courtesy occupywallst.org
History will tell if the Occupy Movement spurs any sort of actual change in America. I line up on some the issues of societal justice that the movement desires. I also disagree with some things. Here is something I do believe:
The wealthy have a unique responsibility.
The wealthiest of the wealthy – the top 1% – even more so.
My friend Wess Stafford says this:
“The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth. The opposite of poverty is enough.”
He’s probably right. I don’t have any problem with wealthy people enjoying life, spending their money and having some fun. I just think that the world is much better when rich people are radically generous. I couldn’t imagine someone waking up everyday knowing that they were part of the 1% of the wealthiest people in the world and not doing something for the other 99%. And yet so many do.
The web is full of peaceful protestors posting photos as part of the 99%, like this one.
courtesy occupywallst.org
Here’s a quote from the original Occupy Wall Street tumbler site:
“We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.”
I get what they are saying. It simply isn’t fair that the extremely rich – the one guy out of every 100 – holds almost all the wealth. Especially when so many of the 99% are legitimately hungry, homeless and oppressed. I know it can get politically complicated in the details, but I get the sentiment. Again, I am not against the cause. It’s just hard for me to be completely behind it because…
Here’s my big confession. I say this with a little embarrassment and a lot of humility.
I am part of the 1%.
I am one of those guys. I am ridiculously wealthy. This may surprise some of you who don’t know my story very well – where I have come from, my family heritage, etc. I hide my wealth very well. It makes me uncomfortable to flaunt it. It is hard to write about it now.
So you can see why the Occupy Movement creates mixed emotions in me. Unlike most everyone else alive on the planet, I have a unique responsibility to be especially generous. And, to be frank, I don’t think I am doing exceptionally well. (Full disclosure: In 2010, I only gave away about 14% of my income to charity. That just doesn’t seem like enough for someone as blessed as me. I have simply gotten used to living on the 86%. It is hard to give more away.)
Maybe you have figured out my angle by now. If not, I’ll let you off the hook.
The Occupy Movement is made up of people from the 99% of Americans frustrated that 1% of their fellow Americans hold most of the nation’s wealth. It is true that I am not part of that 1%.
But I am part of the 1% worldwide.
According to an article on CNNMoney yesterday, to be in the top 1% of the world’s worth, your annual income (after taxes) must exceed:
$34,000
That’s it.
Half of the world’s wealthiest 1% live in America.
From money.cnn.com 1-04-12
I am part of the 1%
Are you?
What in the world are we going to do about it?
My friend Wess, whom I mentioned above, can help you be more generous if you want. He helped me.
He is the president of this company. He takes money from rich people like me and gives it to the poor.
This post isn’t really about trying to get money for Wess’ company per se, but I would like to challenge you to consider doing something similar in 2012. Especially if you are as rich as me. Maybe even post a public photo admission like this one telling the rest of the world that you are part of the 1%…and what you are going to do about it.
Here’s my photo admission.
Taken from my iPhone.
Written on my iPad.
Joe, thanks for sharing.
I heard on NPR this morning, the top 1% of the world is $36k – and we as Americans are 1% of that, but in addition to that the top 1% of Americans starts at $31 MILLION. Let’s expand the range, to the top 10%- which begins at 3.9 MILLION.
I think the one of the things about Occupy at this point is the disparity between the 1% and the 99% of Americans, and these number really highlight that. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/30/nyregion/where-the-one-percent-fit-in-the-hierarchy-of-income.html
I don’t really have a point – just more things to consider.
Great stuff – I think the same thing when I see footage of the protests…I’m part of the 1% that has so much excess water that I use it to feed my lawn and wash my car. (full disclosure – I don’t really wash my car and rarely water my lawn) (I have people who do that for me)(you see what I did there?)
I like the redundancy of saying you’re part of the 1% on an ipad.
I’m just wondering where you got the angry dark picture of Ray Ramono?
Mr Saget,
Ray volunteered for this project.
nice
Thank you for sharing your inspiring thoughts. I hope that many are moved to give to the 99% because of this.
Thanks Shaina. You guys are awesome.
Excellent post, excellent point, excellent angle. I think Americans have a hard time seeing how blessed they are when there is always someone else doing better themselves.
As far as the Occupy movement goes, I agree, the more you have the more you should give. But that said, God wants all of us to rely on Him, not other people. So I suggest not looking to the wealthy, but looking to the giver of all things, God himself.
I too am the 1%.
Thanks for the nice words Larissa. I agree that we need to count on God primarily. I would also note that all Christians are called to live a Kingdom community of hope. (I use that phrase vs. “church” for a lot of reasons.) It is way above my pay grade to try to figure out a social system of generosity for the masses, but I think within the church we should learn that God provides for us (perhaps most often) through each other.
