Forum Post: The REAL 1%: building a broadbased protest movement
Posted 12 years ago on March 19, 2012, 1 p.m. EST by barrycooper1
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Please read this excellent summary of how the innovations and hard work of ordinary Americans over the last century have been coopted and stolen by Federal Reserve member banks, who can legally create money from nothing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-mullen/how-the-fed-steals-for-th_b_1343283.html
If the OWS movement wants to take on THIS 1%, they will be shocked how much support they get from across the spectrum. Capitalism as a system works, but not when you have parasites latched on that are constantly siphoning money out.
Nobody objects to the existence of smartphones, but everyone objects to somebody reaching in your back pocket and stealing your wallet. Most people don't realize that is in fact the PRINCIPLE function of the Fed.
I think you will find that most Occupiers are aware of this. When we say 1% we mean ALL of them.
When you say "them", do you mean hard working immigrants who save up their money and start their own businesses? Do you mean Silicon Valley engineers who are working on the next generation iPhone? Do you mean self employed designers? Do you mean Apple, your local power company, and the grocery store where you buy your food? Do you mean artists who sell their work at fairs?
Can we not agree that if people are doing useful work they deserve to get paid, and that the most objectionable element of our economy is that some people get paid--a LOT--WITHOUT doing useful work?
If you want a broad based movement, you will not get it by demonizing all the corporations we depend on daily for everything: our cars, our roads (construction companies are private sector), our food, our communications, our media, our clothes, our homes, and our energy.
Please be smart about this. Unless of course the goal is theatrical and not practical, in which case you are going about this the right way.
APPLE employs horrible business practices that take advantage of the poor in pursuit of their own personal gain.
When we say the 1% we're talk about those that abuse power and take advantage of the 99%.
So if you invented something and you're super rich and operate an awesome business, you are not who OWS is talking about.
I do agree with you that they should definitely be more specific about the fed. Not a lot of people tread the fed because they're too caught up with politics... they're worried they'll be looked at as a Ron Paul supporter... OH MY!
"Capitalism as a system works"
lol.
Nearly the entire world is capitalist and most of the world lives in poverty.
The US is the richest country in the history of the world and 50% of its citizens live in poverty or are close to it.
It never achieves full employment, 18% in the US currently cannot find a full time job. 97% of the workers who do have a job make a below average income.
Capitalism works for roughly 3% of the population. Everyone else struggles.
There is more than enough work to employ everyone. There is more than enough income and resources to end world poverty and give everyone a very high standard of living. These problems exist BECAUSE OF CAPITALISM.
Capitalism concentrates wealth and income in the hands of the very few who are already wealthy. That's the way it works. It will never work well for everyone.
The easiest correction we could make to improve capitalism is to place a percentage cap on sales profit. This would create a rising tide that would improve the standard of living for everyone. I call this a "patch".
The problem with that is people would invest less. When they invest less, you have less profits to tax. You really have a very limited ability to redistribute income so long as you are relying on private investment to fund the economy.
If investment decreases, the economy goes into recession.
Workers must organize and demand that investment and income be allocated democratically.
The economy is fueled by the consumer, not the investor.
The investor must invest in a company before the consumer has something to buy.
Also, if they don't invest, there is higher unemployment. When you are unemployed, you don't have money to spend.
No consumers no sales.
Easy peasey.
A cap on sales profit is placed on all points between buy and sell. The manufacturer is not capped, therefor the stimulus created by the cap on retail would see growth in the manufacturing industry encouraging investment. Also the created stimulus would increase tax revenue and thus government spending. It's a win win idea. Cap profits and the gap between the rich and poor will shrink. Cap profits and the working man will beable to afford to work less hours. Cap profits and jobs are created because of an increase in sales.
"legally create money from nothing" While this has some truth, they can only do this so much before inflation kicks in.
sort of a tax one those who collect money
other fed topics