Boston - When Occupy Boston protesters complain about greedy bankers, corporate jets, and the wealthiest Americans, Henry Helgeson feels as if he is one of the prime targets. Helgeson, 37, said he is not only in the top 1 percent of American earners, but also founded a financial company and an airplane charter business. He said the protesters don’t seem to care that he built his wealth from scratch, creating hundreds of jobs along the way. “It’s a little disheartening,’’ said Helgeson, who drives by the protesters every day to and from his office at Merchant Warehouse Inc., a credit card processing firm in downtown Boston. “I’m someone who is at the epicenter of perceived evilness.’’ Today, he said, his earnings put him in the top 1 percent of all Americans. He was probably in the bottom 10 percent 13 years ago, when he started Merchant Warehouse with a college friend in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He said he often did not have money to pay rent for his apartment. And when his decade-old Dodge broke down, he had to watch it get towed away and impounded, because he didn’t have money to repair it. Today, Merchant Warehouse has 250 employees in Boston, many of whom are about the same age of the protesters, and 400 independent contractors.
It’s about time someone like Henry spoke out about what he’s seeing and what he believes. I’m not even close to a 1%’er much closer to the people living in tents and using nearby restaurants as their personal bathrooms than I am to a millionaire, but I’ll side with Henry Helgeson 100 times out of 100.
And that’s what the occupiers don’t seem to understand as of yet. This is why so many have viewed the occupiers as an annoyance, this is the reason for the negativity towards their protests to date.
This is still America. If you want to, you still can make yourself into whatever you want. You may not achieve your wildest dreams, but if you’re trying hard enough and going about everything the right way, you’ll succeed. You really will. This is why I’ll side with the somewhat goofily named 53 percenter’s any day of the week if I’m choosing sides. The rest of us (the majority) still realize that hard work, dedication and focus, and the right education will still lead to a good life.Will some do better than others? Yes, and that's ok.
Do I agree that executives profiting from the bail out of a situation they had a large hand in causing was wrong? Absolutely. I also believe the bailout was necessary, but understand that it was carried out poorly with minimal oversight and restrictions. No one at the top of any companies that received federal funds to keep their businesses afloat should have recovered while the rest of “main street” (a term I hate but is apt in this case), are still wallowing through a housing crisis, historically high unemployment and higher prices for everything from utilities to food. The fact that these companies and executives were given chances and opportunities not afforded to the rest of America was, and still is, WRONG. I can’t be clearer that I agree on this issue.
At the end of the day though, I still strive to be one of those exec’s someday, the man in power, who worked himself to the top. I know it’s a slim probability, but I know there’s a chance, and that working hard, making connections, and learning as much as I possibly can, will help me far more than complaining, whining and protesting in a public park ever will.
I also know that nothing can or will be done about the circumstances and facts of the 2008 collapse, and ensuing bailout, at this point in time. It’s in the past. We need to move forward. We need to ensure we elect leaders that have the majority’s best interests at heart, and those that have learned from some of the mistakes and wrong doings of our current crop of leaders. But it should be understood that no radical redistribution of wealth is going to happen, nor should it. The circumstances that allowed this collection of wealth should be modified, but the individuals and corporations who skillfully gamed the system to their advantage should not be punished for taking advantage of opportunities that existed to them in the past. That would be as Un-American as anything the current occupiers are protesting.
Moving on, I also agree that the price of higher education needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed immediately. Students should not have to make the choice between the school they’re qualified for and the school they can afford. This should not be a reality if we want our economy to recover and flourish in the future.
This does not, however, offer an excuse for those of us who’ve already made our choices regarding school options. At the end of the day, it was just that, a choice. I had to make one, and I chose a state school, I did not want to burden my family or my future with a daunting debt at the very start of my adulthood. I made the correct choice for me. Whether it was a fair choice or not is not really the debate in this situation, life is often not fair, you’ll presumably face many choices along the way in which the options presented to you are not ideal, but you’ll have to pick the right one. The bank didn’t set the price for college and they certainly didn’t force you to sign for that loan. Make an informed and educated decision, understand the potential circumstances of your decision, and stick by it. Do not complain if things don’t turn out exactly as you thought they would. Work harder, look for new options and opportunities instead of handouts.
Along those same lines, stop complaining about not finding a profession in the field you presumed you’d be working in. The economy changes, jobs that are in-demand, fall out. Jobs that didn’t exist, spring to life. Take a look at the landscape, retrain yourself if you have to, and target a favorable field. You can do it, I did.
I was a political science major, upon graduating I spent three months attempting to put that degree to work, turns out you can’t. I realized my choices were either furthering my education, or attempting to adapt to a field I hadn’t intended on working in. I chose to adapt.
I got my foot in the door at a financial services company. I had zero experience and virtually no training or previous education on the subject matter. I could have easily failed, or I could’ve easily quit and complained about not finding a job in my chosen field. I didn’t. I worked very hard to understand everything that was required of me, I learned as much as I could and gave my best effort every day to close the knowledge gap between myself and other entry level employees with more typical business backgrounds. It worked. I’ve been promoted a few times now and continue to grow within the company. I had no business succeeding in this field but I have so far through my determination to make it work. It is possible to succeed in something you never saw yourself doing, it is a lot of work, and it can be scary, but trying is better than stubbornly refusing to change and waiting for opportunities to be handed to you.
As you can see, I agree with some of the occupiers concerns and points of issue, there is a need for open dialogue and change in policy and leadership, but that starts on Beacon Hill and in Washington, not on a public park outside a few banks and financial firms where a handful of execs and thousands more middle class workers make their living. There are countless employees in those buildings just like me, not too different from the occupiers, striving every day to support and further themselves. They are not the problem.
The conversation cannot afford any “why me”, or “bail me out”, or “eat the rich” commentary if it is to be taken seriously. The American majority, those of us working to better ourselves, who haven’t stopped pushing ourselves ahead, even in times of economic uncertainty, do not believe in those messages. We haven’t yet given up, and we probably won’t. In truth the members of the occupy movements spreading these messages are closer to being their own 1% club. It’s a fringe message right now. Unfortunately it doesn’t take much to turn a real, open discussion about politics and the economy into a demonstration pushing borderline if not obvious Marxist and socialist ideals. If the occupy movements want to represent the grand majority of working middle and lower class Americans the message will need to be cleaned up.
In the meantime I'm going to keep observing from a distance, while continuing to work hard and look for new opportunities to push myself ahead and join that other 1% we all should be striving to be a part of. I don't expect it to be easy, and I'm realistic that I might never get there, but damn it, I'm going to keep trying.
