Unemployment Much Lower Among Occupy Protesters Than Tea Party
One of the mindless attacks on Occupy protesters is that they are lazy and should “go get a job”.
In fact, most Occupy protesters have jobs.
For example, Scott Olsen – the Marine veteran peacefully protesting in Oakland who was shot in the head with a projectile by riot police – had a very good day job, but was so dedicated that he went to the protests after work:
Scott Olsen, 24, joined the protests as he worked his day job as a network engineer and left his apartment each night to sleep alongside protesters in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., Keith Shannon said.
***Olsen, who is originally from Wisconsin, served two tours of duty in Iraq, makes a good living at a San Francisco software company and had a hillside apartment that overlooks San Francisco Bay.
***
Each night, he would go out to the tent camps that have sprung up over the past month in cities as the movement spread to protest economic inequality and what they see as corporate greed.
***
People at OPSWAT, the company where Olsen works, were devastated after learning of his injuries. They described him as a humble, quiet guy who worked hard over long hours.
“He’s been a big piece of what we do here and our growth strategy, so obviously it’s pretty devastating for us that he’s in the shape he’s in,” said Jeff Garon, the company’s director of marketing.
Olsen was awarded seven medals while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, which he left as a lance corporal in November 2009 after serving for four years.
He went on two tours in Iraq, one in 2006-2007 and another in 2008, where he worked as a datanetwork specialist. He was awarded seven medals, including the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, according to the Marine Corps.
Indeed, the Wall Street Journal found:
The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).
Professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman and business analyst Harrison Schultz from the Baruch College School of Public Affair puts the unemployment rate of the Occupy protesters at 13.1%. In other words, approximately 85% employment rate.
In contrast, a 2010 New York Times CBS News poll found that only 56% of members of the Tea party were employed (question 105).
(This is not a criticism of the Tea Party, with which the Occupy protests have much more common cause than the mainstream media would have us believe. According to the New York Times/CBS poll, 32% of the Tea Party members surveyed are retired. So one of the primary reasons that a higher percentage of Occupy protesters have jobs than Tea Partiers is that the former tend to be younger, and so still of working age.)
Get a Job? Bad Policy Regarding Unemployment Is One of the Main Problems Protesters Are Mad About!
The “get a job” slur is, in fact, highly ironic.
Specifically, a large part of what the protesters are objecting to is high unemployment rates.
There are lots of jobs for the 1%, but few for the poor.
The politicos and lobbyists are doing great – D.C. has the highest income in the country – and yet Main Street is suffering.
Idiotic government policies and ruthless behavior by the big banks have led to Depression-level unemployment.
No wonder the protesters are angry.
Category: Employment, Politics, Think Tank
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
The actual unemployment rate in the U.S. is far higher, in any case, because of the U measurement the feds give out as opposed to the actual number of able-bodied people neither working, seeking work, nor in full-time employment when they have only part-time employment.
It’s likely that number is far higher than the 13–15% number of Occupy folks, because the measurement there is clearly whether they have a job, not asking whether they have left the workforce or other questions that would exclude them from the federal employment number.
I met an Occupy Seattle protester who works waiting tables. He works 3 long days (10+ hours) a week to spend the rest of his time at the protest.
November 11, 2011
Americans’ Perceptions of Job Market Worst in a Decade
Nine in 10 Americans think now is a “bad time” to find a quality job
by Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist
PRINCETON, NJ — Americans’ assessments of the job market worsened in November and are now the most pessimistic they have been in the past decade. Nine in 10 Americans say it is a “bad time” to find a quality job, while 8% think it is a “good time.”
2007-2011 trend: Thinking about the job situation in America today, would you say that it is now a good time or a bad time to find a quality job?
Although each individual rating ties the worst Gallup has measured in the 11-year history of the question, not until now has Gallup recorded the 8% “good time” and 90% “bad time” readings in the same month.
The percentage saying it is a good time to find a quality job peaked at 48% in January 2007, prior to the recession. The best ratings this year were in April, when 81% said it was a bad time and 17% a good time to find a quality job.
…
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150704/Americans-Perceptions-Job-Market-Worst-Decade.aspx
If the tea party and occupy wall street have this cause (disgust with corruption in the financial system/DC) in common, I wish they’d work together on it. Any chance whatsoever of a 3rd party candidate for 2012?
The Tea Party doesn’t exist. They are nothing more than the Koch wing Republicans. Period. They have been trying to outplay the Neo-con/Bush wing in Republican circles. It is why Perry keeps on blabbering these dumb lines. The Bush’s don’t like him and have been a big big block to his path to the Republican nomination. So he has been trying to scum up Koch support……….and failing miserably. The Koch’s(Tea Party) want to permanently want to make the US economy smaller………much smaller.
Saying “unemployment” is higher than being reported is bs. The estimated unemployment rate before was likewise, dictated by greater measures as well. Like the unemployment during the great depression supposedly had a ‘estimated’ peak of 24 percent. But the “greater” estimation had it at 37%. Just like how the “U-3″ and “U-6″ work now. At some point, posts like yours need to die. It just isn’t that bad. Get off your computer and accept that. Go out in the real world. It can get a whole lot worse, a destroying country threatening worse.
