#Mockupy: OWS Occupies "Law & Order" Zuccotti Set in Foley Square!
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 8, 2011, 11:50 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Live Updates:
- 1:36: Cops breaking down mockupied Wall Street. NBC's speech rights clearly infringed.
- 1:25: NYPD occupying fake Liberty Square, fake demands unclear.
- 1:03: GA in progress. More mockupiers needed at Foley Square!
- 12:52: cops moving in
- 12:47: unconfirmed reports that "Law & Order's" permit has been revoked. What's a permit?
- 12:40: police threaten to arrest mockupiers after 1AM: "if you do not leave, you will be arrested."
- 12:19: GA in 20 minutes
From Russia with Love:
"All day on Thursday, protest organizers negotiated to secure permission for the event from the Moscow authorities, who proposed that it be relocated to Bolotny Square, an island connected to the Kremlin by bridges. A police spokesman released a statement in response to a message that had gone out over social networks stating, “If 5,000 people go out on the street, they will be dispersed; if 50,000 go out, the police will stand silently; and if 500,000 go out, then the police will take their side.”
Nice police with this reason!
Hey, in Russia are people allowed the freedom to express themselves artistically without the threat of their rights being trampled on by a group that doesn't like what they are expressing? So see what happened was a film crew was filming, expressing themselves artistically, and this mob of people decided they didn't like what this film crew was expressing, so they marched over and stopped the film crew from self expression. Sounds creepy doesn't it? Like Kim jong il creepy.
logic...
Our generation and the baby boomers both lack this, they refuse to use it even when the results are biting them.
I wish it wasn't true but the fact of the matter is people don't want to lead they want to follow we have become a society to comfortable in doing nothing and dealing with whatever happens out of fear of losing the freedom that is slowly being stolen by those who want control
The masses don't care enough about anything outside their "bubble" or understand that even if they don't care that it will still effect them. Everyone wants a quick fix to the economy, hate to be the one to break it to them but there is no quick fix. Now what do people vote for? the guy who promises the best stuff and who is the last POTUS to make good on promises...
The government has become a beast and nobody cares enough to get America back to her former glory, but is that even possible?
The rights of few have come to outweigh the rights of many and the pledge that you speak was written in a time that is very different then now. Men would stand up for the country now young men protest the country that has always taken care of her citizens above and beyond that of any other country on the face of the earth yet she is still condemned.
Unless people can stop worrying so much about what someone else is doing or what someone else has then we will never be able to reach that former glory, where a person can be proud of their works and its not seen as conceited but as pride in their self because they are making the correct choices and progressing in life, bettering themselves and their community But in our society a person is punished for hard work by having more taken from them by condemning them for having more then others and in doing so making pride a thing that is evil.
After pride has been taken away from a person how can they have pride in their country "if you don't care about yourself you cant care about others" the words that we hear apply to so many people about their feelings but pride is seen as a darkness in the hearts of men demonizing them. People say we are equal, I say that is one of the biggest lies ever told, true in the fact that we are created equal having the same opportunities at birth but false in the fact that those who work hard and take care of themselves and their families not burdening society with the woes of life that every person has to face become stronger and therefore better for it.
Now those woes are seen as the burden of our fellow man that no man should face these problems alone leaving a generation that is unwilling to work to achieve the America dream the happiness that our grandfathers clutched onto with every part of their being because they had something we didn't.
Pride and the ability to use logic
Wisdom passed down from our forefathers in the form of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, our current society forgets this wisdom that was written down so many years ago to guide the people of this country down a path of greatness. sometime along the way we left the path that was so clearly marked out for us skewing how we see the world around us leading us further down a path that has been traveled many times in history and has yet to work.
Without pride the people of this fine country have become beggars taking what others have worked hard for in the name of the greater good but what is the greater good? Laying your troubles at the feet of your fellow country men is not... to take care of one's self so that others can take care of their selves and their families is truly the greatest good of all.
Take back the pride we deserve as citizens of the United States of America.
Until then we will never rise to our former glory...
This whole passage imo is misguided. We don't lack logic, we have become apathetic, cynical. We are too comfortable, and need to dig deep to find reliable information. Journalists used to provide us with salient facts, but now it's about the "shiny object" and the "get"! When informed voters go to the polls, change will follow. These protests are bringing attention to the real causes of our plight. Protests and movements for a cause are what happens when the people wake-up! Nobody is casting judgement on being rich, it's how one gets there; it's about the unleveled playing field, fairness. This has nothing to do with "I want what he has, and resent him for having it"; to the contrary, we all want a shot at the American dream, and presently, many will never get that chance. You base your thinking on the assumption that man is lazy, and would rather take a handout, than a handup! Sure, some malingerers prey and take advantage of the system; to suggest that a void of pride is the cause of our problems is illogical.
