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Let's take a look at what was discovered:
Politically independent Among other striking findings, Codero-Guzmán discovered that 70 percent of the survey’s 1,619 respondents identified as politically independent, far-and-away the vast majority, compared to 27.3% Democrats and 2.4% self-identified Republicans.
“That finding surprised me based on what I had heard in previous conversations about the movement” said Codero-Guzmán in a telephone interview with TPM on Wednesday. “I wasn’t expecting many Republicans, but I was expecting more self-identified Democrats.
MY COMMENT: They are people who were once Democrats but who no longer feel represented by the Democratic Party. THAT is why they do not identify as Democrats any longer.
Age varies widely 64.2% of respondents were younger than 34 years of age, but one in three respondents was over 35 and one in five was 45 or older.
MY COMMENT: I am not surprised in the least by this. Are you? Is anyone? Why would you think that only young people are upset about economic injustices of the last 30 years?
Wealth varies widely A full 15.4% of the sample reported earning annual household income between $50,000 and $74,999. Another 13% of the sample reported over $75,000 , and 2% said they made over $150,000 annually, putting them in the top 10 percent of all American earners, according to the Wall Street Journal’s calculator. That said, 47.5% of the sample said they earend less than $24,999 dollars a year and another quarter (24%) reported earning between $25,000 and $49,999 per year. A whopping 71.5% of the sample earns less than $50,000 per year.
MY COMMENT: Again, what is surprising about this and why does the author of this want to claim there is something surprising about this? Why the SLANT on the article?
Highly educated 92.1% of the sample reported “some college, a college degree, or a graduate degree.”
MY COMMENT: Not surprising in the least.
They have jobs 50.4% reported full-time employment, and “an additional 20.4% were employed part-time.”
MY COMMENT: so half have jobs and half do not. Is that surprising?
Overall, Rutkoff says, the survey indicates that “Zuccotti Park protesters are underemployed at twice the national rate, lukewarm to warm on Obama and broadly in favor of taxing the wealthy and encouraging a Tea Party-style populism on the left.”
FINAL COMMENT: Yes, that is correct --and that is what we already knew. There are no surprises except the claim that there are surprises.
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