Proposals Under Discussion

Can we consider removing the only real obstacle to freedom and progress we all have?

Lilraine — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:53:20 -0600

I think a lot about a world without money. I know a lot of people who truly believe it couldn’t be done, and that a perfect world is impossible. Well, Yes, a perfect world IS impossible, but life without money, I believe, is not.

A world without money would not be a perfect world. But it would be a vastly better world for all of us. It could be a world where the system works with Mans imperfections instead of against them. This would lessen the negatives by turning them into more positives. Indeed, perfection – Utopia- is not the goal. The goal is for everyone to truly be able to live a better, more fulfilling life, to fix all the current problems we can fix without the hinderance of cost. And all it could take would be to give of your skills and knowledge freely.

We give money its value. Originally the value of the dollar (and most if not all other currencies) was based on the gold standard. But we give gold its monetary value too! Gold is a metal. A metal so pretty that people like to adorn themselves with it. It gives us a sense of status in our communities, and that’s fine. It’s a solid material object -static and tangible. But give it a monetary value and it’s price will fluctuate from time to time. Amazing.. how a solid, tangible, physical substance can be made to have a virtual worth. The gold doesn’t change, nothing happens to it, but suddenly it’s worth more or less than it did the day before. The stock market, the way I see it is even worse because stocks are as virtual as their worth.. no matter how much you have, you dont really have it until either you cash it out or sell it.

Really, it doesnt matter what standard we use to base the value of our currency on… the value system is man-made and virtual, not tangible.. not real. We created this system, it didnt and doesnt occur naturally in any other species, so that means we devised it and likewise we could conceivably change it.

Even in a world without money, there will always be a few ‘bad apples’ in society. “Bad” will never go away entirely. It’s opposite exists and therefore to some degree, so must it. The way we live now serves mostly to encourage the negative. It’s a fertile breeding ground for greed, deceit and self-serving behavior. Greed is there… it exists.. and the only way to get the things we’re greedy for is with money. Money can be turned into anything, and because it’s so convenient that way, there are people willing to do anything to obtain it. This is why we have the vast majority of our crime: drug violence, muggings, bank robberies, car theft, insurance fraud, illegal insider trading, identity theft, the very corruption of the financial system itself, etc, etc.

In a money-less society, crime in general would be greatly reduced, and many.. like those listed above.. would disappear entirely. And I truly think if we put our minds to it, we could come up with such a system.. like a resource based economic system such as The Venus Project or Zeitgeist Movement or Freeconomy Community envision.. then it could eventually nurture a true shift in values where we may no longer live and think in 'every-man-for-himself' terms.

Looking beyond Capitalism - Proposals for Immediate Action

slave — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:24:17 -0700

I just contacted a Spanish activist with significant research and practice background in the movement proposing a new project for setting up a global resource center to help establish an alternative economic system based on sustainable economic principles replacing capitalism. Below are the details of the letter. I would appreciate any constructive comments / criticisms. In fact I call for suggestions on how we can implement such a project pooling the resources of those who would like to move beyond protest and calls for reform but would not want to wait for "the revolution" either.

I am a fellow activist with several years of experience in the movement (since early 1980's) with focus on finding an experimental alternative to the economic system of capitalism. I do not like to be categorized into "socialist" or "communist", etc. because these do mean different things to different people nowadays. But I do come from a "science" background and have found the analysis of Marx and Engels for the most part "scientific" and valid as many of their predictions attest.

I decided to contact you because I am active in the OccupyWallStreet (OWS) movement which got some of its momentum from the fellow Spaniards whose Indignant movement I have been following online for about 1 year. I am particularly impressed by the Spanish Revolution of 1936 and the establishment of the autonomous worker's councils and the idea of Horizontalidad as opposed to any state control of the means of production under any guise. Are there similar ideas being discussed / planned / implemented in Spain currently? Are there discussion forums or groups in the forefront of this that I may join for exchange of ideas or at least for further research?

My vision is to help bring this issue of implementing a new alternative economic system into reality, (i.e., without waiting for a "revolution" or the ultimate collapse of capitalism) starting locally and immediately. I understand it may be a controversial issue even among people like you but I think it is a valid option that should be seriously investigated (i.e., by scientific research and experimentation) considering the significant changes in the world (e.g., significant improvements in science and technology, and the much more destructive and self-destructive nature of capitalism in its final growth phase under globalization) that may make options previously considered "utopian" by some (e.g., the worker's councils, scientific egalitarian communalism, etc.) a possibility. In addition, such initiatives are desperately needed by increasing masses of people many of whom are skilled and resourceful even in areas of science and technology (i.e., the necessity and possibilities exist and growing).

I believe this is a tremendous opportunity for a true "renaissance" in the most basic human values by delivering the economic system that could foster and develop those values. An economic system based on common ownership, cooperative production and shared exchange and distribution based on need and ability to produce (this is in contrast to the economic principles of capitalism). Accordingly, my intention is from the start to help establish working channels that demonstrate such an economic system, where we work cooperatively owning the content commonly and exchange and distribute the results in a shared arrangement so as to enable the establishment of "communal prototypes", semi-autonomous units of the future global economic system that through their increasing local and global numbers and interactions outcompete the self-destructive capitalism in an "organic" and evolutionary manner - i.e., "revolution" through evolution (the survival imperative), by primarily economic means / not political means.

So specifically, this project is about establishing a resource center for establishing a new economic system - i.e., the focus will not be so much on criticizing capitalism for its growing dysfunctions and crimes rather on finding credible and practical solutions outside of capitalism based on the new economic principles through scientific research, and expmerimental implementation funded by the movement (i.e., by common ownership). The best experimental ideas and regions for successful projects could be cooperatively determined for effective resource allocation. Similarly, labor / skills / resources / etc. could be more efficiently implemented across the globe for specific projects. This project may serve as a "think thank" for the movement where the participants can "brainstorm" and consider the viability of certain ideas both strategically and tactically. By having a global / international vision and capability the movement could "cross-polinate" and hopefully use some of the best ideas in the world. This would also be in the spirit of planned production (minimizing wasteful energy and human oppression) instead of the anarchy of production under capitalism. Furthermore, it would provide a significant model for horizontal organization serving as a potentially powerful means for sustainable change.

I would appreciate any help you can provide with this respect. In fact I would think our Spanish comrades could be among some of the more immediate beneficiaries due to their seemingly more advanced state of crisis and heightened social consciousness as well as historical precedence.

