Forum Post: The average American isn't powerless - we are the power!
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 23, 2011, 8:20 p.m. EST by Shalimar
(167)
from Martinsville, IN
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
We have ALL the power if we decide to use it. That 1% needs us - DESPERATELY! If you heard us by another name you might understand - consumers/workers. If we don't buy tickets to ballgames, movies, buy products from companies or work for those same companies guess what - THEY go down the tubes!
What's Wal-Mart going to do if there are no workers and no one buying items in their store? Now put any company's name in place of Wal-Mart and you get the idea.
The Berlin Wall fell not due to tanks or bombs, but to the average person standing up and saying ENOUGH.
The average American isn't powerless - we are the power!
Great post
I haven't anybody talking about boycotts, but that is coming
It seems like everybody hates unions, but it is the oppression that is creeping in that makes people form unions. Simply people standing together and saying "we aren't going take it anymore"
Boycotts have periodically been discussed here. I think what many people miss is the fact that to elicit the big changes this country really needs will take a two pronged approach, from the top down and the bottom up. OWS is the top down approach, in that it's aim is to approach the government next year with a list of proposals. Equally important, if not more so, is the bottom up part of the equation. That's where each individual makes the necessary changes in his/her personal life to further the common goals of the movement. As some of us have discussed, boycotts go a long way toward this goal. Big business understands only one thing, their bottom line. If we don't hit them where it hurts (their "wallet") our words will fall on deaf ears and chances are nothing will change. Rein in your unnecessary spending, boycott those corporations largely responsible for getting this country in this predicament, buy local, buy American, restrict your use of plastic. All these things and more can be done on a personal level and if enough people got involved I think both big biz and government would start to get the message.
I agree. One of the many things people complain about is the price of gas and our dependence on foreign oil. It's ain't rocket science! Here is a list of some of the products made with petroleum http://www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm
My god! I knew oil was used to make a large number of products, but 6000 (at least) is a truly mind-boggling number. If we pursued alternate sources to power or vehicles, there would still be a huge demand for oil. If crude oil disappeared tomorrow, we'd be back to the stone age (almost) by this time next year.
People don't realize the depth of the problem. Another problem is we use a huge amount compared to other countries. Each day the U.S. uses about a 25% of all oil used in the world per day! Here is a pie chart that is very revealing - http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption/
That is why we are in the Middle East - oil.
It's a bad situation that will continue to get worse.
Just checked that pie chart. Quite an eye opener. We consume more than the next four consumers combined, all large economies. Of course that will slowly change as China keeps increasing its need, but it still has a ways to go. What your two links reveal, and most probably don't realize, is that it isn't just our love affair with the automobile that is the problem. Considering oil is used for clothing and especially plastics, our out of hand consumerism and the deliberate "planned obsolescence" of the products we buy is every bit as big a problem as our consumption of gasoline. If products were made to last, like they used to be, we wouldn't have to replace our appliances, electronics, and shoes nearly as often as we do now. I wonder how many people are aware of this?
I agree with the multipronged approach. I think if a person wants insight to the solution, they will read a time line of the great depression.
What brought the country for the brink of destruction raising the hell out of corporate taxes
Money started to flow back to the consumers and in time American flourished again.
That's why the hoarding of wealth by the few defies logic. If consumers have no money they stop buying the toys. Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Maybe the very wealthy don't read their kids those bedtime stories any more, forgetting, of course, that most have their origins in valid parables. They should be called bedtime lessons.
You are talking about things I call truism or really laws of nature. You reap what you sow. you make your own bed, what goes around comes around. And on and on
And my very favorite wall street parable. You rob Peter to Paul and then put the money in an offshore account?
America as a whole needs to be the people's union. We shouldn't need unions to make sure our country has basic living wages. Sing my petition here to enact the living wage act so that we start doing something about it. http://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-of-the-united-states-occupy-wall-street-pass-the-living-wage-act
That's a good idea, but it is merely a band aid for a severed leg
We need to stop those who rob the whole country and send the jobs overseas and get write-offs and incentives for doing it.
