The other day one of my more lefty-leaning Facebook friends posted a status update that asked if anyone else was feeling guilty about not being at any of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

“No,” I replied. “I feel employed.”

So no, you will not see me at Occupy Seattle. Despite my complaints about wages and workload, I am still one of the lucky ones. Let those who can be there draw attention to this issue.

And lord knows there sure are a lot of folks with time on their hands these days. Nearly 10 percent, in fact.

But I certainly do empathize with the protesters and I absolutely relate to their cause. I too have watched my wages stagnate at a subsistence level while the rich continue to get richer. And I too feel that the balance in this country has shifted too far toward the wealthy and their corporations.

That seems to be the main message of these demonstrations (and I hesitate to call it a movement yet) anyway, that for too long we have slanted the policies in this country to make the rich richer while the rest of us languish, at best.

Creating new policies to try and bring that back to balance is a good idea, in my opinion. I mean, how is it that a guy who runs his business so far into the ground that it needs a government bailout still gets a $25 million bonus at the end of the year while I can’t even get a cost of living increase?

And how is it that the people who intentionally crashed the economy by selling people a product and then betting against that sale – a type of fraud – have not yet been charged for their part in all this?

Meanwhile, millions of people are losing their houses, their jobs and their life savings as rich dude after rich dude holds the economy hostage, demanding lower taxes for themselves while sitting on literally some of the highest profits in the history of the United States.

What more do we have to give them?

By Brian Beckley, staff writer