About one year after the beginning of the Occupy movement, a new survey suggests more young Americans would rather snag a job on Wall Street than protest against it.
Only 26 percent of surveyed Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 would prefer protesting with Occupy Wall Street, according to a press release distributed on Monday by Generation Opportunity.
The release surveyed 1,003 adults between the ages of 18 and 29 from July 27 to July 31. The majority of respondents in the survey said they would prefer working on Wall Street instead.
“Amidst their frustrations and disappointments, the overwhelming majority of Millennials view the poor economy and lack of leadership by elected officials as the true sources of their problems — not fellow Americans who work on Wall Street,” said Paul Conway, president of Generation Opportunity, in the release.
Young Americans do not see anger as the way to fix the economy, Conway said in the press release.
“Young Americans reject the cynicism and angry theatrics aimed at those who can create more full-time jobs,” he said. “Instead, they simply want positive solutions that grow the economy and create more opportunity for all Americans.”
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences senior Brandon Wood, an organizer for BU Occupies Boston, said anger in the protests was a justifiable reaction to conditions.
“Anger and rage have a place,” he said. “All the emotions and responses we got with Occupy were perfectly justified at the beginning, that initial surge. It’s a public display of all the conversations around dinner tables that all Americans have been having.”
Wood said the protests were empowering for those who participated.
“What was empowering at the beginning of Occupy [Boston] was going into the street [and] having conversations with people chanting about what they’d been really angry about for a long time,” he said.
The release referenced previous Generation Opportunity data, which listed the youth unemployment rate at 12.7 percent.
The release also stated 76 percent of young Americans think the state of the economy and the lack of jobs are shrinking the American middle class.
Woods said the unemployment rate among young people is linked to a preference for a job on Wall Street.
“You’re talking about students who just graduated with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt — of course they would want a job,” he said. “Of course they would want a bunch of money, and that accounts for a large part of that. That just shows the amount of financial stress that young people are already under.”
Woods said the Occupy movement declined in popularity and public image partially as a result of its lack of focus.
“We needed more concrete directions, we needed more concrete plans,” he said. “We needed instruction, we needed leadership, we needed accountability within our own structures.”
The release stated that only 38 percent of young Americans believe politicians reflect their interests.
Wood said this is consistent with Occupy protests, as the protests were an expression of anger at greed and manipulation of democracy.
“Wall Street corporations — anybody with a whole lot of money — can donate as much as they want to political action committees, [and] that creates that bias,” he said. “They’re able to take the whole machine wherever it wants to go, and it’s that machine that we’re angry against.”
But other BU students still said they would prefer to work on Wall Street than occupy it.
CAS sophomore Ryan Linehan said he noticed some problems with the Occupy movement.
“It’s good in intent, but it doesn’t necessarily have solid goals or methods of achieving those goals,” he said, “so I wouldn’t agree necessarily with the way they went about Occupy.”
Linehan said he still would not particularly prefer a job on Wall Street, as it is not the kind of work he wishes to be doing.
CAS sophomore Michelle Hunter said she would rather have the stability of a job, but does not think politicians reflect young Americans’ interests.
“The young people aren’t the ones with money right now, and that’s obviously what interests politicians most,” she said.
CAS sophomore Matthew Miller said he would much rather have a job on Wall Street.
“In essence, my goal to make a ton of money is a pathway to me experiencing the world,” he said. “So, obviously, working on Wall Street is going to get me that money.”
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