How can we stop anything if we are just yelling and holding up signs? If we can create & sign petitions then we will get our voices heard a lot better. If we stop sending jobs overseas is that going to give our bottom line (part-time cashier jobs) a roof over their head, food, healthcare etc.? NO. America has become a country with mostly part-time work where 18 year olds can join the military and have a roof over their head, healthcare & food but if they were to get a job at McDonalds part-time they wouldn't make enough to not be considered homeless... We've got this idea that our part-time jobs are for college kids who live at home with mom & dad and get insurance from their jobs. This is HIGHLY not the case where often now moms & dads are working 2 part-time jobs still with no healthcare.
I know one man who is working three part-time jobs to make ends meet.
• Holding up signs will eventually create awareness and leverage (you are on the OWS site)
• People are already creating and signing petitions (People have forums asking you to sign their petitions)
• This is not going to solve any problems over night. This protest seems to be creating a tool that will be used too eventually address the concerns of the vast majority of Americans
• This is just my opinion, based on observation
We need one forum where users submit their petitions :)
Create it
ok here we go. I made a group on yahoo where everyone can submit there petitions there so we can all view the causes at one place.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/occupyagenda/
Sure it's definitely creating awareness. I just feel like we need to get the ball rolling a bit faster. I have created a petition on change.org where it gets sent to the president. if no one will sign it I would like some feedback on how I can make it better so that people will. We need to do something about our bottom line. We are only as strong as the weakest on our team and when the CEO of McD's is getting million dollar bonuses on top of his multi-million dollar pay that can last the average person a lifetime why is it ok that his bottom line working force cant pay for rent at a one bedroom apartment and eat too? It's not just about the middle-class. If our people are going to work then that should equal a part-time wage of not being homeless.
I think you have summed up the reason OWC came to be. In my opinion petitions send a wake up call and maybe some results
Why don't you create a forum and let everybody see your petition
When you do, send me a message and paste the link. I'll check it out
Here's the forum :) I made http://groups.yahoo.com/group/occupyagenda/
I just found this, post your petition http://occupywallst.org/forum/the-president-is-a-pawn-shut-up-about-the-presiden/
Create a link to the yahoo site
Create an OWS forum with your petition and also link to that and include a link to yahoo on that
Does that sound reasonable?
yeah I posted my yahoo link there. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/occupyagenda/links/ This is where I would like everyone to submit their petitions collectively or existing petitions they feel are part of the OWS movement. This website needs a petitions section, but since they don't have one I do now :)
Oh, I agree. Actually the stand some states have taken against unions is in a small part fueling the anger.
That is very true. I know quite a few people that don't belong to unions that saw right through that attack and it did serve as an eye opener to the power of the greedy rich (not that all rich are greedy or bad)
It would take one day for all the citizens of America to stop what they are doing and unite together to demand that greed and corruption will no longer be tolerated and present a list of everyone's signature along with the list of new regulations we want in place to make it a fair system. Just one day is all that would take if people would set aside their petty indiferences and unite together and make a stand.
Agreed. Boycott all the big banks, Wal-mart, MS, Apple (yes I know, but iGadgets are made in China). Boycott all politicians, boycott Hollywood. Buy American made products only, support small local business.
They call us whiners, but massive boycotts of that nature would get quite a bit of loud whining out of them.
You are right. Our two greatest powers are the very ones that government and big business hope the 99% with ignore - boycott and vote.
Meaning this web forum should convert to a consumer advocate forum that provides unity in consumption. Probably be more effective, but the movement has created such an attitude towards itself with a lack of a functional focus or strategy, along with the smear program convienently empowered, that would be compromised.
Well, why not a bit of consumer advocacy? We're getting royally screwed at the checkout counter too, or haven’t you noticed?
Yes I have. Logically consumers should chose to buy from producers that treat them fairly. Unity in that controls producers.
Monopolies become the opposition and challenge. One poster here pointed out the self sustenance freed us from all of that. Correct, but the next best is using our choice of who we are dependent upon to select those that are dependably acting as much as they can in the peoples interests.
All that would be great, but cannot replace the serious need for a constitutional government and we do not have one and have not for 140 years. Article 5 of the constitution must be invoked and used by the states to correct the dominant dysfunction or these smaller issues are going to consume us.
"All that would be great, but cannot replace the serious need for a constitutional government and we do not have one and have not for 140 years. Article 5 of the constitution must be invoked and used by the states to correct the dominant dysfunction or these smaller issues are going to consume us."
I agree. The politicians ain't giving half a damn about the people, as long as Big Money can bribe them at will. I still believe the primary objective of the movement should be a demand to remove all corporate and bankster influence from politics. Overturn and outlaw "Citizens United". That would be a cornerstone victory.
