You may be aware of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that has begun. You may also be aware of the “99 Percenters” and how these two things are connected.

But, in case you weren’t aware — or if you don’t know what it’s all about — I wanted to do my part to spread the news.

(Frankly, I’m surprised an uprising took this long to get going.)

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a group of people who are fed up with the way things have been going in the U.S. They see their actions as a type of Arab Spring against the establishment. There are five basic themes of the movement, which are pretty well described in this summary article on Good (this article is politically slanted to the left, but their categories seem fair).

The overarching issues connecting the movement are:

1. Affordable health care
2. Jobs
3. Home stability, affordability & mortgage debt
4. Education not connecting to jobs
5. Debt (credit card, school, etc.)

I don’t think I have to belabor the pain of this — I have no doubt that you can personally relate to struggles/frustrations in at least one of these themes. What I want to point out is something else:

These all have to do with WORK.

1. The best health care in the U.S. is provided through employers we work for.
2. Jobs are obviously a pretty big part of work.
3. We can afford to live in a home because we work.
4. Education isn’t providing a direct path to meaningful work (or often, work of any kind).
5. Debt may be personal choice to a large degree, but there’s no question that for me, at least, if my work situation had been better throughout my twenties I would have a hell of a lot less debt today.

To me it seems pretty simple: Wall Street is being occupied because WE NEED A WORK REVOLUTION.

The challenging part is that this problem won’t likely be solved through government involvement. Are there things that government can do to help? Sure, but that’s not where the real power lies.

Now, more than ever before in human history, the power lies in the people.

If we, the people, can find a way to change the way we work, we will change everything.

We are fed up with these problems, are we not?

Work is where we fix them all.

What will you do to help the revolution?

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