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The media complain that the Occupy movement has made no demands. The way I see it the aim of the movement isn’t to make specific changes themselves, but to get people to realize what is really going on. Many people are simply unaware of the seriousness of the problem. People need to see charts like this which clearly show how much more the 1% get and how much it has been growing over the last 30 years:

To understand the level of ignorance take a look at this article about recent focus group of Rob Ford voters. Many of them saw Ford and Jack Layton as cut from the same cloth, honest and fighting for the little guy. I’m sure both of them saw themselves that way, but too many people don’t know the difference between one who provides realistic solution and one who doesn’t know what he is talking about.

It is not for the protestors to tell the people what to do. Although flawed, we have democratic institutions set up to decide what to do about our economic problems. What the protestors can do is wake people up and get people talking about solutions.

It has already had success. In the US obsession over the Federal debt has died down and there is more talk about jobs. In Canada NDP leadership candidate Brain Topp’s announcement suggesting increased tax on people with high incomes wasn’t criticized as harshly as it would have been before the movement started and it makes it much more difficult for the Conservatives to use that against him.