Get that won, and everything else should fall into place.
And, within an Article 5 convention, your state delegates have the duty to turn your perceptions and preferences into action at convention with other delegates of other states in seeking ratification of amendment that effects exactly what you need.-
Having an effect on corporations like is oft descibed here, takes ultimate authority. It amazes me that a movement like OWS can be mounted and no one looks at the needed level of authority to effect solution. Now I'm finding out that not only is OWS disabled from examining this, most of the protestors are disabled as well makin gthe whole thing look like subterfuge and sabotage, burnout style for America seeking change.
I've signed every petition I could find advocating the overturn of "Citizens United" and getting the money out. If OWS can't decide to do that, then I'll be way ahead of them while they argue over frivolous shit. None of that other crap will matter, and won't work, until the lobbyists are booted enmass from DC and wall st ain't the boss anymore.
I agree, and know for certain that Article 5 of the constitution is the way to effect this. You say, "If OWS can't decide to do that" and I say they cannot even talk about HOW it could be done, which is a large part of deciding what the group will try to get done, because doing things that are possible is important.--
Essentially by default, their actions state: "We are not going to decide to that because we will not discuss if it is possible or not." Endless complaint and complex issure presentation is the continued action.-
Sound familiar?
They are succeeding in drawing attention to the problem and making the moneyjunkies nervous, if nothing else. Attention got, check. Start kicking some wallets, not checked.
I guess it's up to us in favor of a mass boycott here to do the wallet kicking.
Yes, OWS is succeeding in getting attention for the problem, but the problem(s) was well known. OWS is failing to embrace examinations of solution reasonably, and so are a large percentage of supporters. The problems are well known, they are emboldening and encouraging the populations.-
The numbers are not big enough to be very effective in boycott.
Never underestimate the power of the people.
End corporate person-hood. Support the Human Worth Amendment. To learn more, please go to: http://occupywallst.org/forum/human-worth-amendment/
This is a Proposal for a Legal and possible way we can effect real change http://algoxy.com/ows/strategyofamerica.html Please read if you want to know a way you Can Legally change whats happening
Use your power:
Let's get our jobs back.
Buy American. If you aren't sure - ask. Also look all over the packaging for "Made in __" Packaging may say "Made in America" but also have another tag that indicate that it was also made in another country.
Here is a list of the top outsourcing companies: http://www.iaop.org/content/23/152/1197/ If you deal with the American companies - stop and find another vendor.
E-Mail:
Write one e-mail to your elected officials telling them you are unhappy with the job they are doing. You can find their addresses here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Send one e-mail to the mayor of your town stating you do not want your taxpayer dollars to be given companies, pro-sporting facilities, etc. while classrooms are underfunded and overcrowded.
Send one e-mail to the "Letter to the Editor" telling how fed up you are with they way politics and your taxpayer dollars are being handled.
When you contact customer service and someone with an accent answers ask if they are in America. If not, this person is working while some unemployed American is out of work Also, do you really want to give personal information to someone living in another country?
Take this entire post and e-mail it to friends and ask them to help and to e-mail it to their friends.
Thank you,
You have just helped change America
“TOCSFAE” IS TOXIC TO THE BANKERS
From the beginning when our country was formed we face many challenges and many opposing views
Just like today however, the peoples voices have been silence by special interest groups as well as the over whelming power grab by the bankers. Your demands/petitions will never be heard or taken seriously unless lobbyist/corporate have bless it for greedy reasons or Co-Opt it.
It is time for a fair hearing!
Wouldn’t it be great if you can be heard, fairly and equally? Wouldn’t it be worth your time to know there is a petition list, worth signing rather then getting involved in so many other worthy causes? Can be a drain, especially knowing many of lists of issues will mostly not be look at or simply be voted downed.
It can also be time consuming.
This is were the 7’step plan an ever growing list known as the “TOCS FAE” doctrine helps just about every cause, the cause that helps almost all other causes should be supported. These step plans, solves many of the roots of all our problems we face.Whether you have protested at the gas pump or you are an Occupier and Tea Partier, for that matter any protest mover, make your protest have meaning, give it the teeth it needs beyond the gas pump and over the protest lines.
This petition will be a notification to congress of things yet to come and to properly prepare.