Calila e Dimna,The"Assad" King

jastimi — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:01:57 -0600

Cult of Personality عبادة الشخصية

jastimi — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:53:55 -0600

This is what I think is the main reason for all this, not banks or politicians or the system or the laws, wipe the rich ..

my idea about what u ...

mootaz10 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:55:32 -0700

my idea about what you can demand :
1 you can demand free education
2 you can demand free health care to the poor and the medium class people
3 you can demand 30 % tax to the big company and less than 10 % for normal people

Occupy by Vegetables

ira — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:38:20 -0600

Now that spring time is looming, and considering the need to carefully watch out how we will feed us during "difficult" times (eventually transitioning from capitalism to a new common ownership oriented society) I propose that we call for a Global Occupy by Vegetables Day - say, on April 25 (to leave room for preparation).

On this day I propose that everyone of us will go to a nice public green area (this can be your neighbourhood parc, a piece of green besides a street, a posh lawn in front of a bank - you get the picture?) and plant one or more of our favorite veggies or herb plants. All you need is a small shovel, a bottle of water and the small plant(s), ideally pre-grown by seeds out of a Navdanya community seed bank (or your own last year's garden harvest), just dig a whole where it suits you or the plant, set in the plant and water it thoroughly.
If you happen to be in front of that obscenely shiny bank building, and a banker happens to pass you, talk to him, explain your motive, donate your water bottle to him and ask him to care for this little plant in order that it grows and bears fruits (thus this banker would at least do SOME valuable act in our society right now).

Maybe you want to take a picture and share it with fellow activists all over.

Imagine your city crossed by hundreds of hundreds little plant beds, a giant sign of demonstrating that the occupy movement condemns profit-making through depriving people of food.

Let's make our cities "edible" again!

Liberal or Conservative

NoMore — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:25:59 -0700

I've been thinking of a question that I asked myself, but I've been unable to answer. So, I open it to discussion in the hope of finding an acceptable answer. Knowing the life and the teachings of Jesus, if Jesus was alive today would he be considered a Liberal or a Conservative? Please chime in with your thoughts.

American Prosperity Initiative

Leo — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:45:30 -0700

American Prosperity Initiative

To preserve the prosperity of the municipality and its local business community, the following ordinances shall be enforced.

1.
Maximum size limits shall exist for all municipal business outlets.

2.
All formula business outlets shall be restricted in number to a percentage of the local municipal businesses of the same category.

3.
All municipal businesses shall have local bank accounts in which their profits shall be retained within the municipality and not be exported to anyplace outside of the municipality.

4.
All offshore exports to the municipality shall derive from foreign retail companies owned by natural born citizens of the countries from whence the exports are derived.

What are your ideas on how we can restructure a corrupt political system?

MysticBard — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:17:25 -0600

It seems to me before you can decide on how you are going to vote on elected officials you have to change the Constitution to represent our present day reality. With Limited terms, with Limited amount of moneies that can be contributed by corporations or individuals while putting an
end to corporate and foreign lobbyist from manipulating our representatives with inappropriate incentives.

There are many changes that need to be made here is just a suggestion of one on how we might change the terms our
elected officials have.

What I‘d like is for others to comment and or/add to adjust this ONE idea to put IT into a legal format that could be voted on by either the Senate and Congress and if they fail to act on IT then make it so the public can vote on IT by state. If that is even possible?

Anyway just to get it started here are three changes that I’d like to be incorporated into an Amendment
of our Constitution:

1. Concerning the Executive branch of Government:

To have the President of the United States of America
elected into office ONE time for a term of SIX years.
This way the time spent in office would not be as
influenced by the politics of being reelection, which
consequently would make the term in office that more
productive. It would also make the burden of cost
associated with reelections much more conversably.

2. Concerning the Judiciary branch of Government:

Each Supreme Court Justice should sever no more
than EIGHTEEN years with SIX of the Justices being
change every THREE years. With the cases they are
assigned to being determine by a random non patrician
manor.

3. Concerning the Congressional branch of Government

Members of the Senate should have their elections
coincide with the Governors of each state with one
election every SIX years, each being limited to ONE
term in office. With the elections being designed so one
third of the electoral races taking place every two year.
Members of House of Representatives would then have
their elections held with the other State elected officials
every FOUR years each being able to serve
no more than TWO terms or EIGHT years in office.

I wrote this without properly editing it as I was in a hurry
however I believe you will be able to look at it and determine
what I am proposing here without too much difficulty.

NOTE:
I would also like to discuss what is a truly fair flat rate tax that would be structured based on income, cost of product, and how a product effects our environment.

I have started an outline but need help with it if anyone is interested in this let me know.

Also I’ like to see any other changes to the constitution others would like to see as well as regulations on how business within the United States as well as foreign companions should have to abide to;
in order for their products to be sold in this country.

Any ideas work on any subject realy as long as they can be implemented into law.

Another subject I’d like to hear ideas on is our Education system. It seems to me that there is a huge effaces on trade skills leaving many kids when they get out of school with no chance of finding a job suited to their talents. It is either sports or college 3 R stuff . There must be some other way of structuring our educational curriculum so kids can learn basic trade skills while attending the public school system.

Looking for ideas with merit nothing like what any politician is suggesting…. I guess fairness is something they can’t relate to????

Anyway have a GREAT DAY where ever you are.

New Review "The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis"

DeMarquis — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:16:19 -0700

I have completed a review of Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera's "All The Devils Are Here: The hidden history of the financial crisis" at my website.

The story is a jaw-dropper. It was even worse than the media reported. And it could happen again.

From my review: "In March of 2008, Bear Sterns went bankrupt. The reason they went under wasn’t the traditional reason for a company to go under, because they had borrowed money they couldn’t pay back, it was because of something that might appear strange: they had purchased other people’s debts, mostly subprime mortgages, and had then sold part of these mortgages to other investors, while still owning a part themselves. When these debt obligations lost money, so did Bear Sterns, and so did their investors. At the time, Bear Sterns wasn’t the only large broker dealing in investments based on subprime mortgages, in fact almost everyone on Wall Street was heavily over-exposed to them, so that when Bear went under, panic ensued, and the rest is history.

This is the story of what led up to that. How did almost the entire American financial services industry become so dependent upon one narrow type of investment, creating what was in effect a subprime mortgage bubble? How did the housing-lending industry become so risky? And what were the government regulators doing? McLean and Nocera do the best job that anyone probably could in trying to explain all this to the lay-public..."

