OWS learning resources are finite as donations dry up

For a movement that purportedly hates the wealthy and loathes excess, the Occupiers have relied solely on those willing to donate their surplus to “the cause” (whatever that is). So when I read that their gravy train was drying up, I couldn’t help but smile. Salon reports:

Occupy Wall Street has taken in more than $665,000 in donations since it launched Sept. 17. Here’s the bad news for Occupy: Donations have fallen off a cliff, from a high of around $20,000 per day to a current low of just $98 on Dec. 13. The good news: The movement still has hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, an impressive sum for an entity that has existed for a mere three months.

That’s according to my analysis of newly available data on the finances of the movement’s New York arm.

The spending data offers a glimpse into what Occupy has been up to and the direction it’s going, even as the mainstream news media turns its attention elsewhere.

Let’s pause for a moment to enjoy the irony of the Occupy Wall Street movement raising hundreds of thousands of dollars…which they keep in banks. The same banks they protest.

Total donated (10/1 to 12/13): $667,080
In the heady days of early October, the movement was taking in $15,000-$20,000 per day. In a two-day period following the Oct. 15 day of action in cities around the world, OWS had receipts of $75,000. Daily donations fell to the four-figure range in November, and then to the three-figure range in December. On Dec. 12, the movement took in $321. On the 13th, the last day of public data, it took in $98.

 
 

 

 

 

 

The article goes on to say:

“Money is the root of all evil; we can’t escape that here within the movement,” says Accounting group member Haywood Carey. “When you say to some people, ‘Well, we’ve raised $670,000 so far,’ eyes bug out. Every time something goes wrong, the money is always where people look first.”

And lastly, the following note was included for clarification:

A note on the first chart. There were two days (Oct. 5-6) when OWS’s credit card processing service was offline, so we have no data for those days. Some of the data is available over a range of several days; in those cases I calculated an average and spread it out over each day in the range.

That’s right, credit card processing. You simply cannot make this stuff up. This movement has become a self-parody, and a broke one at that.


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.