As of January 2012 we the people
We will not take the abuse anymore and neither should they walk around with there heads in the sand.
We will begin the process of phase one
Your petition will go to congress, informing them you support The “TOCS FAE” Doctrine and so should they, by making preparations for receiving and forwarding income Tax mail. Your petition will also go to the top corporations letting them know of our intentions and they too should support and act by sending their taxes directly to congress. They should also be informed if our demands are not met protests will be under way the likes they have never seen.
After this is achieved and we have broken the back of a few select Corporations we will move on to Step1 Taxes which may take months or up to a year
Step1) Send your TAXES to a trusted congressman or congresswoman which maybe hard to find in your state. Make a Petition with your neighbors. Phone, email, fax your congress your list and intentions. Prepare your taxes, made out to the I.R.S check and envelope, and a stamp. Fit it in inside of a bigger envelope, onto which you should write congress address, preferably your state congress.
Example
Washington, DC 203 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone Number: (202) 225-2831 Have congress unwrap the envelopes, state you want your taxes to be mailed to the I.R.S
If you are asking yourself, what will this achieve first it can be used as a bargain chip however, congress cannot spend it or over take the fed reserve and banks system over night, nonetheless this will indeed give teeth/meat, back to congress. You should include a sign return receipt so as to show proof you paid your taxes.
For the rest Click http://inkrumguardians.webs.com/
Occupy funny pix http://inkrumguardians.webs.com/apps/blog/
If you are interested in expressing this message to Occupy General Assembly you should present the "TOCFAE" Doctrine in David Ferola's name, and claim you are him, for solidarity purpose.
That includes woman and children
In the end the movement should be about being against the legitimacy of power--public and private.
I think the 99% is tired of waiting for the trickle down effect to work. It seems to have been plugged up somewhere near the top.
You tell someone they have power and one of three things happen:
They abuse it and try to dominate others with their power.
They don't want the resposibilityand try to give it away so they are not burdened.
They take ownership of their power, try to educate others on to usebtheirnown power, and demand that those who abuse their power be held accountable.
Which one are you?
the "phase" we're in now has its roots from 11/22/63, the day JFK was assassinated.....LBJ, then Puppet Nixon, Why isn't info like this not only Known, but brought to full light http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3suucO6pOc
One thing should start now is to Stop any further Foreclosures immediately. What would happen in a year if/when crooked dealings were proven, Whistleblowers came forward, etc.. The Housing/Mortgage scam was an intended means of robbery. Have others considered halting mortgage payments?
We have power and we are showing on Black Friday. OWS and its supporter will boycott the malls. Please pass on.
As someone not educated in the USA, I was ignorant about it's history, but thanks to Mr. Howard Zinn that all change in 2010. He recorded the 99% frase and to hear it in the people speak it feels like he still with us now, so let's not protect any politician because he is not a republican. Bill Clinton is a guilty of the destruction of the middle class as Regan, Bush, and Bush Jr. this is part of the amazing legacy Mr. Zinn left for us and we should be educate each other on the basics to take back the power from the 1%. It only took one brave soul to baffled Mitt Romney with a simple question, individually or together we can make the change if we empower our brains by becoming less ignorant. Stay warm, stay strong and thanks for serving our country.
People "think" two ways - with their emotions or with their brain. Many people have always tried to emotionalize their way through problems. They don't stop and think with their brain as to the best ways to solve their problems.
Right now our laws are allowing corporations and special interests to use their money to "speak" as if they represent millions of Americans. They have all of the politicians on both right and left bought and paid for. THE main goal of these protests should be CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM. We need to end "corporate personhood" and get their money and bribery out of our politics!
Unless you are a sitting president on your last term or you really know you will never run for office again, the first thing on your agenda after your election is your reelection. A politician would have to do the very thing s/he thinks would ruin his/her political career.
You hit in on the head. It would take someone that really cares more about the country than self - the type of person that seems to be in short supply these days because in order to even get your name on the ballot you have to be the lap dog of the corporations and special interests.
Exactly. Who is going to do the reform? They would have it in various committees for years.
If the OWS movement made it THE demand they would have to listen. It is a very hard topic to spin (I'd love to see how FOX NEWs would respond) and the majority of Americans already support the idea. It is the one goal that would actually hit them where it hurts. There is a growing movement for a constitutional amendment - I'm learning more about it all the time.
