It is something we should have paid attention to a long time ago. The protests taking place in cities all over the nation are the latest consequences of the economic crisis the world has been suffering for the last four years. This crisis has taken many jobs and has prevented others from getting their first one right after college.

When a situation like this occurs, those affected feel frustrated and betrayed. Frustrated because life as they knew it is gone, and now they need to adapt to a new situation less comfortable than before. They feel betrayed because they thought they were participating in a process called democracy, which Lincoln described as “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

It turns out that, in reality, the government bails out private companies to keep them afloat with people’s taxes, instead of fixing roads, improving public transportation and raising funds for scientific research.

Decades ago, it was complicated to start a protest of this magnitude. Labor unions would need to organize a protest that large. Keeping an effective command over the activists is the key to concentrating forces during the protests and updating people on possible actions and future plans.

However, in modern times, protests are no longer publicized on the radio, on the newspapers and on pamphlets given away on the streets by activists. Now they are organized through social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, where activists can post pictures and videos with the latest updates and appeal directly to soon-to-be supporters with the comfort, and anonymity of a computer screen.

This dissemination is both good and bad. While members make the organization appear to propogate a popular and well-accepted movement, the recruiting organization runs the risk of casting members who may not identify personally with the cause.

People are very angry right now with the nation’s current economic performance. These protests are not about the poor claiming their rights to equality with the rich. They are not about the ideas of communism or anarchy. There is nothing political about these protests, except that politics have failed to preserve the public interests over those from the private sector.

The monetary system is making corporations richer than ever, and their profits are skyrocketing during one of the worst economic crises ever remembered. The private sector has a strong influence over politics and, as always, people with less purchasing power want to gain purchasing power, basically fueling more inequality. Until we realize that the same reasons why we protest are the ones that create the need for the protest, we will be inevitably bonded to the vicious circle of fighting fire with more fire.

Something is wrong with our way of living, but nobody cares. Later, people start losing their jobs, their houses, their money and even the opportunity to go to college. Then, suddenly everybody cares and there are massive protests. At one point, a politician (or several of them) appeals to the protesters, claiming understanding of the tough situation the country is suffering and either send in a policy, or, better yet, let the protest fade away.

And it will fade away because even protests against the current monetary system are corrupted by the monetary system. Ever thought about how expensive it is to keep up a permanent protest on the street? It’s even more expensive when the protest is run by people who do not have money and are not working to get money (otherwise they would not be able to be there day and night).

Those politicians who called for order ride their expensive cars, or take a plane, back wherever. Maybe they are staying in the city at that expensive hotel everybody knows down the avenue. The protest will fade away – it is only seasonal for them.

The current economic system favors a few over the average, and the rest only complain when they do not get from the system what they want. The protest on Wall Street will end without achieving significant changes in our minds or our economic system, but at least there are people out there reminding us what sort of luck we could be enjoying tomorrow.

Federico Garcia-Lorca is a senior in the Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology.