Occupy Wall Street's message: Business for Good

Occupy Wall Street. Hong Kong. Taipei. Sao Paulo. Paris. Madrid. Berlin. Vancouver. What is this all about anyways? What started as a protest in New York on Sept 17 of this year has now spread to over 900 cities worldwide. Interestingly enough (from a Canadian standpoint), this “trouble” was initiated by a Canadian activist group. According to Wikipedia, they are “mainly protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed, corporate power and influence over government. The participants’ slogan “We are the 99%” refers to income inequality between the top 1% and the rest of the population.”[1]

The main criticism I’ve heard about this movement is that the people do not know what they are protesting against, that there is no unified message, and that they are protesting against the wrong thing. While this may be true, what is certain is that there are a lot of people not satisfied with the way business and the economy are currently running.

Here’s my take on this:
As consumers, we are sick and tired of being used as businesses' means to their ends: profits.
As employees, we are dissatisfied of being used as our employers' means to their ends: profits.
As shareholders, we are uneasy that the corporations we invest in (stocks, mutual funds, etc) are using questionable methods to maximize value for us.
As citizens of the world, we are appalled that businesses are callously harming the environment in order to make more money.
In my blog’s first post, I wrote about the many good reasons many people hate business: http://networkedblogs.com/lOwMo

My sister recently took her scooter to the Yamaha Dealership and they charged her $641 to service the vehicle. The scooter is only worth $1200. I am pretty sure the mechanic fixed things that did not need to be fixed. Mechanics are notoriously famous for overcharging their customers. I hate it. I hate going to a mechanic and questioning whether or not I’m being ripped off. I feel used. I feel cheated. It makes me feel stupid to pay for something that does not need to be fixed. Now not all mechanics are like that, but I feel like many take advantage of their customers that do not know much about vehicles.

What is the solution? Business for Good. This world desperately needs businesses that are willing to put people over profits. We need businesses that will put the needs of their customers and employees over making a quick buck. We need businesses that will care for the environment. We need businesses that have “doing good” as their end goal, not making profits.

This world needs people that will run businesses to do good. That is the message.
What are businesses that do good? Here's a few of my blog posts about some alternative business models I really like. 
Business as Mission: http://networkedblogs.com/nLHeq
Business as Service: http://networkedblogs.com/nFYza
Social Enterprise: http://networkedblogs.com/o5nQE
Here's the paper I wrote about rethinking business to honor God and change the world for good: http://networkedblogs.com/oDPo5

“What do you think the OCCUPY movement is all about and are you a part of this movement?”

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[1] “Occupy Wall Street”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street. Accessed 27 Oct 2011.