I love you people. :)
Global revolution in the making! Occupy Earth!
The struggle for freedom and democracy will continue for as long as it takes.
Solidarity from Norway.
yours s. struggleforfreedom
Don't we already occupy earth? Well, most of us anyways?
you´re quite the wrangler, arnt you :)
You love people who stop others from self expression? Cool!
Who runs the country? It cannot be our elected officials because none of them could independently justify how it is that we are spending billions of dollars each month while we have a defunct health care system, including the health care reform, a dilapidated transportation infrastructure, a grossly disjointed education system, and a grossly mismanaged food system...all of which cost U.S. lots of money that we do not have. When our elected officials are debating about who is tough on terrorism, they are clearly out of touch with the problems that face the American people, democrat or republican. Theirs is an agenda to wield our desperate emotions. Instead, we are choosing to take ownership of our democracy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN2Q6sdh6Bg
But instead you are taking ownership of someone's artistic licence and deciding what directors and actors can do. So if you don't like something you just show up and dictate what others do? oh yeah, that's cool.
Seems like the protests are getting stronger, all across the country. What are the police going to do when spring comes? They should pick their battles, and "passively" cooperate with the powers they answer to. This movement is still growing and will have even more sympathizers when the weather breaks. I'm hopeful we stay on a forward moving track. They can tear down tents, and break up crowds, but they will never have the ability to put an end to an idea. The notion which is heightening awareness around our country, and rings true in so many minds: Fairness!
Seems like they are getting stronger? I think you have become delusional. They are getting smaller, and sillier.
Do you think the debate which has shifted from austerity to inequity and fairness of the distribution of wealth was spontaneous? We are now talking about the lack of jobs, mortgage foreclosures, tax fairness... should I go on? Just because they broke down some of the physical aspects of the protests, do you think that has changed how many people now know about OWS, and their main focus-FAIRNESS? What do you think the hundreds of thousands if not millions (99%) of like minded progressives are thinking, oh well, that was fun? This is a movement which will have an impact on the 2012 elections; btw, did you see the 6 Fannie and Freddy executives indicted for securities fraud...the people are demanding answers, and you think we can only be effective if we're out on the streets banging trash can lids! I would suggest it is you who are delusional, but I think denial is a better word.
The "99%" are utterly uninterested in this "movement"; the train wreck is over and they have moved on. Most are aware that the movement was hijacked by anarchists and professional agitators (SEIU, Acorn, etc.) within the first week.
Polling shows that most Americans do not think the "wealth gap" is a problem; rather they are increasingly aware that our government is out of control with spending, and that are elected leaders are corrupt. The answer is a smaller, more limited government. The trend is clear: A tsunami is coming towards the "progressives".
Facts don't seem to apply to your logic...just sayin
Your comment couldn't be further from the truth! Recent polls show over 54% of individuals have a favorable opinion of the OWS protesters message: fairness. The "wealth gap" is what brought focus on the topic of inequity, duh! The tsunami will sweep the Tparty (23% favorable ratings) back to the sidelines where they belong.
Agree. I can't believe this site posted this as something they are proud of. Stopping people from self expression - yep, socialist states are great, eh?
LOOK AT THESE FANTASTIC OCCUPIERS, GOOD-HUMORED CRUSADERS FOR AN END TO ALL KINDS OF BUSINESS-AS-USUAL BULLCRAP!!!! every day, and clearly in every way, #ows challenges america's sense of rightness and wrongness for more and more people. its getting harder and harder to stand on the sidelines. if you are still poo-pooing #occupy -- do you have a brain in your head that dares to consider whats going on, whats at stake? a heart in your chest capable of feeling the pain of the evicted, the lied to, the disenfranchised?? OCCUPY CANNOT BE DENIED -- harder and harder to react -- like some of these negative comments here -- with flip, dismissive attitude. 99% is real -- and greater and greater polarization is inevitable -- think about it nay-sayers -- do you REALLY want to line up with the corporations,bloomberg, the corporate elite, the banks, the lobbyists, the corrupted, profiteering d.c. "elected officials" OR do you want to be a real american, pushing for REAL democracy, in this lifetime? come to occupy.
What happened to healing America first then help other countries, After reading about some of you that were taking a few thousand dollars that has been donated to help America, And going to Egypt to help negotiate for peace, I thought you were mad at the Government for sticking their noses in where they didn't belong, And why are you worried about world occupation when you haven't even got a good start here. It's a good gesture to want to help other countries I commend you for that, Take your own money and go that would be a better gesture. Too the thousand's that are still on course thank you, You have already made a difference, Keep up the good word and you will persevere. Dr Ron keep moving forward.
Please, for OWS actions, honor those who have come before us with efforts to civilize and de-militarize and de-criminalize America.
The Nine Principles.
Commitment to Nonviolence is the broad gateway. Nonviolence is the fulcrum. Discipline is the lever. From Dr. King as he translated the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi:
Pledge For Nonviolence
Agent provocateur "provo” incited riots at Air and Space Museum, August 8th, and at Oakland have been the worst of it so far. These were rightie "dirty tricks" attempts using on-the-payroll thugs to separate Occupy from nonviolence.
Nonviolence, first, combined with love. That is the way Occupy can achieve Justice. That is also how Occupy can achieve Reconciliation with citizens such as the Tea Party people who have been misled into accepting the trillion dollar fraud schemes of Wall Street's gangsters.
Occupy is nonviolent. Occupy is anti-crime.
Btw: Brendan suggests putting the Nine Principles on a banner or a large poster for OWS events.
Back in the 1960s this was a Pledge on 8 1/2x11 dittos that was a required sign-up for the civil rights marchers. (If you can't smell "dittos" then count yourself young and lucky.) This version is implicitly Christian. The originals were explicitly very Christian. OWS is not SCLC but I'm sure that Jesus and Dr. King forgive us.
His truth goes marching on.
What is this even about? I can't find any info.
Search for further excerpts of the booklet: www.Michael Journal - Articles - Social Credit
It's time they knew! by Colin Barclay-Smith 1955
It's time the people knew the alarming facts. Test your own knowledge of these facts by the following questions:
Do you know that no bank lends money deposited with it?
Do you know that when a bank lends money it CREATES it out of nothing?
Do you know that bank loans are merely pen and ink entries in the credit columns of a bank's ledger? They have no other existence.
Do you know that practically all the money in the community comes into circulation as a debt to the banks?
Do you know that money loaned by a Government bank is just as much a debt to the people as if it were loaned from a private bank?
Do you know that “fixed deposits” are a plausible screen to hide the creation of credit?
Did it ever occur to you that the banks enjoy this unique facility of creating credit and putting the nation progressively into debt-bondage because they create FINANCIAL credit against the REAL credit created by the people?
Do you realize that every time a Government borrows money for a public work, the people are debited with the liability (in perpetuity), but are never credited with the value of the asset?
Do you know that every repayment of a bank loan cancels the amount of the loan out of existence?
Do you know that Treasury Notes are Government I.O.U.'s — national pawn tickets for pledging the assets of the country to the banks for the loan of OUR OWN financial credit?
Do you know that banks purchase bank sites, build premises, and acquire assets at no real cost whatever to themselves — by the simple process of honoring their own checks?
You may dismiss these affirmations as “incredible”, or “absurd”, but if you will read on, each one will be proved beyond all shadow of doubt.
Most of us have grown up with only the vaguest notions of money. We are fairly certain that it is the Government's right to print notes and mint coins. For the rest, our knowledge is distinctly foggy.
Most people, for example, labor under the impression that the only money in the community is notes, silver, and copper. But this is a very, very small part of the community's money.
In fact, notes, silver, and copper — legal tender — is used for less than five per cent of the total purchases made. Over 95 per cent of all business is done by checks.
This check currency is really bank-created money — bank credit — but it functions exactly the same as legal tender money. Banking authorities of world-wide repute state that banks can and do create credit up to nine or ten times their cash resources.(safe banking practice)
Banks go to great pains to perpetuate the fiction that they are merely “the custodians of their customers' deposits” — that they lend these deposits, and that their profit consists of the difference in the rate of interest which they pay to depositors, and the interest they receive from borrowers. Such an idea is quite wrong, and it is the popular acceptance of this major monetary fallacy which gives rise to most of the false notions upon the subject of money.
The facts about money are as follows: —
(1) Banks do not lend money deposited with them.
(2) Every bank loan or overdraft is a creation of entirely new money (credit), and is a clear addition to the amount of money in the community.
(3) No depositor's money is used when a bank lends money.
(4) Practically all the money in the community begins its life as an interest-bearing debt to the banks.
The technique of a bank loan
All that a bank does in lending anybody, say $1,000, is to open an account in the borrower's name — if he hasn't already got an account — and write Limit: $1,000, across the top of the ledger. The borrower is now free to operate and overdraw on this account to the limit indicated.
When the account is drawn on the check, and in turn the check is lodged in another account at the same or another bank, a “deposit” is thus created, and the supply of money increased. Thus bank loans create “deposits”, which plainly are not the source of loan money but, rather, the other way around, they are the outcome of loans.
http://www.project.nsearch.com/page/jesse-ventura-conspiracy
I Agree fully. The Federal Reserve, Banks and Corporations have had their Congress pass "Laws" that enables them to make obscene profits while pushing the U.S. Taxpayers deeper and deeper into debt. Check out "Money As Debt II", "The Money Masters", and "Crash Course" by Chris Martenson, all on Youtube. Fair-ness.
Giving the power to create credit to private corporations was justified by the fear that politicians would abuse this awesome power. I have no doubt, politicians would abuse this power, but am now faced with the fact that those once staid and conservative bankers have passed and now a new generation of managers have become the modern bankster. Not only the Board rooms of Banking Corporations, but all Corporations have been blackmailed by “management”, that they are entitled to salaries and bonuses that amount to extortion. It is scientifically proven in study after study that, “bonuses”, impair productivity and innovation, further studies also prove that these “bonuses”, do not add to the recipients happiness or wellbeing. So why persist in this unfulfilling folly that only reaps massive pain for the citizenry and a joyless existence for a minority.
We must apply a new paradigm. I believe and suggest "the power to create credit" must be taken back by us, the people.(Worldwide) To be called Democratic Credit, it shall be a right alongside "right to life, justice, health, religion, education, .." Let us, “Occupy Worldwide” put together a “Charter” that will allow people, and not corporations or shareholders to own banks, but individual "depositors". Let the power to “create credit” be in service to the “people” to meet all our basic needs, such as health, education, shelter, work, community. Let us build our communities, and finally let the nation come to us, in the most democratic form off all, to ask our permission for the finance to deliver services that we think is necessary.
Do the 'Chartered Banks of the People" wish to finance an undeclared war? in a foreign country? that is not a security threat? to control its oil reserves? with the blood of its sons. NO!
Does the "Chartered Banks of the People" wish to finance alternative energy programmes? create millions of real jobs? increase security? strengthen its currency? Not spill blood of its sons and daughters. YES
It does not require the destruction of one system for another; it does not require the risky change back to the "gold reserve standard" advocated by the likely next President of the United States, RP . (How will the Banksters deal with him? I dread to think.)
All it requires is enough honest individuals to get together to form the first Chartered Bank of America, (Canada, Mexico) apply honest regulation, and LOBBY the people of America to give us a " Commercial Trading Bank Licence", currently only issued by the FED, a private consortium of bankers, the .001%, who control the "power to create credit" for the United States of America, the most powerful empire the world has seen in all history. For the .001% who share with the 1%, their world is made possible by we, the 99%, who are deluded into thinking there is a seat set at the table for us.
The power to create credit, the most powerful force on the planet, a power if diligently directed and applied, can mitigate the damage we as a species is causing the planet and ourselves.
We do not need to battle the incredibly entrenched forces, but simply offer a humane alternative to ourselves. If, we, the 99, support ourselves, our communities and our global village, we can save ourselves and preserve this gem that nurtured us. This whole financial system is maintained by nothing more than ‘faith”, our ‘faith”, in the system. The system works, but we no longer have “faith” in its present management, who have abused it and our “trust”. We, the 99, reclaim our sovereign right to “create credit” for ourselves, we demand the democratization of it and pose no threat to established rule or order, seek only peace and co-operation, to maintain the right to own property, real credit, and to benefit from the financial credit that real credit allows, for individuals, families and community. The time is now; the voice is - World Occupied – the 99. Peace
" I believe and suggest "the power to create credit" must be taken back by us,"
You are already free to lend your money however you want. If you want to create a bank, no one is stopping you. If you want to invest your bank's money (and lose it) in failed projects like Solyndra, you are free to do that to.
Best. Thread. Yet.
Wake up before stupidity month
Salaam All,
Please think and evaluate past western army attacks to Middle East! My senses tell me western army may be attack to Iran between 15 December 2011 & 15 January 2012. Please pay attention for our humanity.
Best for All
Moein
More info:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/07/iran-war-already-begun
The people of the US cannot stop the US government, Moein. Hopefully, armed service members will refuse to serve, and stop enlisting in the military. But many are not going to risk jail refusing orders, and some of course do believe the lies their government tells them.
We are here... Until the Ignorance is Spotlighted and the Corporated Criminals are Indicted!
Speaking about the Boston force dremoval NPR quoted a police officer today that the eviction was because after staying this long, "they [the occupiers] wore out their welcome"
Can you imagine the media reporting that with a straight face without any counter response, if someone said about the Egyptian Police trying to clear protesters camped out in Tahrir square, or any other Arab Spring occupation that:
"Well, these protesters and their occupation, we put up with them for a while, but by now, the're Worn Our Their Welcome, so that's why we're clearning Tahrir Quare with police Force"
We'd never buy that argument from police actions against protesters, especially in countries that are not Washington-backed (in Washington-backed dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, etc, I guess Washington thinks that it's fine to brutalize people quietly..but even there they'd never make the brazen statement 'it's ok to do this because they wore out their welcome' ..instead they'd just not report it)
Double standard much, U.S. Corporate Media?
From Nuuzit - Occupy San Francisco Camp at the Fed - http://www.nuuzit.com/newsitem/LNTq2BlocdQ
Very violent group of people I feel sorry for all your anger,may god help you
How's the fist working for you all very civil?.
wait i don't understand? what's mockupy and what happened, it's hard to comprehend :x?
It's OK to Occupy for profit
I wouldn't get too focused or obsessed about occupying Zuccotti Park. If I'm not mistaken, the whole purpose of the Occupy movement is to push for changes in how our economy is run, focusing on Wall Street. A better thing to do now is to do some analysis and action on the proposed changes to the Euro monetary and trade system. Nowhere in the proposal is there anything said about equitable distribution of income and wealth. In other words, the proposed change, and the Euro system itself, are all about the few, the European 1%. Our own ruling elite has an identical focus, and this is what is the issue at hand. I live in southern Wisconsin, where the temperatures in recent nights have been around 10 degrees. There will soon be nights like that in NYC. This is a perfect time to consider a change in priorities.
I wouldn't get too focused or obsessed about occupying Zuccotti Park. If I'm not mistaken, the whole purpose of the Occupy movement is to push for changes in how our economy is run, focusing on Wall Street. A better thing to do now is to do some analysis and action on the proposed changes to the Euro monetary and trade system. Nowhere in the proposal is there anything said about equitable distribution of income and wealth. In other words, the proposed change, and the Euro system itself, are all about the few, the European 1%. Our own ruling elite has an identical focus, and this is what is the issue at hand. I live in southern Wisconsin, where the temperatures in recent nights have been around 10 degrees. There will soon be nights like that in NYC. This is a perfect time to consider a change in priorities.
what on earth is this about?
A song for the banksters on Wall Street... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FM3KR9dEOk
Funny how you say no violence, but your symbol is a FIST ?? Hum what's really going on is this peaceful? Don't think so. Wake up demonstrators the government is actually using you not the other way around ha ha
Take in some air to feed your brian and do something good with your lives
they have given the military the power to arrest us and put us in FEMA camps! 911INSIDE JOB terrorism is BS. the money is built on property rights which they did not work for!
[Removed]
Our National Parks threatened!! Please Help!! Call, email, or fax your Representative or Senator and DEMAND that the National Park Service be made to ENFORCE ITS OWN rules!
New research (not reported in the media) shows that the space now claimed exclusively by the group “Occupy DC” is in fact a NATIONAL PARK! Even worse, the National Park Service is failing to enforce ITS OWN RULES that prohibit camping and sleeping in this public park. The rule is 36 Code of Federal Regulations 7.96(g) found here: http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/7-96-national-capital-region-19768726. DON’T BE FOOLED by clever legal arguments about the First Amendment. The First Amendment simply does not grant the right to set up a tent city in a public park as a form of protest! The SUPREME COURT said that over 20 years ago! See “Clark v. Community for Creative Nonviolence” here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0468_0288_ZS.html Make no mistake – letting the Park Service break its own rules for one special interest group threatens OUR NATIONAL PARKS. Would you like to see a SHANTY TOWN on the rim of the GRAND CANYON? How about a SQUATTER VILLAGE around OLD FAITHFUL?
