OCCUPY WALL STREET IS NOT ABOUT STOCKS

Have you heard of the new social movement called Occupy Wall Street? Protests are spreading around the country and slowly making their way to many of the major cities. This movement is being fueled online through many of the social websites like Twitter and you probably will be hearing more and more about it in the news in the coming weeks.

You might be wondering what Occupy Wall Street is all about and what does it have to do with the stock market? Actually, it has little to do with stocks as it is a growing group of people who are disenfranchised, often out of work and in debt, and angry because they think corporate America is making millionaires of the few and leaving everyone else behind.

"Wall Street" is the business district of New York and for anyone who buys and sells stocks it also represents the stock market. While these protestors are angry at high corporate profits and injustices they think abound in the business world, their protests involve much more than the stock market. Like most protests, the majority of people marching are under 30 years old.

The Internet and sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others are becoming important ways people organize and we all saw how they played a big part in the protests in Egypt which were responsible for ousting Hosni Mubarak. Occupy Wall Street will probably fizzle out eventually but it shows how the bad economy, high education prices, low wages, corporate bailouts, corrupt politicians, and other perceived problems with today's society are affecting the minds of today's younger generations.

They are angry it is clear, but they aren't angry specifically at the stock market like the name might imply.