A Little Perspective

Lt. Gov. Mark Darr

Arkansas Lt Gov. Mark Darr: Much attention has been given in the press lately to the spate of protests around the country sparked initially in New York by a group calling itself Occupy Wall Street. By their own account, they are protesting against the people they believe are responsible for economic inequality in this country, namely banks, the wealthy and big corporations. At its heart, however, this is mostly a reprise of the same anti-capitalist protest movements we’ve seen in this country for decades. Class warfare is the theme of the protest, attempting to pit one part of society against another.

The group says they are targeting the top 1% of wealth holders in the country. As such, they claim that they represent the other 99%. Though, they don’t represent most of the hard-working Arkansans that I know.

Now, these protesters certainly have a right to demonstrate. That’s one of the great things about our country is that we have the freedom to voice our opinions publicly. As long as the protests remain peaceful, I don’t begrudge them their right to say what they want. A group affiliated with this movement recently demonstrated on a Saturday morning at the Arkansas State Capitol and by all accounts, it was peaceful and orderly.

These protesters have set up tent cities, occupying urban areas as if they are some persecuted group of political refugees. I get that they are trying to make a statement, but this does not seem productive. We have places for tent cities already set aside. They’re called state parks (and aren’t you glad we’ve got ‘em?).

What I think is needed in the debate, however, is some perspective. A picture has been circulating on the internet recently showing the Occupy protesters with the label 1% and impoverished people from a third world country with the label 99%. The point of the picture is that we have people in our country, the greatest country in the world, complaining about seemingly everything, while millions of people the world over have so much less than most people considered poor in the United States.

Consider the following from a recent report from The Heritage Foundation: “Scholar James Q. Wilson has stated, ‘The poorest Americans today live a better life than all but the richest persons a hundred years ago.’ In 2005, the typical household defined as poor by the government had a car and air conditioning. For entertainment, the household had two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there were children, especially boys, in the home, the family had a game system, such as an Xbox or a PlayStation. In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences included a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.”

On my recent trip to China, we took a train ride for several hundred miles across the country. We saw some very rural, very poor areas, unlike anything I’ve seen in this country.

According to UNICEF, nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or write their names. Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries lack sufficient access to water. Millions of people around the world die every year from illnesses that are readily treatable here in this country.

Our nation is a giving nation, but the foundation of our economy is capitalism, not socialism. Protesting banks and corporations will not create jobs. Sowing division and unrest will not bring an end to the recession. It seems lost on the protesters that the federal government from which they seek solutions is the very entity that has made the problems they cite even worse through bailout after bailout. We need solutions that encourage job creation, not restrictions that hinder businesses and grow government and debt.

We are blessed to live in America. This is the month we celebrate how thankful we are for what we have. Let’s try to keep this all in perspective.

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