Read more at http://387442890115614373.weebly.com/mclean-and-noceras-all-the-devils-are-here-the-hidden-history-of-the-financial-crisis.html

An Occupation on the Edge of Prosperity…

BradB — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:43:18 -0700

THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT — NEEDS WORK — OPEN TO CRITICISM & SUGGESTIONS

An Occupation on the Edge of Prosperity…

We have many problems that not only led us to this state… but also lie further ahead…
Changing our government will help no doubt… but we still have much more to do…

Why is it that much of today’s corporations, government bodies, court systems, etc. so in-festered with illegal and selfish activities? Is it simply greed? Or could some survival be involved?

We have many problems ahead, and the primary one is job opportunity.. Do we really need 10′s of 1000′s of Health care managers telling our doctors and medical staff what they can or cannot do?… adding trillions to our healthcare costs? … When the Democrats held Congress, they wanted to centralize Healthcare, they had the votes, Obama stopped it… why?… He implied.. I am not going to put another 14% of the population out of work in this recession…

We have also intentionally created a disposable economy… we design built-in failure… so demand replenishes itself… creating mountains of trash… Is that solely for big profits… or can it also be for survival?

Why did we create the biggest building boom in the history of the country when we knew it would eventually collapse? All for jobs… Now granted, Greed plays a big part… as does crime…

How do we fix it?

Change the government?.. yes I agree… replace them all… but then what? We need to advance… We need to be the government….We need to change what we consider valuable…
And when we have done that we need to expand it such that there is no need…

Personally I agree with the ideology of the benefits of capitalistic free-enterprise… how-ever I also see the failures of it…

I also agree the ideology of the benefits of common and shared property and resources… and also see the failures of it…

Do we compromise? …Seems a bit unworthy of a People who put men on the moon… I know we can do better…

Let’s think of the opposing Ideologies… the dreams…
One reaches for Individual Freedom & Economic Opportunity …
while the other reaches for Economic Freedom & Individual Opportunity …

Why do they need to be different, why one or the other? I think we should reach for it all…

Up to this point in time… most everything in a capitalistic system evolves around “economic wealth”….

Is Art not a wealth?
Is Knowledge not wealth?
Is Health not wealth?..

It is argued that wealth is created when we do labor to transform something worthless into something useful, into something that can be later traded…

Teaching a child to read is also preforming labor… is also useful… is worth something… it is wealth… how-ever it cannot be traded as a commodity… not an economic wealth… but it is still wealth…

Why do we need to evaluate these non-economic Wealth’s to economic realm ?
Seriously, Economic Wealth is merely economic… the buying, selling, trading of crap….

Designed to turn into trash once paid for… Designed to fill our Seas with Garbage…
Can we not do better than this? …

Our concept of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not measure health, happiness, education, or civic participation.* Where is Gross Domestic Wealth (GDW) ?… We need an advancement…

We have an opportunity to expand wealth beyond mere economic terms, and therefore we have an opportunity to expand currency. Why is revenue contribution based solely on economic income? What does one’s economic income have to do with cost or contribution to society?

Or a corporation’s cost or contribution to society?

Would not it be more accurate to base revenue contribution or incentives on provided jobs? That’s what we really need…

Would not it be more accurate to base revenue contribution or incentives on provided good health? That’s what we really need…

Why do we all need to work in factories? Soon robots will do that all anyway…

Why can’t we paint pictures, write books, invent and discover new vaccines, research and learn whatever we want to..?

In simpler times… everyone had a slot they could fill… there was a need for everyone to participate… everyone had opportunity & purpose…

technology & efficency is changing the old ways…. as new technology is doing our work for us… it is also forcing us to evolve … we need to learn to share, to be benevolent…. to demand equal opportunity, participation and health for all…

a poor consumer makes a poor consumer…

why are even the wealthiest companies worried ? .. because their customer base is disappearing … and they know it… we need to evolve, we need to advance… we need to get enlightened…

Expansion of governmental positions… Expansion of Legal positions and new Laws on top of new Laws… visits to multiple Medical Specialists, simply to treat a common cold… All for survivial… trying anything to keep the system going… trying anything to keep people employeed…

the answer is truly simple… we need a larger consumer base…. we need a healthy consumer base…. we need to create new opportunity… we need to create new resource… we need to invest in people…we need to invest in culture… we need to invest in that what machines cannot replace ….

We need to reach beyond mere economic wealth… we need a Renaissance…

Is Articulation not wealth?..
Is Integrity & Pride not wealth?..
Is Spare time not wealth?..

If an enterprise creates new jobs… creates new consumers… how is that not as “importent” as providing revenue ? … how is that not as “valuble” as providing revenue ?
how is that not adding wealth to the society?

If an enterprise destroys jobs… how is that not removing wealth from society?

Free enterprise and competition does work… and works very well to keep economic exchange moving… however, in our modern world it is not enough… We need not replace it.. We need to build on it..

If we are going to solve these things… we need it all … why dismantle or replace anything that works ?

Why become distructionists ?…that leads to little gain…

The economic wealth based system works, it has worked very well for many, many years… let it continue… but let’s not allow it’s institution to deprive us of additional systems waiting for discovery…

Privatise Prisons ? … so we want to create an incentive for more unjust laws to be written… so more can be broken.. to expand the market of buying and selling people’s freedom ?…

Privatise education ?… higher education is privatised … Is it working for the masses? .. many have multiple degrees and little hope for jobs… personnaly I believe privatising education is a promising idea… but not for economic profit… we need something new…

We speak often of “sharing the wealth”… the current economic wealth based system’s do that… they have stock holders they share wealth with… and that is good… it’s bolsters the economy with healthy consumers… but it’s not enough…

Feable attempts to keep people surviving thru unenployment compensation helps… but what does it really accomplish?
Is that what we want… a new social class that sits around and watches tv all day?…

We bail out the big banks, but not the once employed consumers… where will that lead?… just postponing the collapse….the banks are too frightened to invest in unsure development…

we need more… we need to invent new opportunity…

The exodus of the church from the impoverished communities…is but another example of a failing system..

The philanthropy dilema … we are losing worthy solutions because of bottom-line profits … many benevolent inventions, discoveries & research programs do not get funded because of promise of little profit margins… and in economic down-turns there is less and less charitable resource…

What if we elevate what “share the wealth” means ?
What if we “share the wealth” by allowing more wealth’s into the picture ? .. providing more transactional systems… more exchange, more currency in circulation… we will see an increase of healthy consumers…

What if we had a “Social Wealth”… and we treated it differently …. not as tax payer subsidised “do good” programs… but new additional systems with capitalistic incentives and gains?

