After this young woman’s father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, he was told by the doctor to take it easy since he’s a manual laborer. Yet he went back to work full-time, working 12 hours a day, six days a week. She writes, “The cancer still grows. That is the American dream.”(Via ONTD_P)
This is about the daughter of an immigrant to America. She has decided to post one of those "we are the 53%" notes on a notepad about why it's so great that they, or their family, works ultra-hard for low wages and have a marginally decent to low quality of life. In case anyone doesn't know about this yet, some people have been countering the "Occupy Wall Street" movement against financial corruption in the banks by using the slogan "we are the 53%". It's a reaction to the "we are the 99%" slogan which distinguishes its members from the 1% of the population who are millionaires or billionaires and seem to be beyond reproach even in cases where massive global economic catastophe can be tied to them. "We are the 53%" refers to the half the population or so who pay income tax.
They see themselves as arguing something like this.
The idea seems to be Tea Party-esque, hard libertarian logic that if you haven't got a job you need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get one even if there aren't any and stop leeching off of the state by demanding healthcare, a living wage, to be treated like a human being and suchlike. Or something.
I quite liked this comic on the issue:
While on the one hand it shows how conservative attitudes in the US make it hard for them to identify with the movement, I think it also says something about the "crackpot idealist" image the Occupy Wall Street movement has gained. Hippies are all for peace and love, but rarely have a long term practical plan.
Anyway, turns out that the Occupy Wall Street movement actually have genuine demands. Who knew?