Op-Ed: Occupy Wall Street and the Consequences of Instant Gratification

October 17, 2011 marked the one-month mark of the Occupy Wall Street Movement’s initial march on Manhattan.  OWS has dedicated itself to “fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process…and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.”  They seek to cure the ill that is the selfishness and greed in our financial system, wage war against those who prioritize their financial bottom line over the health of the economy.

Selfishness and greed: aren’t all of us guilty of those two vices to some extent? That is not to justify the corruption on Wall Street, however I would argue that the contemporary Wall Street robber baron represents an extreme consequence of a phenomenon that has come to characterize American culture.  By and large we are incapable of delaying gratification, the precursor to a selfishness that has affected every cross-section of society, but particularly corporate America.  OWS is using the top 1% as an entity to blame for a problem that is really far more widespread, and has helped to shape the business practices they condemn.

The “GIMME NOW” mindset Americans have adopted as a collective group over the past thirty years can be attributed to the increasingly rapid pace that dictates the way we live our lives. Technology enables us to do practically anything with the press of a button, which sets an unrealistic standard for the pace of life, which we then attempt to live up to. This attitude breeds impatience, selfishness, and has resulted in a disconnect between the individuals that make up our society. It has permeated every level of culture, and has facilitated the creation of a lifestyle valuing instantaneity with regard to the fulfillment of ones needs. We are so caught up in ourselves, our problems, our successes, that selfishness has become part of our cultural identity—and we are infamous for it the world over.

Wall Street’s elite possess the desire for need fulfillment to an acute degree, to the point where they will prioritize their own interests over those of the collective whole. It becomes a way of life. They become numb to the questionable morality of the decisions they make.  If it turns a profit, who cares?

Unfortunately this poisonous attitude pervades other corporate structures. Anyone remember the collapse of Enron in 2002? Executives turned a blind eye to lying about profits, concealing debts, and shady business dealings, which resulted in 21,000 people losing their jobs and livelihoods.  Enron is an extreme example but corruption in the name of profit runs rampant and often unregulated within Fortune 500 companies—a title Enron could claim back in its heyday.

A prime example of this prioritization of profit over people is the Agriculture Industry. Though no cooking of the books has occurred to public knowledge, there have been rising numbers of food recalls due to production procedures that aim at making a profit rather than keeping the food they produce safe for human consumption. 2006 saw the death of five Americans, all of who succumbed to a virulent strain of E. coli after eating bagged spinach. More recently, in the past month there have been four recalls of meat products due to E. coli contamination.

As consumers, however, we expect to walk into the grocery store and be able to walk out with a bag of apples in the middle of December.  Our uniquely contemporary demands for low cost food and out of season produce feeds the profit seeking priorities of the Food Industry—to cut costs and make production as quick as possible, often at the sacrifice of ethical business practices and consumer safety. 

Ethics: It would seem a disappearance of ethical practices and morality that came about as a result of corporate selfishness on Wall Street have caused the Occupy Wall Street movement to mobilize in the first place.  Although OWS has declared a figurative war on the top 1%, their rhetoric appears to support also the disentanglement of corporation and state, which I believe to be a more pertinent issue than vilifying investment bankers.  But at the root of both the top 1% and the marriage of corporation and state lies the inability of Americans to delay gratification, a bone of contention that shaped the business practices that have led us to this point in history.  Until that concern is addressed, the change that the Occupiers seek will continue to elude them.