What if Social Wealth enterprises could borrow from the FED at the same rates the banks do? … or even at lessor rates…

Would new Social Wealth enterprise not create new consumers? … supporting not only the social based economy but also the economic profit based economy alike? …

How would we do it?…

Could we not have a “Gross Social Product”, a GSP … based on how much currency has been added into the economy through Social Wealth enterprise ?…

Of course we can… why mix tangible and intangible product ?… or tangible and intangible wealth ?….

Why tax the tangible wealth with the intangible needs ?…

We can make the “intangible needs” an industry.. a self-sustaining and profitable industry… we simply need to provide the venue… the resource to allow it to happen..

Why put the burden of supporting needed social programs onto the economic wealth producers when social wealth producers can create wealth also ?…

There truly is a brave and prosperous new world ahead…
We simply need to open the door…

“The mechanics of the Occupation of Social Wealth” is coming soon…

Money Out of Politics Amendment Convention

DeMarquis — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:33:12 -0700

The following is my modest contribution to political reform in the United States. I call it the "Money out of Politics" amendment (the Mop?). As I have discussed in my book reviews, I agree that our political process has been basically hijacked by monied interests, and that government policy no longer reflects the public interest or the common good. For various reasons I also believe that an amendment to the Constitution is required to correct this. This is because the Supreme Court has ruled that contributions are political speech, and that Congress has no right to regulate any contributions that are not donated directly to candidates. Also, because I don't trust Congress to regulate itself, I think a special convention will have to be called, as described by Article V in the Constitution. So, I've designed this amendment to plug every influence that corporate lobbying has on elections and office holders in the United States.

You can read it here: http://387442890115614373.weebly.com/proposal-for-an-amendment-convention.html

The amendment itself targets the following forms of political influence:
Limits on private and corporate campaign contributions and contributions to independent political organizations
Limits on campaign and independent political expenditures
Limits on lobbying members of Congress during their terms
Limits on the "revolving door" when members of Congress get jobs working for the industry they regulated
The elimination of earmarks
Giving both Congress and state legislatures the authority to regulate political spending

So What's Next?
The way I have written this, all one needs to do is copy, print, and submit it to a state legislature for approval. What is needed now is a letter-writing campaign to send copies of this proposal to friendly legislatures in every state. All it takes to present this before a real legislature is one legislator, and all it would take to get the entire state to approve, in many cases, is a simple plurality of a quorum. I wont pretend that it would be easy- pushback from the lobbying industry will ensure that there is plenty of resistance. But we have to start somewhere- and if just one state approves of it, then it will become a story in the national media. Who knows where it could go from there? We wont know unless we try.

Well, now we have our document, and our plan. Let's make something happen.

The N.E.E.D. Act (National Emergency Employment Defense Act)

to_sense — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:06:38 -0600

Recently received an email from Dennis Kucinich about a bill introduced that sounds to me like a big step in the right direction. It doesn't seem to have much visibility in mainstream media at all, but sounds like it directly addresses at least some of the key issues dear to OWS. I'm curious about the awareness level of this, and whether it sounds like a viable partial solution to folks. A bit of the email below, followed by links to more information.
------------------------------------------
Dear Friend,

14 million Americans are out of work. And while Washington has found enough money to bail out the banks, American families and Main Street are struggling. We need a bold solution to create jobs - and quickly. The banks and the private sector aren't doing it, so government needs to step up to the plate.

Last week, I proposed the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act. This act would put the Federal Reserve under the Treasury Department and authorize it to spend money directly into the economy to create jobs. We shouldn't have to borrow from China to invest in our own country. Congress has the constitutional power to coin money - and in circumstances like we're facing now, we should use it.

I recorded this video for you to talk more about the NEED act and what I am doing in Congress:

-------------------------------------------

Some links to more information from searches:

N.E.E.D. (National Emergency Employment Defense) Act.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-2990

http://newparadigmdigest.com/6559/kucinich-national-emergency-employment-defense-act-offers-concrete-plans-to-create-jobs-and-eliminate-the-deficit/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4IdPyYRnOY0

Another writeup on the NEED Act (H.R. 2990):
http://my.firedoglake.com/gammaglobalist/2011/10/08/representative-vows-to-occupycongress/

And one more I just found on an Occupy Chicago forum: http://occupychi.org/forum/potential-proposals/h-r-2990-the-need-act-needs-our-support-and-mobilization/

Get rid of ALL political parties

Sandcat7 — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:19:42 -0700

The Party System is a big part of the problem with government. Nothing more than political "gangs", actually. They all want to fit in with their "gang", and the members worry more about thinking alike, and voting alike, than they do actually coming up with some new ideas - ideas that would actually WORK. (For a change). I think we should vote for INDIVIDUALS, what they stand for, and what they propose to do when in office, instead of voting for these ridiculous Republican & Democratic "cliques".

Corporate personhood v. personal corporatehood?

TheRielDeal — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:37:45 -0700

I've developed an interesting new idea for discussion. It's still in formation and I need lots of input, so please contribute. It involves using the language and concepts already familiar to most. What I'm suggesting is that maybe "corporate personhood" could be reversed to ensure that persons are guaranteed the same basic rights now being allowed to corporations. If each individual is granted freedom to "incorporate", and this would thus mean everyone is free to work and travel anywhere, have fully realized voting and lobbying potential, and be allowed to choose to "merge" our labour with anyone we choose, perhaps even set our own salaries based on a realistic but fair price of our labour, could we then accept "corporation" as a term we've co-opted as our own?

An immediate couter-argument would be that all individuals being represented as corporations would encourage competition on such levels as we've yet seen. Every man for himself. But I imagine that instantly we would realize being a corporation-of-one means co-operation is brutally necessary unless you already operate your own small, one-man business. In that case (an artisan sculptor who makes his entire living by producing and selling his own work for example, would remain as such) because competition on an individual scale is not the greatest evil we now face. It is an evil comprised of freely acting super monopolistic corporations who exploit parallel retractions of freedom for the individuals who are forced to sell their labour efforts, without contract or rights, to help construct and drive this evil system of accelerated monopolistic competiton in the first place.

After personal incorporation, everyone whose labour requires being a part of another labour system (everyone who has a highly-peopled workplace; almost everyone) would form a "conglomerate" (in this case, another word for a "collective", or "co-workers"). So, for example a restaurant could be a conglomerate of 5 cooking corporations, 8 service corporations, 3 cleaning/dishwashing corporations, 6 alcohol dispensing corporations, etc. Each of these individual corporations would be allowed to negotiate a contract to benefit their individual and collective interests. These workplaces would, of course, be jointly owned by those person-corps. who operate within them.

