Who are the 99%

Originally Posted on September 29, 2011 by Tracy Seekins

Who are the 99%?

I am the 99%. My husband and I worked our butts off over the years. I worked for a big company, making in the neighborhood of 25k a year. He worked as a truck driver making around the same.

We have ridden the roller coaster of life. Since that time much has changed. We proudly built a home and paid off all our student loans and other debts. We were living a typical middle class life, until the bottom fell out.

Now we are both older and both disabled. Life has changed for us in ways I cannot even begin to describe.

Now, we struggle each month to survive. Some months we have very little food and often there are days that we do not eat. We have had to choose which of us goes to a doctor due to the inability to pay co-payments for both of us in any given month.

It has been a difficult road but we walk it. We blame nobody but our own poor decisions that were based on trusting a system that was falling apart. It took me a long time to realize that we were not the only ones going through this. There are many who face the same or similar situations.

I have watched many lose their jobs, homes, security, and more due to the declining economy and the corrupt banking systems.

But I am not the face of the 99%. I am but one story in a multitude of faces and names. The 99% is YOU!

Chances are the 1% won’t even see this post so I can safely say that there is a 99% chance that YOU are also within the 99% of the population that is not so wealthy that you will never be in danger.

Chances are that you are not so wealthy that you can line the pockets of politicians in order to get them to lean in the direction you want them to.

Chances are that you have worked your BUTT off to get where you are and you pray, as do I, that you never have to face the circumstances that my family has faced.

You and I are not so different.

The 99% live in apartments, houses, condos, cabins, mobile homes, Campers, tents, yurts,

and even cars. The 99% work in fast food, customer service, management, call centers, education, civil service, and a plethora of other industries. The 99% are of all ages, sexes, orientations, and color.

Some have more than others and some have even less than most. Some are working 2 and 3 jobs just to try to make ends meet and others are working 1 job and doing just fine. But None of us are immune to the 1% and the hold they have on the banking system and the country.

Each one of us is but a breath away from losing everything. The ground might look safe to walk upon but the quicksand is well camouflaged.

Some of the 99% will never have to face what so many others are facing, some will undoubtedly make that faulty assumption that it could never be them and then find themselves sinking in the sand.

The point isn’t does this affect you NOW, the point is that it could. The point is that it affects your neighbors, friends, family, and your fellow man.

Today you have a choice. It is YOUR choice, as it always is. You can sit by and watch what is happening and pray that none of this ever affects you, your family, your friends; or you can get involved, do some research, learn, and take a stand.

You are the 99% and those who are occupying various places right now in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street are not just there speaking up and standing up for their rights, they are there standing up for YOUR rights as well.