To be fair to the 1% unless that 14% includes your taxes, you aren’t living on 86%. If that 14% does include your taxes and you only gave away… what …1% then yes you have some work to do.
My thoughts on the Occupy movement is for them not to blame Wall Street but their own morals. Wealthy people as you said have a unique responsibility to be especially generous. So they need to stop protesting at government establishments and start making a protest against morality, whatever that looks like.
This country was set up with the “dream” of becoming wealthy. That’s what makes this country great. But those who feel like the victim of such liberty want to crush it.
Good stuff Joe.
I am among the 1 % , going to those who would love to have the wealth of the 99 %.
Jesus commanded us to go , right ? !
you’re the real deal. Russ! miss ya
My main problem with the movement is that covetousness is not a good foundation on which to base anything.
I’ve tried to figure out solutions to the worlds poverty problems, my conclusion was; we just have way too many people living on this planet. A reduction of population, that would take care of everything. Image if the population was reduced by half? Jobs for everyone, jobs with health insurance. Enough food to feed everyone, affordable homes and higher education, with goals to be whatever you want to be, no fighting over oil either..but that’s a horrible solution. Not God’s solution. We do have abundance now, even in the down economy. What do we do with abundance? Do we fight over it? Hoard it? We have enough to give to others. We have enough, more than enough, but it’s hard to give up.( is this greed or self preservation?) I think God’s solution would be to love (an action word) others so much, love them like ourselves. Foreclosed homes were taken away from people by other Americans..they were kicked out of good homes, only to stay empty, instead of finding ways of helping the people readjust payments, the banks would rather take a chance on getting nothing in return. Empty foreclosed homes in Cleveland were bulldozed down. My neighbors house has sat empty for a year now, they were foreclosed on a home they had lived in for almost 20 years. We have the government paying farmers not to grow food. We have the working poor that cannot get food stamps, because someone say’s they make too much money for help. Then we have American companies moving to other countries because…cheaper work force?..tax breaks?….globalization?, spreading the wealth around?
It is true many of the poor may have made bad decisions, but that’s not always the case, especially now. Do we judge others for not pulling themselves up by their boot straps? I worked in an industry where I saw young women try to start over from scratch, getting a job, going back to school, paying rent, day care and trying to take care of needs and responsibilities, on minimum wage. Unbelievably difficult if not impossible. But then again, the poor in our country are so much richer than a lot of people all over this globe. Many struggle for their next meal to survive. If our poverty rate in the U.S. went down, would we be more inclined to help people in third world countries? Or would we only want more stuff? I think we have a responsibility to our poor here at home, and to the worlds poor. It’s not one or the other. We are all in this together, but easy to hide. Until the 99% cry.
I am totally guilty, and a hypocrite when it comes to the solution. Ok I give clothing, and do a little of this and little of that, write a check once a month..but we (I)still have abundance. I wish as Christians and Americans we (I)would have stood together and said, oh no..you are not foreclosing on these families, I wish we would have stood up and said oh no, you are not moving this company to another country. I wish we would have said to our politicians, we are going to take care of the people who are out of work.
as Joe say’s:
I couldn’t’ imagine someone waking up everyday knowing that they were part of the 1% of the wealthiest people in the world and not doing something for the other 99%. And yet so many do.
Wes Stafford is CEO of World Vision, an amazing amount of help is given to people through this organization, it reminds me of Jesus feeding 5000 with one loaf of bread and 2 fish. He can do what we can not.
But if we give just a little he can take it and make it overly abundant.
If we cared for our poor here at home, would we then give more abundantly to those around the world?
Maybe if every Christian family in the U.S. adopted a struggling family, helped them get on their feet, along with adopting a child through World Vision-we would then have so much more to give? Mother Theresa once said: “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” or If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” and
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” What will I do about it?
Just a point of clarification – Wess Stafford is CEO of Compassion International, not WOrld Vision.
Leslye, not only is halving the population not God’s solution, it is not a solution. There would be half the market, and thus half the jobs. The % without jobs wouldn’t change.
I remember once when I was a kid (maybe 15 or so) I was complaining about something, I believe it was because we didn’t have enough money to get me a new skateboard, and I remember my dad looking at me and saying “Boy, you are a blonde hair, blue eyed, white male, born and raised in Southern California. You have no idea how good you have it”. Of course I had no idea at the time what he was talking about. This post reminded me of that and how blessed (and rich) we actually are. It also reminds me that I need to be doing more for the 99%. Thanks for sharing.
thx for the repost.