GETMONEYMAGAZINE.COM 21
The “Occupy Wall Street Movement” of recent brought into
focus the urgent issue of the continual widening of the economic
disparity in this country. People calling themselves the 99% (av-
erage middle/ working class Americans) were up in arms and
visibly vocal about their discontent with the way big corpo-
rations are growing ever richer while Middle America grows
uncomfortably #nancially distressed. The need to bring
attention to the issue was real, but the saddest part of
the whole experience was the missed opportunity by the
leadership of the movement to highlight the true necessity
of the hour—!nancial literacy. The organizers of the movement
missed the chance (while they had the attention of the nation) to shine a
much-needed light on a growing national de#ciency in #nancial intelligence.
I must admit that I am of like mind with the movement’s main tenet, “the rich get richer
while the rest slave and su#er.” However, I am also of the mind that things don’t
necessarily have to be that way. We the people of the United States of the 99% have
the power to be part of the 1%. Sounds so cliché, I know. But if we can learn to
change our minds to think 1%, we can de#nitely change the wealth tide to begin to
$ow in our direction. Undoubtedly it will take more than this brief article to impress a
clear understanding of what it takes to think 1%, but no journey can ever be completed
without taking the #rst step.
MoneyWise
THE MONEY
MIND –!ink
1%
By Chablis Dandridge
[email protected]GETMONEYMAGAZINE.COM 21