Also, whereas presently corporations of the same industry pool support behind a lobby group to act in their interests, ie. the tobacco lobby represents all cigarette manufacturers, while a "cook's lobby" could represent the interests of all cooks in a unified way; both in tabling discussions on specific goals and grievances and in collective funding of new initiatives and dental/medical/etc. benefits for all.

At most, this could be a new way to arrange a social structure by shrinking capitalism to fit all individuals. By using familiar concepts I hope it appeals broadly and suggests that individual scale capitalism isn't really that bad of an idea which seems to unintentionally borrow from Marxist/anti-capitalist ideas with only terminology borrowed from the capitalist playbook. I'm looking for any well-thought-out criticisms, additions, comments, etc. At very least this could be a creative thought exercise that encourages you to think differently.

Thanks.

Switching from Representative to Direct Democracy: The ultimate victory for the people!

altruistSpark — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:54:42 -0600

We current elect representatives to gather in Congress (or Parliament) so they can decide on our behalf:
- what laws will govern the country,
- what taxes will be raised,
- how much the executive branch will be spending,
- whether to go to war or make peace with foreign nations.
We have relied on such legislative system since the end of the 1700's because at that time we only had access to low-tech means of communication.

Today we have at our disposal the tools, means and skills to build an online platform to empower every citizen of a country to participate in:
- suggesting, debating and voting on what laws should be enforced,
- suggesting, debating and voting on how much taxes people should pay (if any),
- suggesting, debating and voting on how to best spend the taxes collected,
- whether to go to war or make peace with foreign nations.

This is what direct democracy is about: empowering the people to be in charge of the legislative power.
No more politicians in Congress to represent anyone but themselves. Nor more middlemen between the people and their laws.

It does not mean living in anarchy. It means allowing people to collectively and democratically decide which laws shall rule their country. Currently only politicians in charge of the executive power and politicians in Congress share this privilege. NOT the people!

Of course the mainstream media would have us believe that direct democracy would bring chaos and mob rule. Do not be fooled by their manipulation techniques. The owners of the media along with politicians, lobbyists and multinational corporations would be the biggest losers when the people decide to implement direct democracy. They would loose their collective power and influence over the decisions made by Congress. So as usual they use fear to have the public dismiss the potential for direct democracy.

But fear of the mob is nothing but fear of ourselves, the people. Do you fear you friends and family, your colleagues and your neighbors? Do you fear yourself? Who do you trust more? The people you know (aka the mob) or the politicians you know (aka the representatives)?

The time has come to upgrade our democracy with the modern tools we have at our disposal:
- together we can collaboratively define the rules and processes of direct democracy
- together we can collaboratively design and build an open source platform to enable direct democracy
- together we can spread awareness and shift the current political paradigm away from representative democracy and towards direct democracy
- together we can collaboratively write a template for a constitution defining the core principles of direct democracy
- together we can sign petitions to demand the organization of national popular referendum to allow the people to choose direct democracy over the existing system

Switching from representative to direct democracy can be achieved peacefully and legally. And the best news is:
We don't need to wait for politicians to lead us towards this change.
We can create it together today! Would you like to help?

Altruist Spark
i-Govern.org | Founder

Demand This One Thing

Leo — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:53:27 -0700

If there is one thing that OWS should demand that should have all of America behind them, it is the demand for Initiative, Referendum, and Recall, at all levels of government. Let the issue of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall at all levels of government be the single issue that determines whether or not a person seeking to either obtain or retain public office gets your vote. As the collective voting body of your representative district, come together to have a candidate sign a contract committing them to a constitutional amendment for Initiative, Referendum, and Recall at all levels of government. If they don't sign the contract, they don't get your vote.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/demand-this-one-thing/

Proposal for definable objectives and example.

Andrew — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:12:59 -0700

Proposal for march against poisoned ground water and strategy guide.

This is a proposal to demand an effective federal investigation to discover the true cause of why ground water has turned poison in the US and is killing off wild life and endangering human life.

-The primary reason for this is march is end that which is poison the ground water and threats all life.

-The secondary reason for this march is give the America a fresh view on what OWS is all about. This is somethingto break the stereotypical views on OWS.

I know everyone suspects hydraulic fracking is the cause, but now I will go into detail about strategy and theory into presenting this new march in a specific organized mentality to alter public opinion in our favor.

Strategy and theory - The OWS demands results from federal investigations on who is poisoning underground water is a specific unique way for strategic reasons.

1) Promoting federal investigations instead of accusing corporate corruption will sever the stereotypical image of OWS for only attacking corrupt corporations and not finding jobs. It will give audiences a brand new perspective on the marches as the OWS takes a turning point into making a feasible demand for progress here in America. I believe most American will understand a need for a intense federal investigation on this issue as it is our lives that are at stake. It is absurd that it has been going on for 6 years and no government intervention took place yet to end the poisoning.

2) Success and Fail - Upon success of the investigations taking place, the OWS will be credited for the assistance in the public's opinion, thus the OWS is now on the same side of the people allowing greater influence. The governments failure to respond to this emergency will help destabilize the public's opinion on the government, instilling disappointment. As there are 2 sides, being disappointed in one means favoring the other. Win win situation

3) Using terms like "Emergency" will alert public concearns. Be careful not to misuse terms as we do not want to create panic. I will leave the people to debate what words and how words are used.

4) Media can be our tool, not just a ploy to misrepresent the OWS march. It is important that everyone takes this sudden shift to represent the Occupy's goals as the marches will now appear to be with a definable purpose.

5) Constantly attacking gas companies and hydraulic fracking could be counter productive. Sticking to the point of improving life is the goal, not to discredit corporation. The corporation will take a hit when they finally prove hydraulic fracking is killing people, therefor no need for everyone to mention corrupt gas corporation is necessary.

Extra random quick thoughts.
The occupy movement should list out concerns where it wants to see change. It can be from war on drugs, to irresponsibly constructing military bases around China while ignoring local health hazard, or to demanding renewable energy sources and technology development from the government promotion.

I don't think its bad to demand that the government funds a program to generate and extra 500 gigawatts every years from renewable sources to transition away from fossil fuels.
I would rather spend a few trillion dollars making the lives of the people better then spending it erecting bases around china.

Current administration lost its sanity, pointing their guns at people is proof(Military bases around China and Russia)
The sad truth is the people just might have to hold congress's hand for a long while so they know what should be done and shouldn't be done. If that, they shouldn't be congress.

