My sympathies do not lie with the Occupiers. However, there are some systemic problems in the US worth addressing. I suspect the Tea Partiers will do a better job than the "give-us-free-condoms" Occupiers at addressing these, but I'll leave that for you to decide.
Here's my list:
1. US federal government "equity" policies which required banks to throw money at anyone with a pulse -- even if that pulse was sustained by welfare cheques. This was a flight from conservative fiscal reality with devastating consequences. Home ownership is an earned right, not a birth-right.
2. The federal government's aiding and abetting of the banks by easing good-sense policy constraints, etc. in the name of fuelling an artificial prosperity.
3. The immoral and unethical if not illegal actions of the banks in milking the real estate bubble for all it was worth, including creation of those slice-and-dice mortgage instruments. When scouting for real estate in Phoenix, I came across one property where the purchase price was $285,000, and the mortgage was for... $300,000. That's right, folks. The owner had negative equity in the property from the get-go.
4. The federal government's bailout of the banks, unaccompanied by censure and restrictions going forward. "All gain, no pain".
5. The federal government's student loans program which has apparently enabled universities to charge ever-increasing tuition fees, leaving graduates deeply in debt and, in this economy, with no viable game-plan to pay it off.
6. The assumption that life should be easy and "meaningful" jobs plentiful. To the Occupiers: My first job after university was shovelling gravel. What was yours?
Has the US passed its tipping-point? Probably. Because the tipping point is moral, and those with power have lost the moral restraint necessary for good governance. Much easier to live the good life now at taxpayers' expense. Kick the consequences down the road. The US needs a religious awakening, at just a time when Christianity is oozing out of American life and consciousness.
And that's the way the Ball bounces.