Please call, email, or fax your Representative or Senator and DEMAND that the National Park Service be made to ENFORCE ITS OWN rules!
You people say that the 1% are being greedy by holding onto their money ($1 to $3 trillion) but if you think that is true, then you are admitting the "Trickle Down Economics" is what is needed to get the US economy running at full stream again?
No no no. More that they're showing that this is why Trickle Down doesn't work. The rich have no interest in giving up their money in the first place. They're greedy because they also knew that trickle down doesn't work but that it works for them. I would never in my wildest dreams think OWS was advocating trickle down theory.
OWS thinks wealth is earned by confiscating goods, services, and cash from rich people. The problem is, as Margaret Thatcher observed, eventually you run out of other people's money.
I would disagree and say that OWS believes that too much of the wealth in the world was earned by doing exactly the opposite. Confiscating goods, services and cash from the average person and giving it to the abhorently rich. Think illegal foreclosures, the bailouts and the fed. They're arguing more that that shouldn't happen anymore and that where possible, oods services and cash which were taken illegally, unconstitutionally or immorally should be returned to those who have actually worked for them.
Nobody in OWS had anything taken from them, not one penny. They belive that wealth inequality is prima facie evidence that someone was robbed, and that simply isn't so.
A foreclosure is not illegal if you have stopped paying your mortgage. The bank bailout money is practically all paid back, and it saved the accounts of small depositors (the 99%).
OWS has it wrong, No one robbed them of anything. They want the property of the 1% and that's all there is to it.
and what about this?
The ugly truth. America's wealth is STILL being concentrated. When the rich get too rich, the poor get poorer. These latest figures prove it. AGAIN.
According to the Social Security Administration, 50 percent of U.S. workers made less than $26,364 in 2010. In addition, those making less than $200,000, or 99 percent of Americans (actually more like 98%), saw their earnings fall by $4.5 billion collectively.
The sobering numbers were a far cry from what was going on for the richest one percent of Americans.
The incomes of the top one percent of the wage scale in the U.S. rose in 2010; and their collective wage earnings jumped by $120 billion. In addition, those earning at least $1 million a year in wages, which is roughly 93,000 Americans, reported payroll income jumped 22 percent from 2009. Overall, the economy has shed 5.2 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. It’s the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930’s.
Another word about the first Great Depression. It really was a perfect storm. Caused almost entirely by greed. First, there was unprecedented economic growth. There was a massive building spree. There was a growing sense of optimism and materialism. There was a growing obsession for celebrities. The American people became spoiled, foolish, naive, brainwashed, and love-sick. They were bombarded with ads for one product or service after another. Encouraged to spend all of their money as if it were going out of style. Obscene profits were hoarded at the top. In 1928, the rich were already way ahead. Still, they were given huge tax breaks. All of this represented a MASSIVE transfer of wealth from poor to rich. Executives, entrepreneurs, developers, celebrities, and share holders. By 1929, America's wealthiest 1 percent had accumulated 44 percent of all United States wealth. The upper, middle, and lower classes were left to share the rest. When the lower majority finally ran low on money to spend, profits declined and the stock market crashed.
Of course, the rich threw a fit and started cutting jobs. They would stop at nothing to maintain their disgusting profit margins and ill-gotten obscene levels of wealth as long as possible. The small business owners did what they felt necessary to survive. They cut more jobs. The losses were felt primarily by the little guy. This created a domino effect. The middle class shrunk drastically and the lower class expanded. With less wealth in reserve and active circulation, banks failed by the hundreds. More jobs were cut. Unemployment reached 25% in 1933. The worst year of the Great Depression. Those who were employed had to settle for much lower wages. Millions went cold and hungry. The recovery involved a massive infusion of new currency, a World War, and higher taxes on the rich. With so many men in the service, so many women on the production line, and those higher taxes to help pay for it, some US wealth was gradually transferred back down to the majority. This redistribution of wealth continued until the mid seventies. By 1976, the richest 1 percent held less than 20 percent. The lower majority held the rest. This was the recovery. A partial redistribution of wealth.
