WHY WE OCCUPY!
“With its giant underclass, the income gap in the United States resembles that of many third-world nations. The top 1 percent of Americans has more income to spend than the bottom 40 percent taken together. This is a huge gap compared with Europe and Japan. British economist Richard Wilkins argues that large income disparities erode the social fabric. They induce resentment and undermine trust, which causes stress to both the rich and the poor. No one feels at ease within such a system. The result is the world’s richest nation now has one of its poorest health records. The United States used to have the world’s healthiest and tallest citizens, but now ranks at the bottom among industrialized nations in terms of longevity and height and at the top in terms of teenage pregnancy and infant mortality. Whereas most nations have been adding nearly one inch per decade to their average height, the United States has not done so since the 1970′s. The result is that Northern Europeans now tower on average three inches over Americans. This isn’t explained by recent United States immigrants, which constitute to a tiny fraction of the population to affect these statistics. In terms of life expectancy, too, the United States is not keeping up with the rest of the world. On this critical health index, Americans don’t even rank among the top twenty five nations anymore.”
excerpt from – ‘Our Inner Ape’ by Frans De Waal, 2005
Protestor Stripped from Clothes Sending A Message