Thankyou

Three Simple Goals

Davka — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:08:56 -0700

Howdy, folks! This is my first post on this national site - I've been primarily involved in local discussions in my area until now. Working together with a smaller group of OWS supporters online, we came up with some ideas for simple, attainable goals which address the issues of income inequality and economic disparity. After we reached consensus on the following statement and list, I was asked to make them available for discussion in the larger Occupy community. So, here goes:

------------

This is a list of three simple goals which we believe should be pursued and implemented. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of our goals, nor should attaining these goals be thought of as anything more than a step in the right direction. Once these goals have been attained, or even during the process of attaining them, we reserve the right to bring up any number of other goals or issues which we feel are in need of attention. This list is merely a place to start.

1) Repeal the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999, both of which gutted the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act.

2) Reform the Income Tax system by:

a) Changing the Tax Rates to the ones implemented under Ronald Reagan in 1982, with brackets adjusted for inflation,
b) Including Dividends, exercised Stock Options, and Capital Gains as Income, with a one-time inheritance waiver for the first $1 million in inheritance gains,
c) Scrapping the federal Corporate Tax.

3) Remove the upper limit on FICA taxes, making ALL income subject to the Social Security tax.

-------------

Q & A:

Q: Why these three goals specifically?
A: Because they seemed to resonate with the largest group of people, and all three are aimed at directly addressing income inequality and economic disparity. Agreeing on these goals doen't limit anyone from simultaneously pursuing other goals as well. It's just an attempt to reach national consensus on a starting point.

Q: Wait a minute - did you say Ronald Reagan?
A: Yep. But we also said "1982," and that's important. In 1982, Reagan lowered the top tax bracket from 70% to 50%. This was the bracket for all income over $247,159 in 2011 dollars. Compare that with today's top rate of 35% for income over $388,350, and it becomes obvious that "going back to Reagan's tax cuts" actually means a significant increase in taxes on the top 1%.

Q: Scrap the federal Corporate Tax? Isn't this just giving corporations a free ride?
A: No. Not if proposals a) and b) are also implemented. The corporate tax system is a convoluted mess, full of loopholes and dodges which allow many of the largest corporations to pay nothing at all in taxes. Right now, the 1% are paying a tiny amount on that part of their income which is derived from corporate profits, in the form of Capital Gains and Dividends, which are taxed at only 15%. Since the majority of income for the 1% comes from Capital Gains, that means they are actually paying less than the supposed 35% on income over $388,350.

By going back to the 1982 Reagan Tax Cuts *and* including Capital Gains as taxable income, we would significantly increase the taxes paid by major corporations. This tax would only be paid when money passed from the corporations to individuals, but at Reagan's 50% rate it would still be far more than is paid today. In addition, by saying "we want to revert to the Reagan tax cuts of 1982" and "we want to eliminate federal corporate taxes," we make it very difficult for the 1% to concoct excuses as to why these proposals should be rejected by conservatives.

Q: What is the upper limit in FICA (Social Security) taxes?
A: As of 2011 the limit was around $110,000. Income above that level is not subject to Social Security tax.

_____________________________________________________________

That's the proposal so far. Please feel free to comment, suggest revisions, ask questions, and so on. The goal is to craft a proposal which will be presented for review and then brought up for a consensus decision by as many General Assemblies as possible.

Can the occupy movement evolve to occupy congress??

granpachuck6 — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:16:38 -0600

ok boys and girls the suits in congress have started to turn their attention to the occuppy movement and certain democrats are starting to call themselfs "progressive democrats",,,is there anyway do you think that this would be in our favor and if so how would it work?

"Occupy Congress!" The Way Forward For OWS And The Nation...

fwankie123 — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:10:36 -0700

Put together a slate of candidates that are honest people drawn from the occupy movement's ranks and elect them to Congress. The first order of business is to take big money out of federal politics. Pass the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 750 and H.R. 1404). A law where political candidates for federal office would raise a large number of small contributions from their communities in order to qualify for Fair Elections funding. Contributions are limited to $100.00. Strictly voluntary by the candidate to avoid legal issues. Require new FCC regulations granting 100% FREE TV air time to all federal candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to get on the ballot and participate in the primaries and/or electoral process. Allocate certain cable TV channels for the specific purpose of political advertising.

End Political Corruption - End the "revolving door" of politicians and their staffs from ever becoming becoming lobbyists and prohibit all federal public employees, officers, officials from ever being employed by any corporation, individual or business that they specifically regulated while in office.

Clean Up Wall St. - Break up the biggest banks. Reenact Glass-Steagall. Abolish credit default swaps. Derivatives must be traded on transparent exchanges. Tax all Wall St. financial transactions at 1%. Damp down speculation and raise $400 billion a year.

End The Wars - Reduce the military budget by half ($275 billion).

End The Police State - End the Patriot Act

Clean The Air - EPA to STRICTLY enforce the Clean Air Act.

Create Jobs - A ten-year federal program that involves a New Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to create millions of jobs rebuilding America that includes infrastructure banks run by engineers, not politicians to extricate ourselves from the Great Recession now and increase productivity later.

Invest In Education - Begin with the federal government paying tuition and fees for all students, part and full time, who are enrolled in two-year public institutions in the United States.

Make Health Care Affordable And Accessible To All - Medicare For All. Allow Medicare to purchase drugs directly. Give the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC) more authority to drive down medical costs. End fee-for-service.

Create A Fair Federal Tax Code - The marginal tax rate ought to be raised to 50 percent on income between $500,000 and $5 million, 60 percent on income between $5 million and $15 million, and 70 percent on income over $15 million. There should be a 2 percent annual surtax on all fortunes over $7 million. The estate tax should be 55 percent and kicks in after $5 million. Capital gains should be taxed at 35 percent. End the home mortgage deduction on all homes over $1 million. End the home mortgage deduction on all second homes. Corporations should be taxed by a variable amount based on the percentage of payroll going to US workers. A small business employing 100% US workers should be taxed somewhere between 15-20% while a company that has completely shifted its production overseas should be in the 50% range. Eliminate corporate loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and deductions, subsidies, end offshore tax haven abuse. Expatriation of capital should be subject to a maximum tax-rate penalty, with violation considered a felony act.

Propose Amendments to the Constitution

Leo — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:30:23 -0700

Propose Amendments to the Constitution
http://convention.idea.informer.com/

Present your proposals for amendments to the Constitution both here for all to see and at the link above for all to vote upon.

A 100 page plan, that already includes your plan. This is not MY answer. This is Yourtopia.

AnotherChris — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:48:49 -0700

I wrote this book, almost the day occupy began. Ironic. It has taken me sooooo very long to find a place where such ideas may not just be heard, not just accepted, but contended and developed.

