One of the 17%

Obviously, the Wall Street Occupation and its branches throughout the country, and some parts of the world, has become big enough, that the mainstream media can't ignore it completely. Though the emphasis seems to be on the number of arrests and the moments when the police are knocking people around, in an subtle attempt to dissuade more people from joining the movement. The obvious message is that the top 1% of all the people have 95% of the wealth and the other 99% have to be against the top 1%, but the percentage that matters to me, in my own life is 17%. That's the number of people who are either unemployed or underemployed.
I consider myself to be underemployed, accepting a job that doesn't pay as much as I'm used to. Yes, I'm a college dropout and have been lazy most of my life, but I consider myself to be smart enough to do many well-paying jobs. I would just need a little bit of training. The problem is that so many people are looking for a better position and the people that hire have so many qualified candidates to choose from, that someone like me, who doesn't have experience in that exact job, will be passed over for someone who has experience in that position or someone who is younger. I truly believe that age discrimination does exist, even against me. It's hard to compete against a room full of youngsters who are not set in their ways, which means I either have to be lucky to find a great job or I need to finally get my degree to be qualified enough. That's my dilemma. I don't want to just be a statistic, one of the 17%.