Forum Post: Occupy Markets?
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 6, 2011, 4:04 a.m. EST by yoss33
(269)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Ok, i have an idea. Ghandi collected and traded salt. Part of his success. So if part of the problem identified by the quote unquote 99% is unfair financial trading practices, why not set up Occupy markets.
I give you a bag of apples, you give me a massage. You get some goods, i get a service, we're both happy.
Now i'm guessing people would maybe have to be willing to get arrested if this was attempted? I honestly do not know the particulars of the law in regards to this, but even to do it somewhere, tell the media, have some people arrested at some kind of symbolic market.
Why? It gets people thinking. It is a gesture saying 'we will define what is or is not legitimate in terms of the marketplace.
Any thoughts welcome.
peace.
ooh i like this part, in regards to the current system on Wall Street - "The complex language makes them appear knowledgeable, almost unreachably superior. In reality, once you learn the terminology of micro and macroeconomics, you begin to discover that these guys actually HAVE been talking gibberish the whole time. It wasn’t you that was incapable of understanding; it was they who were incapable of giving valid explanations." [Eric Blair article from Meesa's link below]
Just found out about this - close to the same concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours
Yes. And also remember the freedom rides on the buses back in the Martin Luther King days, they succeeded in large part because of all those arrests.
I think part of a successful strategy for this would be to get businesses involved even. Again, i'm not sure of where the law stands on this either, and maybe that would be too problematic for official businesses to get involved with from a legal perspective, but yeah, just putting it out there.
food, shelter and health for work
We could offer forms of alternative economies. A form of refined bartering.
thanks for the info Meesa. Will check the links most definitely.
The only point i would make for the positive in term of getting arrested, then it becomes a news item. Then it is more in the public eye to face and think, 'hey, could that really work?' Kind of like putting the concept more into the open and getting people to consider it more seriously.
Then we add information to probably like what you have given me, that gets circulating more and it is that much more of a reality.
Then again, if it is not illegal, why not set up Occupy markets? Have a marketplace, and encourage people to bring stuff and set up booths or whatever and trade.
Perhaps it would be taken negatively too by some, actually yeah it likely would, i don't know, just thinking out loud basically.
peace.
hi yoss33 -- good idea, it is legal so no arrests necessary, and the good news is that there are already well-established barter networks across the US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States
Here's an often-reposted article about alternative markets on a raw milk blog: http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/alternative-markets-barter-systems-and-local-co-ops-are-the-lifeboats-that-will-save-us-from-societal-collapse/
"Cyberbarter" is getting popular -- here's the glossy barterquest: http://www.barterquest.com/
I say go for it, start a network in your community - you don't need arrests to get attention (unless you want negative attention…), just make it fabulous and build local interest so it is a success!