But when I went to Zuccotti Park to listen to them, I heard something familiar: the same anger, betrayal and distrust of Wall Street that I am hearing broadly from readers of my column. And while it might make the financial industry more comfortable to portray the protesters as outside the mainstream, they and millions of Americans with the same gripes are having an impact. People are yanking money from stocks and mutual funds, dumping their brokers and their banks, and closing credit cards in disgust.Astute bankers, fund managers and financial advisers understand this, or at least they should. While the protesters in New York, Chicago and elsewhere may look like scenes out of the Vietnam War protest era, and include more than their share of '60s activists, they are tapping into a deeply rooted sentiment with repercussions for society and the financial business.
As you enter the Zuccotti Park, you meet a senior citizen strumming protest songs he says he's been singing at demonstrations for five decades. And next to him is Fran Geteles, in a green T-shirt from the women's movement. "I'm so happy we found our voice" after a long drought in activism since the Vietnam War, she said.
But alongside these longtime protesters are everyday Americans like Sean Higgins, who worries about the financial stress he's seen in his home as well as his own potentially bleak future. As he finishes creating a sign saying, "When your credit runs out you will march with us," he explains that he's been working full time while going to college, because his mother hasn't been able to find a job for two years and his father has struggled with a small business.
As he completes a journalism and sociology degree at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, he wonders how he will cover $20,000 in college loans when there are so few jobs.
source: chicagotribune.com
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