Dear 53%
I understand your right to stand up for what you believe in. I’m all for it.
However, I believe you are labouring under some false ideas masquerading as good intentions.
If you believe that an individual has the right to freedom of speech…
If you believe that an individual has the right to peacefully assemble when they believe things are going wrong…
If you believe that an individual has the right to find work where they want to work…
If you don’t want your hard-earned employment/money/hope to be shipped overseas to the lowest bidder…
If you want the education for your children to mean something and be worth something in the future…
If you want your savings to support you in your old age…
If you think the police should not open fire or gas unarmed civilians…
If even one of the above statements is true…
Then you are part of the 99%
Your taxes are currently funding corporate fat cats so they can bribe congressmen to enact laws that steal your property, that encourage your employer to put your job overseas, that rob you of your investments, that cancel your plans or dreams for a better tomorrow.
Stop objecting to the Occupy movement and realise that we are also fighting for you.
Join us, and otherwise commingle.
Stay Peaceful, OWS
Honestly, it is in your best interests. I’ve read people saying that it’s time to take up arms like the Tea Party, etc.
No.
Just plain no.
The best way to outline the violence is to remain peaceful. Carry nothing more harmful than a placard. Beat nothing but drums or your own chest. Throw nothing but invective.
Let the people see that you are unarmed. That you are not harming anyone.
Be prepared for the idea that yes, this is going to hurt. Yes, they will hit you. Yes, they will strike you down.
The point is that yes, you can stand up again.
And again. And again.
And if you can’t stand up, like that poor soul who was illegally shot in the head with a “less than lethal” round (One inch in the wrong direction and he would be a fatality), then more people will stand up for you.
Do not, I beg you, get violent.
Violence only justifies the actions of fascists.
Stand when they attempt to put you down. Speak when they attempt to silence you. Take the money they crave and put it into things that will support you and not the corporate hegemony. This is how to hurt them.
They can only try to arrest all of you.
That can only mean that more will come to stand with others who feel the same way.
OccupyNashville has been given 24hrs to disband or be evicted by the Police. Let the following people know that you support the occupation. We are the 99%!
Mayor of Nashville (Karl Dean) (615) 862-6000 mayor@nashville.gov
TN Govenor (Bill Haslam) 615-741-2001 bill.haslam@tn.gov
Chief of Police (Steve Anderson) 615-862-7301 chief@police.nashville.org
Director of Metro Council (John Cooper) 615-862-6780
Reblog to help out these guys. Awareness is needed.
(Source: yallhio)
Everybody Needs to Read One Book
And it ain’t the Bible.
Yeah, I’m probably going to get pwn’d for saying that, but in these days, in this situation, and with the Occupy movement going everywhere like ice cream on a toddler, this book is essential.
The book is called How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes by Peter D. Schiff
It explains the economy problems currently causing people to be out on the streets banging on drums and shouting at the corporate fat cats, etc.
It tells us exactly why our money is a complete fiction and how making more of it is only going to dig us deeper. Sure, it blames the governments a little too much, and doesn’t look too hard at the really big lie - i.e. corporations are legally people - but it does explain economics in terms even an idiot like me can understand.
Everyone should have a copy. Read it in the streets to anyone who’s interested. Give a copy to a friend.
Hell, send a copy to the White House.
I won’t advise thwacking an ignorant corporate executive with it, ‘cause those guys won’t take a clue until the Revolution comes ;)
Especially make anyone who’s hardcore Government Deregulation Now read the damn thing and understand how deregulating corporations put us all in the shithole in the first place.
Understanding the problem is halfway towards creating a solution.
The Debt Dollar - or, How the Banks Don’t Have Any Money
Once upon a time, money was made out of gold or other precious metals. It was a finite resource and everyone could agree on how much it was worth.
But precious metals are heavy and hard to carry around all the time. Especially on long journeys.
People started trading coins for promissory notes that they could trade back for coins when they got to where they were going. A fairly honest system started by the Knights Templar.
Other folks quickly got into the idea.
Pretty soon, people were trading with the promissory notes and not the precious metals.
Then a banker got a brilliant idea. Since hardly anybody actually used their coins, any more, he could lend WAY more than he actually had. As long as the growth rate stayed the same, nobody would be any wiser.
Until a disaster occurred and there was a run on the bank.
Some centuries later, another banker got a brilliant idea: Why base money on precious metals at all?
The debt dollar was born.
We all know it as “fiat currency” if we know it at all. Basically, banks base their loans on the capital they possess. But that capital also includes how much debt they are owed. Banks can trade debt. They buy, sell and break up debt into shares and sub-loans until the whole tangle is incomprehensible to an outside observer.