I would love to give a succinct overview of the plan, however it seems that no summary seems to do this work justice. For the sake of curiosoty though I will try:

This is a plan that will achieve world peace. It will end poverty on a global scale, solve the problems of overpopulation, fresh water concerns, inequality and many many more. It has a completely adjusted AND adjustable legal system, taxation system, and more, and covers EVERY single aspect of communal life, WITHOUT any hierarchical structure.

I really hope this is one place where discussion may be found:

P.s. Enjoy the read!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50500650/yourtopia-your%20official%20final%20beginning.pdf

Verhampshire announces the world's first People Corp to challenge Wall St's so-called Public Corp

Alternatives2WallSt — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:49:08 -0700

Verhampshire.Org of VT & NH hereby announces itself the first "people corporation" on the planet.

The Berlin Wall is long gone, but today in 2011, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, seem increasingly dissatisfied with an older and more far-reaching partition: Wall Street.

Verhampshire.Org is experimenting with an alternative business model which we call the "people corporation."

The traditional goal of a business is to form what is called a "public corporation." This means to be listed on the Wall Street stock exchange and to be owned by Wall Street brokers and investors. The so-called "public corporation" is therefore legally prevented from sharing significant income with the public that actually pays for its profits.

Furthermore, as nobody can deny, the Wall Street game is leveraged towards the players with the largest stacks of chips. Have you ever wondered precisely "how" 1% of the people inevitably end up owning 99% of the wealth? The answer is quite simply the same as the way in which 99% of all money played in a casino ends up in the hands of a casino. Asking a casino-type institution to reform itself--without offering any fundamental alternative--seems rather futile.

Verhampshire.Org is hereby the world's first "people corporation." This means simply that if you are reading this message and if you shop in the Verhampshire VT-NH shopping area, you are considered de facto to be a part owner of the Verhampshire.Org community website. We require ourselves to repay 50% of our net profits back to the people who are responsible for success.

Imagine if Walmart, Facebook and Google were eventually pressured by free market competition to promise that 50% of net profits from Vermont and New Hampshire residents were returned to benefit those residents. Think about it.

(If by chance anyone here is actually interested in starting a people-powered alternative to Facebook, Google or anything else--please reply here--or come to Verhampshire.org, register and let us know. Everyone with writing or administrative or website maintenance skills might eventually have a salaried position in the resulting nonprofit entity. Our current goal is to pay staff twice minimum wage, but this is negotiable depending on skill level.)

All we are asking is give people a chance. In a nation that prizes free enterprise, it seems time that the street of walls face a little competition.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." —Robert Frost, 1920.

A `Maximum Wage` that`s 5 times minimum wage

russh — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:36:28 -0600

A Maximum Wage of around $50 per hour could be instituted for all employees, including CEOs and board members. If they want to make more money, they`ll be allowed to have stock and stock options. That way, a CEO can only make a million dollars if the company does well. A CEO can`t make a million dollars a year and run the corporation into the ground at the same time. The reason for this is to be fair to the investors in a publicly held corporation. For private corporations, the CEO can take 100% of the profits, but only after the corporate profits have been declared as profits and have been taxed.

Polling to gauge popular support for radical ideas

Brutal_Truth — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:52:27 -0700

Given that it is a matter of common sense that we can't rely on polling carried out by Zogby, Rasmussen, Quinnipiac or any of the other American polling companies regarding OWS and the most important issues of our time because they are too close to the problem and cannot be trusted to be objective and neutral why doesn't the OWS movement dip into its coffers and arrange with a neutral foreign polling company to carry out some polling of tens of thousands of Americans to get a feel as to what levels of popular support the movement would have for making radical changes to this country? How would we be able to gauge the public's support for this or that idea without conducting independent polling?

Here are a few companies that might be worth contacting to arrange for some polling:
in Switzerland:
GFS Bern polling institute http://directory.esomar.org/Switzerland/r493_gfs-bern.php
D & S Institut fur Markt und Kommunikationsforschung http://directory.esomar.org/Switzerland/r2172_d-s-Institut-fn-r-Markt-und-Kommunikationsforschung.php

in Sweden:
Valora Trade Sweden SB http://www.valoratrade.se/en/index.php
Prospector http://www.prospector.nu/

You can't get much more neutral than Switzerland and Sweden.

Here are some ideas for poll questions:

"Considering that capitalism cannot function without there being a huge gap between the value of a worker's labor and what that worker is actually paid for that labor, in other words capitalism cannot survive without the mass exploitation of the vast majority of this country's workers, would you agree that businesses need to be placed in the hands of the only people who will not exploit the workers, meaning the workers themselves?"

"Considering that the choices in American elections are invariably controlled as the candidates are nothing but wholly-owned puppets of the billionaire ruling elite with no choices available that represent the interests of the vast non-wealthy majority, would you agree that all private campaign financing needs to be banned and replaced with completely publicly-funded election campaigns?"

"Considering that the Senate makes a mockery of the concept of democracy by giving the delegation from a tiny state in which hardly anyone lives the same representation as a giant state with tens of millions of residents and considering that it has always functioned as a roadblock barring the possibility of any meaningful change from being enacted as could possibly be expressed by the House of Representatives, basically acting as a check against the potential will of the people to prevent real progress from taking place, would you support the idea of abolishing the anti-democratic Senate and transferring its duties to the House?"

"Considering that the Electoral College doesn't correspond that closely to the popular vote, that it has the potential to overturn the actual results of presidential elections by being held as the deciding factor instead of the popular vote and has in fact done precisely that four separate times in our country's history including in the 2000 Bush-Gore election, would you support the idea of abolishing the Electoral College and replacing it with direct popular vote election of the president?"

"Considering that Supreme Court justices have an inordinate amount of power, are appointed instead of elected, serve until they die or become too ill to continue and have repeatedly made decisions that are profoundly destructive to the future of the average person in this country, would you support the idea of instead having elected Supreme Court justices who serve for a set term of a few years then are barred from further judicial service?"

"Given that none of this is remotely possible by operating within the established phony political framework in the U.S. would you be in favor of a peaceful, non-violent social revolution modeled on what has taken place in Egypt, Tunisia and Bolivia a few years ago that was successful at ousting their unrepresentative governments in order to effect these major changes that need to be made if the only other alternative is to try to just accept our slavery and lack of political respresentation?"

