Forum Post: How Do We Fix It?
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 4, 2011, 2:13 p.m. EST by AJx315
(16)
from New York, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I've been following this movement for a while now and I think I have a pretty good grasp on what its about. I agree with a majority of the grievances, I consider myself to be one of the 99% and have even joined a working group in west harlan. What I don't have any idea about is how do we fix this broken system? Everyone wants to hear a list of demands but even if we had one, who do we present it to? How do you get a corrupt system to accept that its corrupt and want to change itself. All they would do if we brought a list of demands the table is laugh us out of the building. So im curious what ideas are being thrown around as the first of many steps, after spreading awareness, do we take to fixing the major problems. I guess the way I look at it is the people that are receiving money/funding/payoffs aren't going to cut themselves off and we don't have the power/ability to cut them off so how do we make it stop? And if im wrong, I hope I am, let me know how you see it.
You fix it by going after evil wherever you may find it. Here's a good starts:
http://occupywallst.org/forum/make-a-stand-join-the-clan/
The Revolution starts here!
One idea I posted earlier: We need to spend our money smartly in order to send a message. First we do research to find which corporations are bad, mediocre, and good. Then we rank the corporations. Then whenever we purchase anything we take this into account when doing our product comparison. For example, a bad company is selling a hammer for $15. A mediocre company is selling a similar item for $16 and a good company is selling it for $25 dollars. In this case we probably buy from the mediocre company.
This will put market pressure on all corporations to clean up their act. Eventually things will move in the right direction.
Secondly we make clear to politicians what structural reforms we want to see. We demand things like:
We also rank different members of the "Main Stream Media" and we boycott the ones which are not addressing our concerns and instead lend our ears and eyeballs to the sources that are discussing the topics we care about. (We can and should watch news that presents opinions that we might disagree with, but too often the media ignores issues that the 99% care about).
Some of the things you propose would be like trying to turn a humungous super-tanker around with a pair of oars. Other ideas suggest that we can change the system from within. Don't you get it? Our political and financial systems can only be changed when we get a plurality of people out in the streets and demand change. That is what this all about.
Nearly every problem that exists in society is caused by lack of income.
The average income in this country is $135,000 per year, enough to make every worker wealthy. But 97% of all workers make below that amount. 97% of all workers make a below-average income.
The wealthy in this country only have their wealth because they convinced 97% of the workforce to accept a below-average income.
Once the workforce wakes up and sees the raw deal they are getting, and they organize, our current economic order comes to an end.
Because if 97% of all workers demanded that they get an income that is closer to the current $135,000 average or they will go on strike, the system will have no choice but to submit to that demand.
50% of workers would see their income at least quadruple.
Progress for workers have come from them unionizing. The middle class was built on workers unionizing.
The solution is to get workers to join a national worker union that forces our economic system to allocate income more fairly. We could raise the minimum wage for all adult workers to $115,000 per year so that everyone is wealthy.
Forget elections. The politicians are owned by the wealthy. The general strike is where we have the power to enact massive change in short order.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/solution-raise-the-minimum-wage-to-110000-per-year/
There is no fix. A country has never gotten this out of control with its finances and come back around without a total collapse.
Get educated on laws changed or created by government is the first item that requires time and research. We need a thorough investigation that explains in detail how we arrived today in our economic social unrest.
I've been following this movement for a while now and I think I have a pretty good grasp on what its about. I agree with a majority of the grievances, I consider myself to be one of the 99% and have even joined a working group in west harlan. What I don't have any idea about is how do we fix this broken system? Everyone wants to hear a list of demands but even if we had one, who do we present it to? How do you get a corrupt system to accept that its corrupt and want to change itself. All they would do if we brought a list of demands the table is laugh us out of the building. So im curious what ideas are being thrown around as the first of many steps, after spreading awareness, do we take to fixing the major problems. I guess the way I look at it is the people that are receiving money/funding/payoffs aren't going to cut themselves off and we don't have the power/ability to cut them off so how do we make it stop? And if im wrong, I hope I am, let me know how you see it.
You're 100% right. This system is corrupt and our politicians aren't going to change for us. Some may but it's only a few who may listen to us. Not enough though to make radical changes. What I have proposed is to organize our own political party,let's say "Global Revolution Party" and run our people for all the available political offices,if we want real change otherwise there will be no change at all.There is another way. Go to Washington,D.C. and tell give our oppressor in the U.S. Congress ( House of Representatives and Senate) 48 hours to pack and go. Then remain there until they really move. Hey... they did it in Northern Africa, we can do it here too. The Arabs there kicked all those ancient dictators out of office. We have dictators here too and we have to kick them out. Something will have to happen because we're not going away and this movement is here to stay. All my best.
Antagonize WallSt.
friend your post here helps create the environment, that will make many others aware of the horrific conditions the peoples of the world are finding themselves existing under. when our numbers reach a critical mass- injustice will explode. activst page http://url2it.com/jsne
The only way to to fix our corrupt political and financial systems is from the outside. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and a host of other people who struggled for positive change against perverse systems knew it as well. This movement is about empowering the people (getting the timid to join us) who previously thought things were hopeless, that change is possible. It is not about asking for change on our knees, it's about demanding change on our feet.
As I have pointed out in another post, this will only happen when we have a groundswell of support and then demand a sea change in the way that our political and financial systems operate. For starters we should repeal Citizen's United, reinstate the Glass Steagall Act, and tax and regulate the Dark (derivatives) Market. We should also eliminate all the casino type games on Wall St. that have nothing to do with the real economy, and we should set up mandatory minimums for bankers and politicians that violate the public trust.
After you "repeal Citizen's United, reinstate the Glass Steagall Act, and tax and regulate the Dark (derivatives) Market" you would still have all the same problems.
You would still have 97% of all workers earning a below average income, 50% of all wage earners making less than $26k, 1 in every 3 people near or below poverty, 16% underemployed, 52 million without health insurance, and 55% of all workers wasting their lives doing pointless jobs that can be automated with existing technology, despite the fact that we have the resources and technology to produce a near unlimited amount of anything.
The current aristocracy would love nothing more than to concede a few meaningless rules if they can remain in power.
There is nothing meaningles about the ideas in my previous post. Do a little more research and you would see that too. And I did say 'for starters', didn't I? Your statistics were interesting, though