When someone pays off a debt (a feat in and of itself, these days) the money that was fictionalised for it vanishes. The system becomes poorer.
So, in its own best interests, the system scrambles after itself to generate more and more ways for the plebes to get into deeper and deeper debt.
Take the “no-interest” credit card. This is a scam worthy of some kind of award. They hand out fliers with a big, bold 0% on the cover, and incomprehensible, teeny-tiny fine print on the page that nobody looks at.
Poor people, desperate people (the best kind of victim in this scam) sign up for a card and promptly use it to eliminate some of their existing debt. Bad mistake. The fine print that nobody reads boils down to “If you use this card for ANYTHING, we will raise the interest rate”. There’s also nice clauses like, “if you look at buying a high-ticket item, we will raise the interest rate,” and, “if anyone checks your credit, we will raise the interest rate.” Basically, even owning the card is an excuse to raise the interest rates.
Pretty soon, the poor sod who signed up for the card is thousands in debt and there’s a whole bunch of laws preventing the poor from declaring bankruptcy.
Yes. The poor can not declare bankruptcy.
Businesses can. Banks can. The rich can. You can’t.
Why? Because the businesses make money out of your debts. They have comoditised your impoverishment for their benefit.
It is, in essence, legalised slavery. The only thing you can do once you’re in the hole is work until you can’t work any more. And all the time, the industry that has enslaved you is piling interest on top of the interest you already owe.
Another scam is Direct Debit. Companies love you to sign up with direct debit. Why? Because the money is taken from your account automatically. And it’s done by a different company, so that even when you cancel the service/membership/whatever, the debt continues. They can say, “oh, that company hasn’t been notified. We’ll get right to that,” and then turn around and laugh all the way to the bank.
If the money for the transfer isn’t there, you get saddled with overdraw fees from your bank.
I have known them to attempt to take money away from someone who had died. Yes. The corporations were stealing money from a dead person.
They’re stealing from the living, too. All in the name of having the most numbers of pretend money.
The system is rigged, folks. The best thing you can do for yourself is try not to fall for the scams. If they only take direct debit or cash - pay cash. Don’t sign for any credit cards unless you understand ALL the terms and conditions. Save for the big ticket items and make do until you can afford it.
Remember, it’s people who drive the market. Drive it towards good, not evil.
An Interesting Proposal for OWS
Many, many critiques of OWS have been superficial, targeting the fact that the protesters wear/use/eat corporate products whilst protesting corporate greed.
I have just come up with a solution.
The Gridle$$ Movement. Hit them where it hurts.
Pronounced “grid-less”, the idea is to move off the grid in protest against corporate greed.
Grow your own food. Make your own clothes. Generate your own electricity. Take up the Freegan lifestyle as much as you can.
Buy as little as humanly possible. Avoid brand names. Reduce, re-use, recycle and repair.
It’s possible, even in a city flat.
Information on how to grow crops hydroponically is available everywhere. Start in the public library if the idea of supporting the internet is now off your agenda. It may even be possible to grow clothing fibre in a flat, especially if you have a balcony. I’m not sure, but if it isn’t, ask for permission to grow clothing fibre on your building’s roof.
Make your last corporate purchases sound investments on your Gridle$$ future. Buy hydroponics supplies, pots, eco-fertiliser [AKA “cow poo”, “horse poo” and even “chicken poo”] and a bicycle with cargo capacity. Purchase solar panels and install them in lieu of curtains/blinds. If you’re not allowed to modify your area, place the panels where they get the most sun. Rig them all to charge car batteries.
Purchase a pedal generator for mutual power and exercise.
Support your local farmer’s market.
Learn to knit/weave/sew/cook.
Make shoes using bits of old tyres from the dump and whatever else you can make.
Pay off your credit card(s). Close your bank account(s). Ask your employer (if you have one) to pay you by cash or cheque.
In all things, spend as little as possible on funding corporate greed.
Sure, it means you spend more time working and less time enjoying yourself, but I’m positive you can find some area of equilibrium.
Isn’t it worth it, just to get the corporations out of our government?
The Executive/Corporate Checklist
This information is pulled strictly out of my arse. By and large, it is not meant to be representative of the corporate atmosphere and is evidently extrapolated from what one statistical outlier[ie, not a White, Anglo-Saxon Male aged 18-35] can observe in her few encounters with the business world.
Here, I tried to encapsulate what’s wrong with the economy as well as why folks who buy from corporations are protesting corporations. (Like there’s a viable alternative to buying from corporations…)
I think I nearly sprained my hand drawing this. I have teh fail. [Again, click the pic for the HUGE version]