, the Congressional Budget Office reported that income distribution had become substantially more unequal since 1979: The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the country's income over the past three decades - their average real after-tax income growing by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007.
By contrast, the 60 percent of the population in the middle income scale saw just under 40 percent growth in the same category, while the "lowest" 20 percent averaged about 18 percent higher income in 2007 over 1979.
The upward trend in unequal distribution continued from 2005 and 2007, when income among the highest 20 percent exceeded that of the remaining 80 percent, the Office reported.
Such data compounded rage over corporate greed, the role of financial institutions in the Great Recession and the plight of unemployed and uninsured across the country, feeding the Occupy diaspora.

Read more: Occupy movement: A lasting effect? - Whittier Daily News http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_19385240#ixzz1eSh715dH

end quote.

Even the single fact that in the 1950s the top 1 percent only earned 8 percent of the entire U.S. income compared to the fact that it now earns 25 percent of U.S. income might be useful. Or that the highest earners had their income taxed at up to 91% in the 1950s compared to only 35% now.

Or "The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the country's income over the past three decades - their average real after-tax income growing by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007."

 

Nothing will compound the rage of the 99% more than all these kinds of facts. In a way educating the 99% will bring the nation back to balance. Because things are now so out of balance that if they get any moreso it could go to a French revolution scenario where the aristocracy(rich) are done away with. So, I think the "Occupy" movement by "equalizing" the wealth in the U.S. is preventing future death and mayhem upon the rich. So, even the rich should be grateful for the existence of the Occupy movement because it will help them stay alive in the future. Because bloody revolutions mostly just make a mess of everything and create situations where no useful leadership at all exists for often 20 to 100 years in that country.