What once started out as a small group of Americans protesting Manhattan’s financial district has extended into a worldwide campaign. The original Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was made up of Students for a Democratic Society, who were tired of facing and piling on debt while still in college and holding down part-time jobs. This small platform quickly fanned out into feminist, student and labor movements. Now if you attend a march, you will see protesters of all genders, ages, religions, and nationalities present. These diverse groups have banded together to make their voices heard. Their list of grievances that are listed out in the “Declaration of the Occupation of Wall Street” is long. Issues such as the foreclosure crisis, work-place discrimination, income inequality, and student loan debt have become the movement’s unofficial platform. This being said, there is no actual platform that the demonstrators nationwide are running on, which opponents are quick to point out.

What are these marchers protesting exactly? One thing they are protesting is the government funding rich corporations by means of bailouts while cutting back on education. According The Huffington Post demonstrators have coined themselves the “99 percent.” They are referring to the “vast majority of Americans struggling to pay their bills while the income gap between the rich and middle class widens.” The 1% is the wealthy Americans that make more than $343,927 before taxes. They have “lots of political influence and corporate greed.” They pay 37% of this county’s federal income taxes. However, the 99% believe that this is not enough and that the 1% should get taxed even more than they do now. According to the Atlantic the 99% are not accurately describing themselves. The 99% claim they make up the majority who are having their homes foreclosed on. In fact, “foreclosure activity [is] only affecting 10% of U.S. households” not 99% of households. Only “15% of Americans live below the poverty line.” Again, that’s not 99% of Americans. “Before last year’s Affordable Care Act, about 30 million Americans were uninsured, which is roughly 10% of the population. Of course, with the new law in place that number should approach zero.” Again, that’s not 99% of Americans. Lastly, “87.5% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs with the underemployment rate [being] 16.2%.” Again 83.8% of Americans are employed and with that statistic, 87.5% of them enjoy their job. If you add up the estimated percentages, excluding 87.5% of Americans enjoying their job, you will find that only 51.2% of Americans are somehow being affected. This number is more than half of 99%. The current conditions are terrible, but that being said, maybe the protestors should get their numbers right.

Even politicians, musicians and actors are weighing in on the demonstration. Actress Zoe Kravitz, documentary film-maker Michael Moore, actor Penn Badgley, musician Billy Bragg, rap producer Russell Simmons, musician Kanye West, Comedian Roseanne Barr, actress Susan Sarandon, actor Alec Baldwin, and actor Russell Brand have all shown up to support the New York OWS protest. While Democratic leaders vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi lent the demonstrators their support, conservative and Republican leaders have a different view. They believe that the poor should help the rich take on the tax burden since “half the nation’s households pay no federal income tax — an accurate figure that varies from 46 percent to 51 percent.” Take chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, John Cornyn (R-Texas), who this past summer complained that Americans who escape federal taxes then get help from the government, whose view differs from the protestors. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) “thinks the country is doing too much to help them [middle and lower class]. Sessions suggested the need is phony by pointing to a Michigan man who won a lottery but kept using food stamps, as well as noting a gun runner who received food stamps.” Both Hatch and Cornyn feel that the protest should end and that the middle class Americans should start doing their duty and help pay for their fare share of taxes. The protestors claim that only the government is bailing out the wealthy. According to Hatch and Cornyn the middle class and poor are being equally bailed out.

The first OWS meeting was held on August 2, 2011 at the Bowling Green in New York. There, the dozen people self-appointed “process committee” dreamed up the movement for democratic assemblies. They decided that all decisions would be made by a general assent consensus without voting. Two months later, the protests are still being run this way. The majority makes the decision with the rest following along. This format is being followed throughout the world.

The protest spans 951 cities in 82 countries that currently have a similar OWS protest occurring. These include New York, New York; Washington D.C., downtown Boston; Mobile Alabama; Jacksonville Florida; Portland, Oregon; London, England; Madrid, Spain; Frankfurt, Germany; Rome, Italy; Sydney, Australia; and Hong Kong, China. OWS has ballooned onto the blogosphere as well. There is an official webpage, a facebook page, a twitter page, and countless other sites designated for people to blog about their rallies and how the 99% affects them.

Will the different governments start paying attention to the protestors? Will the Democrats and protestors be successful in getting more taxes for the 1% and fewer taxes for the 99%? Or will the Republicans prove that the middle class and lower class need to start paying their fare share? Only time will tell.