Forum Post: What do we demand?
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 3, 2011, 9:35 a.m. EST by Dutch
(6)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
There are many voices in the popular press who are admiring of this movement. But even supportive voices point out that there is a lack of focus or "demands". Here are some suggested by Nicholas Kristoff:
"Impose a financial transactions tax!" This would be a modest tax on financial trades, modeled on the suggestions of James Tobin, an American economist who won a Nobel Prize. The aim is in part to dampen speculative trading that creates dangerous volatility. Europe is moving toward a financial transactions tax, but the Obama administration is resisting — a reflection of its deference to Wall Street.
"Close the loopholes!" Close the “carried interest” and “founders’ stock” loopholes, which may be the most unconscionable tax breaks in America. They allow our wealthiest citizens to pay very low tax rates by pretending that their labor compensation is a capital gain.
"Protect the banks from themselves!" This means moving ahead with Basel III capital requirements and adopting the Volcker Rule to limit banks’ ability to engage in risky and speculative investments. Another sensible proposal, embraced by President Obama and a number of international experts, is the bank tax. This could be based on an institution’s size and leverage, so that bankers could pay for their cleanups — the finance equivalent of a pollution tax.
Making them into slogans is hard. But the ideas are important, and they would help the economy to serve the public rather than making all of us slaves to the economy.
What ideas do others have?
http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-please-help-editadd-so-th/
That's right:
I'm trying to find out as much information as I can about what this is all about. I've been reading a lot but there are some things that aren't clear to me or I haven't found information discussing it. My first question is who is the enemy here? I know that you say it's the 1% but who ARE they? Are we talking wall street/corporations? Are we talking Gov't? Or both? Who do we expect to respond? Some examples would be great. I have a lot of other questions. But that's a good start. I realize that it can be difficult to pinpoint an end result right now as raising awareness of a problem is a first step and through awareness and education you can collective come to conclusions but what is the ultimate goal? Is there a FAQ page? I have one suggestion - a resources section would be great so those of us that are looking to educate ourselves on all the complexities have a place to start. Thank you.
I disagree with ending the Fed. The Fed is the only government agency that's been trying to improve the economy! The Congress, particularly, has given up trying to regulate the economy in a way that benefits all Americans instead of just the financial sector.
Please watch this video.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU
its very informative, also a cartoon to lighten the mood. just dont praise the FED!
These are strong ideas. We need to mobilize and get our voices heard in D.C. True, these aren't ideas with ready-made slogans, but they could be! We are under-utilizing the resources we have available to us at Wall Street (and around the country). There are people down there with talent for these things. Put them to work!
fire the house of representatives ! replace that branch with electronic voting.! our founding fathers wanted the reps to vote for us its not working now we have another way!
The root of all the evil starts with the fed. This trickles down to a money grab for the politicians and corporations, by one paying the other off with the deregulation of laws and lobbyist contributions. END THE FED!
Are you claiming that the Federal Reserve is the primary reason why campaign finance has been deregulated? That strikes me as extremely implausible.
If you want more rules and regulation, look to Congress, the administrative bodies, and the courts.
If you want to accomplish nothing, push for ending the Federal Reserve.
Ha ha. you are very misinformed:
First it is unconstitutional for a central bank to control our money.Our Treasury is supposed to create our money, now the FED controls the printing of our money.No one guts a dollar that the FED didnt print. They print the money then they loan it to the government and charge interest on it.Then the government taxes you to pay for it. Before the FED there was NO IRS! NO taxation without representation! Inflation rate was stable! But youre right you seem to know whats right....
I appreciate you're admitting that I'm right.
Still, I'm confused by your comment, which just seems like a big non sequitur. You don't explain what this has to do with campaign finance at all.
What's more is that your entire comment is terribly unsound. Obviously it's not unconstitutional for a central bank to control our money. It is up to the Supreme Court to determine what is constitutional and what is unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court has not ruled that this is unconstitutional. Therefore, it isn't unconstitutional. QED. As for inflation, it is remarkably stable now -- in fact, I believe it is too low, given the economic situation and our country's debt. I support the IRS and I support progressive taxation. I receive representation in government and so the problem of taxation without representation does not apply. In fact, I believe that the rich receive better representation in government, and therefore ought to be paying more taxes. That's why I believe our movement to hold Wall Street accountable ought to focus on the following three demands: Tax the rich. Regulate markets. Prosecute white-collar crime.
Where do you get your information?
It is not within the power of the Supreme Court to change the Constitution. The founders were very wary of investing too much power in the hands of any single person or branch of government. Essentially, the Constitution rules over the Supreme Court, the President, and the Congress -- they are all bound by IT, not the other way around. If the Supreme Court could change the Constitution, too much power would be invested in the judiciary.
You are confusing inflation with interest rates! The inflation rate is higher then is has been in nearly 20 years. That means YOUR money is worth less then it was yesterday, and your money yesterday was less than it was the day before. Infact, if you had $100 dollars in the year 2000 and saved it, it would only be worth $76.00 today. The reason for this HIGH inflation is because the FED printed trillions of dollars and handed them to the banks to bail out their predatory lending practices. This money was given mostly to the CEO's of those banks. Maybe you have heard of this?
Who is going to pay for this bailout? We are via the IRS (which is less than 100 yrs old)! Do you really feel like this is taxation WITH representation? not to mention that over 70% of our taxes goes directly to the military industrial complex.
if you want to know about lobbyist and the FEDs bailout read this... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/business/economy/12lobbying.html?pagewanted=all
yes wall street took advantage of this and should be held accountable but there are obviously many gears to this problem, and for some reason you refuse to educate yourself about them.
by the way no hard feelings... we are all on the same team... just different ideas.
re 1.: I didn't say the Supreme Court can change the constitution. I said that it is up to the Supreme Court to determine what is constitutional and what is unconstitutional. Read Marbury v. Madison.
re 2.: The inflation rate today is 3.8%. The average inflation rate for the past century (1914-2010) is 3.38%. There's simply no inflation crisis today.
re 3.: Yes, I feel like this is taxation with representation. I vote for my representatives and they vote on the country's taxing and spending policies. That is taxation with representation.
Well I dont know what your concern is then? You seem pretty happy with the system. Good for you! Demand they raise the inflation rate then if its too low for you! Im glad your representatives are doing such a good job at relaying your message to Washington DC, and Im equally glad you find they voted well in regards to our countries spending policies. Go Army.. Go Bailouts.. Go Irs... way to spend our taxes! I hope you'll be in the one percent soon! you fit well in their system.