by Carolyn Tytler

Created on: December 03, 2011

The protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement have made their point. There is an unfair division of wealth in North America and other industrialized nations around the world. The very rich continue to accumulate wealth while the poor only seem to become more poverty-stricken as time passes. The middle classes, slowly losing ground in the continual battle for economic sustainability, may soon disappear altogether.

The protesters have succeeded in focusing media spotlight on their cause: the necessity to arrange a more equitable distribution of society's assets. Although they have been unable to suggest a viable plan to accomplish this, they have clarified the goal toward which politically-astute and ethical minds should strive. Our planet's rich resources could provide everyone the means to live in dignity, supplied with every necessity, if only the "haves" among us could overcome their greed and learn to share with the "have-nots".

What will the protesters gain by continuing their occupation?

Honestly, they are becoming an annoyance. By usurping public spaces, they are inconveniencing the public, who must go out of their way to travel around the encampments. Furthermore, people who may wish to use the occupied areas for other purposes, are unable to do so.

Some protesters are attracting bad publicity because of illicit drug use and other irresponsible behaviors. Occupied areas have become litter-strewn and unsanitary. There have even been some unexplained deaths. In northern areas, as frigid winter temperatures set in, illness, frostbite, and lack of proper facilities will make conditions in the campsites even more deplorable.

The public is beginning to wonder about the protesters themselves. Why do they have weeks and weeks of free time to occupy public areas? Even though good jobs are presently at a premium, there are minimum-wage jobs available. Surely it would be better to flip burgers at MacDonald's than to freeze to death in a public park bemoaning one's fate at the hands of a heartless society.

In addition, hundreds of volunteer agencies in every city are crying for volunteers. Now that the protesters have made their point with demonstrations, should they not put their time to better use trying to improve conditions for everyone? While they await the advent of a more equitable distribution of society's material assets, could they not share their own time and talents with people even less fortunate than themselves?

Public opinion is indeed turning against the Occupy Wall Street movement. The longer the protesters drag out their occupations, the more sympathy they will sacrifice and the greater antagonism they will attract. They may end up accomplishing just the opposite to what they originally intended.

The public will label them as lazy, dirty, hippie-type anarchists who deserve to be exactly where they are, at the bottom of the social scale, because obviously, they are unwilling to put any effort into bettering their own situations. That outcome would indeed be a shame, because the protesters' original intent and methodology were praiseworthy and effective. They have just dragged the whole operation out too long.

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