Forum Post: What is OWS trying to accomplish?
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 9, 2011, 7:35 p.m. EST by pabbate71
(1)
from Orlando, FL
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
What is OWS trying to accomplish? That is the real question, and if answered it will give longevity and meaning to the movement. How long can OWS go on with what to most Americans seems like a bunch of dissatisfied people wanting a hand out? There needs to be a goal, an end game. That end game can’t be about toppling Capitalism because the system of the last 30-40 yrs is not Capitalism. Look deep and you will see that there really is no name for it. It is some form of Cronyism with pseudo-Socialism being labeled as Capitalism so the masses can stay in the dark. There needs to be an appreciation of where the U.S. government is right now. Do we continue with a system that needs deficit spending to keep going? As a debtor nation this means continued weakening of the dollar, continued targeting of inflation and a hope that something will grow us out of this mess. The other, which surely means pain for Americans for decades to come, is to have our government cut back drastically and raise taxes to fill the gaps. Combining this with the situation Europe is going through means something very close to depression because it starts a vicious cycle like the one Greece is going through. The economy shrinks and government receipts decrease so you can never balance the budget. With the world population at 7billion, we are talking about billions of people not having the means to support themselves. I don’t think I have to detail where all roads seem to lead. Which brings us back to, what does OWS want? You want less debt and more jobs. That’s what the rest of the world wants. This puts our 5% of the world population in direct competition with the rest of the world fighting to attain the same thing from their governments, which in turn puts all world governments in competition with each other. With governments so indebted we can’t and shouldn’t look to them to be the engine of job creation. This leaves private industry. If private industry has to be the main driver of job creation, doesn’t this mean that the conversation needs to be with them? The compromise needs to be with them, and they shouldn’t be treated as them because they are part of us, the same way that government needs to be treated as US. There is too much, us or them, going around.
A group of lawyers and students and protestors got together and published this SAMPLE declaration and SAMPLE petition of grievances. The idea is to elect delegates to a new congress to present a petition of grievances to the government. Here is the link to what we did.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Continued post: We know that there is something wrong but that something is so big and has so many moving parts that it becomes impossible to bottle a solution, or at the very least a solution that can be understood and supported by the masses. This is why it seems everyone that is supposed to lead or wants to protest has no direction. The problem is too big and spread through too many countries. Even though this is the case we can’t sit idly by. So the OWS is onto something but that something needs to be defined. The OWS should, in my opinion, take on micro issues because they can be easily defined for people to easily understand and stand behind. Most Americans can easily understand that there is something wrong with the escalating pay ratios of CEO’s to average worker pay. How can anyone defend a ratio that was 24 to1 in 1965, 35 to 1 in 1978, 71 to 1 in 1989 and then exploded to 262 to 1 in 2005. On top of that, to argue that the ones that got the most benefit of pay raises in the last 30 years should not have to pay higher taxes now that the government needs more revenue is preposterous. The numbers obviously show that the class warfare was a sneak attack against the middle class of America and not the other way around as many Republicans like to state proposed tax hikes on high income earners is. On the other side, any new tax revenues should not be used to increase spending even more. It should be used to start closing budget gaps. Spending to try to stimulate and create jobs needs to come by redistributing funds that are offering little return to our economy. One thing that needs to be understood by the masses is that the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy is going to take, in my opinion, decades. The reason is that this didn’t happen overnight. We have been destroying ourselves from the inside since the 60’s and 70’s. The road back needs to be led by the people and not by the government. Ask what you can do for your country needs to be the mantra by everyone that considers themselves American. We have rising healthcare? Then the over 60% of obese people need to take better care of themselves. We need to smoke less and drink less. Are auto insurance rates costing too much? Then we need to pay more attention when we get behind the wheel. We have to borrow money to buy more than 50% of our oil? Then buy smaller more energy efficient vehicles. Is China manipulating its currency and subsidizing manufacturers? Then make an effort to look at where goods are being made. Not sure what shirt to buy? One is made in China and another made in Honduras? You know what to do. Most Americans truly don’t understand what it means when they nonchalantly say “Freedom isn’t Free”.
We need to have a more educated and caring society to have a purer more efficient form of Capitalism.
And for all socialists out there, remember that humans evolved over many thousands of years. We are the dominant species because of survival of the fittest. We are the most ruthless and best able to adapt to any environment on Earth. Everyone has to contribute to society. The most natural and effective economic system for us is Capitalism. Leave Socialism to those that believe the poor shall inherit the Earth. Our population has gone from 1.5 billion to 7 billion in about 100 years. We don’t need to subsidize anyone, except maybe to keep people from procreating any further.
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