I often hear that kind of comment on the OWS movement – and I challenge it by pointing out that that is not a challenge of what they are saying. Then they will say “well they don’t know what they want” which is crap as well – I’m really mystified with the way people will dump on the movement which is really applicable to most (99%) of the people.
I question the data.
The Tea Party is against two things: Excessive taxation and excessive government.
This flies in the face of the proported “employment” gap. It is certaily counter-intuitive. I suspect the Tea Party contains many retirees which would account for this convienient unemployed tag. Others may be stay at home moms. Next, a poll will state that Tea Party participants are less intelligent that the OWS crowd, all watch Fox News and carry a bible and a sidearm under their leisure suits while knawing on some beef jerkey with their three remaining teeth. Anything to fit the liberal template. I suspect that many Tea Party devotees, skeptical of any media, lie to the inquirers….similar to the situation that occured when Kerry was declared a landslide winner by the major networks based upon exit polling responses which turned out to be false.
After all is said and done, let’s see what the American people have to say in November, 2012. Let the tar and feathering cease. And may the best ideas win.
My company uses OPSWAT’s software. And I didn’t know that Mr. Olsen worked there. It’s a small company and I’m sure this has been terrible for them.
It’s ironic that their software is focused on internet security.
It is remarkable that he spent his nights in the occupy camp to demonstrate his support. How many of us who are sympathetic to this movement would do the same? I haven’t.
theexpertisin you’d do better if you left out the words “liberal” in your post because when you toss it around as a epithet, most educated people immediately discount whatever you’re saying by at least 80%. Secondly, you’re silly generalizations are just plain wrong. *I’VE* joined the people in NYC and I have a C in front of my title, teach, own a small business, and am VERY well employed. I just recognize crap when I see it and, frankly, if it weren’t for the Tea Party I never would have joined the OWS people.
Why you might ask? Why would I, obviously a member of the low single digits want to join with the other 98% of the great unwashed while avoiding the Tea Party? Because I’ve actually talked to Tea Party people and realized that they’re not about anything like this at all. They are the ones railing against government programs while collecting money and telling you they receive no handouts, or living in a state where the net contributions of the Federal Government are positive. While the people I’ve talked to at OWS are sensible and get the ACTUAL problems.
So stop listing to Fox and go out and start talking to these people. Not only are they mostly employed, they actually understand what the problems are. And they are NOT “unwashed hippes” as if anyone even knows what that means anymore…dragging up an now over 40 year old term. You’re just showing your reactionary tendencies by posting.
So 88% of Tea Partiers are employed or retired. Assume that 3% of OWSers are, and the employment rate is the same.
But there is a big difference: a lot more Tea Partiers are protesting in their leisure time. OWSers are putting in extra hours after work.
econimonium:
I did not comment in this post re: OWS. The protest venue reports speak for themselves. My beef is with the employment comps. And liberal templates (conservative templates as well). OWS has but a casual interest for me, and is not a significant event in the Big Picture (attempt at humor).
Today, volunteering at a food pantry was much more important…and it always will be.
Did anyone actually bother to look at the poll? Only 6% were not employed and seeking work. Another 5% said they were not in the market for work. Either way, you are LESS than the OWS people.
[...] ‘One of the mindless attacks on Occupy protesters is that they are lazy and should “go get a job”. In fact, most Occupy protesters have jobs. ‘For example, Scott Olsen – the Marine veteran peacefully protesting in Oakland who was shot in the head with a projectile by riot police – had a very good day job, but was so dedicated that he went to the protests after work:…’ http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/11/most-%E2%80%9Coccupy-wall-street%E2%80%9D-protesters-have-jobs/ [...]
@econimonium: you’re soft on poor theexpertisin. You let him off with only a ” reactionary tendencies” slap on the hand? I’m sure you’re familiar with the hierarchy of warnings any apparatchik would put into practice on a daily basis while observing the behaviour of his fellow citizens in the workers paradise. Here’s how it went, translated from Russian mot a mot: 1) your attitude has been noticed, 2) your “REACTIONARY TENDENCIES” do not correspond with the views of the working class, 3) you are of unhealthy social origin so you do not qualify for (for example University studies, or to travel outside your oblast or of course to travel abroad or to throw your name in the hat for an apartment, etc) and 4) you have been unmasked as an enemy of the people/laborers, Article 58, Gulag?
My point: your #2 is a word by word translation of an utterance that would send shivers down the spine of the poor soul so characterized back then. Can you please use different words, say “my ideology is unlike yours”. Thank you.
[...] that isn’t the point actually. Many of these people do actually have jobs, and just return to the site to protest. Others live at the sites and leave only to go to work. [...]
[...] among the Occupy Wall Street protesters is six percent higher than the national average. Having a job is not only a requirement for stability in also plays a [...]