The Occupy

I might be one of the least informed people in America. It was not until after a friend of mine in Boston who mentioned the Occupy did I look up the web to see what it was all about.

As a PhD student at Harvard, she has been observing the Occupy and listening to the various lectures given there. With her characteristically confessional style, she wrote, "Having been an "elite" all my life, I have found it hard to admit that I have failed on multiple fronts in the past few years. However, a populist movement like "Occupy" makes me realize that people with failures not only must work hard to win victory in the end, but also must realize that in fact, this is an experience shared by 99% of the people. There is nothing shameful about it; instead that's why we need each other's "solidarity." And most importantly, these social standards of success and failure should not influence personal relationships, which are built on totally different parameters of commitment, understanding, and selflessness."

We human beings like to measure everything. There is always a 99 percentile in every measurement. I find it interesting that the Occupy is a big thing at Harvard, whereas here at Stanford I don't see anything. Is it possible that the Stanford students are fancying themselves to start the next wave of Facebook, Google and Apple that they would never consider the possibility of themselves being part of the 99%?

I am not proud of myself when it comes political involvement. I find it too frustrating to get involved. On the one hand, I abhor the callousness of the Republican agenda, and lament how effective they have preyed on the fears, bias and insecurity of the poor Americans to vote for a party that actually never will take care of them. On the other hand, I am dismayed at the ineffectiveness of government, as well as the widespread abuse of various welfare programs. The finances are getting bankrupt, first and foremost by the unnecessary wars, and then by the bleeding programs that take care of people who have never and will never generate a positive return on these investments from the government. Not that I have any great solution, but every time I am frustrated by politics, I think of Winston Churchill's quote, "One way to turn you against democracy is to talk to a few people on the street." Indeed - people care about their own personal welfare TODAY, instead of what is right, fair and good for the long run. No wonder the officials they elect can only implement policies that cater to the short-term desires or paranoia of the people. I support taking care of the poor and implementing programs to lift them out of poverty. Ironically, the cheap solution is to give them checks, whereas the expensive solution is to provide the means to help those who want to gain a skill and get a job do so. But we all see inefficiency and sometimes ineptitude at all levels and branches of government.

Then I thought, " if the top 1% of the country would choose government service instead of being turned away by politics, we should have much better policy-making and policy-implementation, and that in turn will be best for 99% of the population."

Given that human beings are not naturally selfless, I am effectively proposing something that will never get done - make the government the best paying jobs so that we will have the best performing government to best serve 99% of the population.