Then it began to concentrate all over again. Here we are 35 years later. The richest one percent now own 40 percent of all US wealth. The upper, middle, and lower classes are sharing the rest. This is true even after taxes, welfare, financial aid, and charity. It is the underlying cause. No redistribution. No recovery.
The government won't step in and do what's necessary. Not this time. It's up to us. Support small business more and big business less. Support the little guy more and the big guy less. It's tricky but not impossible.
For the good of society, stop giving so much of your money to rich people. Stop concentrating the wealth. This may be our last chance to prevent the worst economic depression in world history. No redistribution. No recovery.
Those of you who agree on these major issues are welcome to summarize this post, copy it, link to it, save it, show a friend, or spread the word in any fashion. Most major cities have daily call-in talk radio shows. You can reach thousands of people at once. They should know the ugly truth. Be sure to quote the figures which prove that America's wealth is still being concentrated. I don't care who takes the credit. We are up against a tiny but very powerful minority who have more influence on the masses than any other group in history. They have the means to reach millions at once with outrageous political and commercial propaganda. Those of us who speak the ugly truth must work incredibly hard just to be heard.
and this?
The most profitable industries in the world (energy, healthcare, finance) have been given billions in government handouts and tax breaks. Meanwhile, they keep raising charges causing hardship for millions. With all those massive handouts, tax breaks, and obscene charges, profits rise to record high levels. Millions in bonuses are paid to the executives. With record high profits, record high dividends are paid. 1/2 of all dividends on profits made in the United States are paid to the richest one percent and foreign investors. All of this causes a gradual concentration of wealth and income. This results in a net loss for the lower majority who find it more and more difficult to cover the record high cost of living, which again, is directly proportional to record high profits for the rich. As more and more people struggle to make ends meet, more and more financial aid becomes necessary. Most of which goes right back to the health care industry through Medicare, Medicaid, and a very expensive prescription drug plan. This increases government spending. This has been happening for 30 years now. During the same time, tax rates have been lowered drastically for the richest one percent. Especially those who profit from investments. These people pay only 15 percent on capital gains income. As even more wealth concentrates, the lower majority find it more difficult to sustain there share of the consumer driven economy. Demand drops as more and more people go broke. Layoffs results. Unemployment rises. This results in less revenue and more government debt.
Massive subsidies and tax breaks for Wall Street, massive tax breaks for the super rich, heavy concentration of wealth, record high charges along with record high profits and record high cost of living, more hardship for the lower majority, more government spending in the form of financial aid to compensate, more concentration of wealth, less demand, layoffs and unemployment. All of this results in slower economy and less tax revenue. At the same time more and more financial aid becomes necessary. It's a horrible downward cycle which gradually pushes the national debt higher and higher.
The other big factors are the wars in the Middle East.
This post is not intended to excuse those who sit on the couch collecting welfare, make no attempt to find work, or squease out kids they can't provide for.
That, of course, is a simple minded sound bite. Margaret Thatcher brought disaster to Britain. Most Brits are well aware of that.
Yes, she was so disastrous, she was elected to 3 successive terms, and paved the way for a 4th successive victory by her Conservative Party.
Yes, the lowest approval rating of any post war PM. Lucky for her, Labor was split. You seem to leave out, she was running in that forth term. Even her own party booted her out.
But the point remains: You can't run an economy on confiscation of wealth as OWSers seem to believe.
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From Nuuzit - Occupy San Francisco camp closed and patrolled by police - http://www.nuuzit.com/newsitem/dw3bl4pXZrN
Man arrested and tortured by police:
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143269442/a-brutal-detention-and-a-defiant-syrian-activist
www.wired.com/underwire/2011/12/mockupy-law-and-order/
What a bunch of idiots. Your movement makes it to prime time, where most of your 99% percent hang out, and you create a flash mob that shows up to eat the food and ruin the shoot. Nice move. Who are the dictators again? I'm sure the unionized set workers enjoyed that.
Yeah...because we should be happy that Law & Order, Special Victims Unit is going to set a heinous crime in an OWS camp? Right. Might want to rethink that.
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So what? You have no right to dictate what people do. What the fuck about freedom of speech and artistic freedom? (Yeah, I'd argue that any television show isn't art, but it's all relative. )
"So what? You have no right to dictate what people do."
Voicing an opinion isn't dictating. :)
You have no right to destroy the environment so that you can have TV.
I don't watch TV and we both have computers, yes? Nonetheless, let's stick to the topic.