I don't know what direction OWS will ultimately take but I applaud them for not rushing in with demands. The demands will come but secure your power base first. And that is what they are doing. I love that it has gone global.
In some ways not having demand immediately has been good - the opposition is having a hard time dealing with it. I think it is a sign of real protests.
There is nothing to deal with at this point. Politicians are scared because they know people are mad. Businesses are scared because they know people are mad. 2012 is going to be a very interesting year.
Revolutions work. It's the new second job of the working class.
Agreed, so perhaps you would consider our group's proposal of an alternative online direct democracy of government and business at http://getsatisfaction.com/americanselect/topics/on_strategically_weighted_policies_organizational_operating_structures_tactical_investment_procedures-448eo , for this is a small-business-bottom-up approach, not today's big-business-top-down approach, so if agreed, join our group's 20 members committed to that plan at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/StrategicInternationalSystems/
I wouldn't play a dirge just yet :-)
The world didn't use to run on consumerism. It doesn't need to do it forever, either. All the 1% has to do is take their toys and go home. They'll employ enough service people and artisans to keep themselves well maintained. The rest will be used as slave labor (either convict labor, or super-low-paid, like migrant worker wages) to pick the crops. Of course, it will be a little cleaner than in the Middle Ages, but you get the idea.
This idea that the (former) American middle class is some sort of vital piece of the puzzle is very outdated. Even if consumerism was vital to keep the 1% in riches (which it's not, since the 1% owns virtually everything now), the American middle class consumer has been used up and replaced with Chinese and Asian consumers. Sorry.
Yes, call me a troll, but I'm just laying out the facts to counter some of the fantasy I keep seeing. In hopes that people will get the hell out of the park and start doing real organizing.
You are so wrong it's hard to believe you aren't a troll. Where do you think that 1% gets their money? The vast majority comes from AMERICAN consumers off of the backs of AMERICAN workers!
Asia and third-world countries haven't changed the 99% position in that. To easily prove my point try this: If every janitor, garbage truck driver, waste water treatment plant worker or anyone with anything to do connected with waste stopped working how long do you think it would be before there would be serious problems?
What if tomorrow everyone stopped eating chicken? The businesses involved with raising, killing chickens, etc. would cease to exist.
There are consumers in all the rest of the world, but none with the disposable capable *AND blind consumerism of Americans. Do you think in those places they rent storage to store their extra stuff? Do you think that hoarding is a serious problem in India?
WE ARE THE POWER!
"Where do you think that 1% gets their money? "
Actually, they already HAVE the money. Most of it, anyway. Once they get all the money, they won't need consumers any more. Duh.
Do you have any idea how much money the 1% spends? Like many Americans most of them are addicted to spending. Many have fear of losing their money and keep trying to make more and more. Some lose their investments. Some divorce and don't have near enough (in their mind) to live afterward. Some are just greedy. If the rich were happy then why screw the little guy out of every last dime?
That 1% is like drug addicts and they will always need a good supply of money rolling their way. Americans are the best consumers in the world and we are very materialistic.
WE ARE THE POWER!
Um, if they own everything, they'll just be buying things from each other (or more likely, taking it - the cause of most of history's wars). Just like in the old days, when there was no middle class and no consumerism. I mean, seriously - did you think the Roman Empire's economy ran on middle class plebes buying flatscreen TV's? Did you think the Middle Ages worked like that? What don't you understand about the concept that consumerism is not permanent?
Also, the 1% do not spend money just for the pleasure of spending money. They spend it to keep up with the Joneses (their Joneses, the others in the 1%) and to get on top of the pile of Joneses. It's a power trip.
Same thing with executive compensation. These executives are not being paid shitloads of money for their poor performance. They are being paid shitloads of money as hush money, and also to keep them from absconding to other corporations with their inside information. It has nothing to do with "performance" and everything to do with "keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer."
The naivete of many people involved in OWS continues to astound.
It simply doesn't matter consumerism is permanent or not - it is what we have right now. This is our reality TODAY.
"Also, the 1% do not spend money just for the pleasure of spending money" I don't know about the 1% you know, but many of those I know LOVE spending money.
WE ARE THE POWER!
"This is our reality TODAY."
Not for too much longer.
That's the problem - you are GUESSING what tomorrow will be like. I am saying what TODAY is like. All we can deal with is reality, not ifs, maybes, mights....