Mass transit, buses and trains, inner and inter city

stidmatt — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:47:53 -0600

Looking back at the history of America, one thing we need to bring back to this country is mass transportation. Sure, if you live in New York or Portland OR you will have a great mass transit system, trains, buses, taxis, and public transportation to the surrounding cities, everything you would expect in other parts of the world, but as soon as you leave the center of most cities in America the transportation will go from being excellent to non-existent, or at least unreliable and not convenient. My local bus service, "the best in America" as they proudly display on the sides of their buses, doesn't go far beyond downtown, leaving the rest of my small county without reliable service. We are also a relatively liberal community, which further surprises the fact that the transportation is so poor once you leave city limits (or depending where in the city you live, in the city.)

I took American history at my college last year and we focused on the aspects that weren't covered in high school, the social lives of Americans. We learned how Los Angeles had the best transportation system you could dream of. This little-known event is called the Great American Streetcar Scandal. This was when General Motors among other companies formed an alliance which purchased the streetcars of Los Angeles, removing the convenient mass transit that served the entire valley (eg when my mother has talked to my great-grandmother and her sister from east LA they told us there was a trolley going within 100 feet of their house). Los Angeles was not the only city that suffered from this scandal, Detroit also had its transit dismantled. This has been massively covered up by the mass media giving reasons of finances and other lies that have been pulled over the public from this catastrophe. The truth is hard to find on the internet, so books and asking the people who survive from this era are really are only place to learn the truth of what happened. It may be 80 years late to end this type of corporate greed, but I think we deserve it.

gives the truth on the issue.

Should this be one of our demands?

Invitation to a mind game - for developing a solution

ira — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:17:56 -0700

Every company organizes its workflow extremely effective to get its products or services done. They plan all steps as effective and economically as possible, mostly even down to the tiniest details.

Couldn't that serve us, the 99%, who desire so much a concrete and fundamental change of life and community on earth, couldn't that serve us as a role model for how our goal could be reached (what steps to undertake) and how our "product" could look like in the end?

I want to invite you play a mind game:

Imagine that you belong to a group or committee who is in charge to get a company named "Communal World Logistics Ltd." up and running smoothly:

- its responsibility (or business) is to supply every human being on earth with the necessary (i.e. food, housing, clothing...).
- its assets are all natural ressources on earth, and of course human work force of body and mind also.

How would you do that?

What would be necessary, what would be the prerequisites to reach this goal?

What do we need to get rid of, to make the workflow effective?

What do we need to build anew, to make the workflow effective?

As a guideline, we could ask us from exactly what people do suffer, and exactly what they desire?

Looking forward to your proposals as mind gamers!

THE ROOT OF OUR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, MILITARISTIC WOW'S IS AN EVIL MONETARY SYSTEM OF DEBT SLAVERY

Pitchman — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:49:45 -0700

THE ROOT OF OUR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, MILITARISTIC WOW'S IS AN EVIL MONETARY SYSTEM. EVERYTHING ELSE IS A SYMPTOM OR AN ACTION THAT SUPPORTS IT. AT THE HEART OF THIS SYSTEM ARE THE CENTRAL BANKS; THE FED, THOSE WHO CONTROL IT AND THEIR DISHONEST, DEBT BASED MONETARY POLICIES. AS SUCH; REGULATIONS, LAWS, THE CAPTURE OF GOVERNMENT AND REGULATORS, AND THE SUSPENSION OF ACCOUNTING RULES IS FOR THEIR BENEFIT. AN ACCOUNT OF THE PEOPLE HAS NO PLACE IN IT. INDEED, IF THE PEOPLE WERE ITS PRIMARY CONCERN, THE WORLD WOULD BE MORE FREE, LESS VIOLENT AND MORE PROSPEROUS.

THE PRIVATELY HELD FED IS THE TOP REGULATOR OF ITS TBTF OWNERS AND MEMBER BANKS. IT'S CREATION OF MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR; LOANED, AT INTEREST, TO THE SOVEREIGN AND ITS FRACTIONAL RESERVE SYSTEM IS THE MOST INSIDIOUS OF CRIMINAL PONZIS FOR WHICH ALL ITS FAUX REGULATIONS AND FINANCIAL MISALLOCATIONS FOLLOW.

THE FED'S FIAT PETRO-DOLLAR AND IT’S DEBT SLAVERY ECONOMIC MODEL, IS THE MOST POWERFUL CENTRALIZING FORCE KNOWN. IT IS THE GENESIS OF FUNDING FOR THE ELITE MONEY POWER, THEIR CONTRIVED SCHEMES OF CONTROL, AND A SYSTEM OF INCREASING DEBT AND GLOBAL WAR.
TO FREE OURSELVES, RESTORE FREE MARKET CAPITALISM AND REESTABLISH OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, WE MUST FIRST ELIMINATE THE MOST PERNICIOUS CORRUPTING FORCE OF ALL.

END THE FED!

See:
Money Power And The Central Bank: Life Is But A MEME - http://notionalvalue.blogspot.com/2011/11/once-upon-meme-for-most-part-shallow.html

END THE FED: THE FIRST STEP IN RESTORING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC - http://notionalvalue.blogspot.com/2011/10/end-fed-first-step-in-restoring-our.html

14 Reasons Why We Should Nationalize The Federal Reserve - http://notionalvalue.blogspot.com/2011/11/14-reasons-why-we-should-nationalize.html

call to unprivatize major news media

get_rid_of_money — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:53:48 -0700

After reading so many google references to news bulletins coming from so many news sources I can say that I am thouroughly abhorrent and disgusted by what we call journalism.

I think the time has come to put pressure on international authorities to create a totally unbiased world news agency.

The agency would be financed by provisions from governments and taxes . No monetary contributions that could create biased news reporting would not be allowed. The agency would also not be funded by advertising .
It is run by people as representatives coming from every country of the world.

How could such a demand come into reality?

Solution: Replace Capitalism with Democracy

FullDemocracy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:34:02 -0600

THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL PROBLEMS IN SOCIETY IS INEQUALITY OF INCOME.

FROM INEQUALITY OF INCOME COMES INEQUALITY IN POWER OVER GOVERNMENT.

Both the economy and government only work for a small percentage of the population. That is the problem which must be fixed.

From inequality of income comes inequality in power, inequality in your ability to influence government, inequality in treatment under the law, inequality in your ability to influence the public, inequality of freedom, inequality of opportunity and of course, inability for a substantial portion of the population to live a life of dignity without struggle and suffering.

All the problems being protested by OWS can be traced back to its root cause: inequality of income.

The only solution to the problem of income inequality and the resulting problem of inequality of power over government, of the economy only working for a small percentage, and of government only working for a small percentage, is to put an end to income inequality.

The only way to put an end to income inequality is to replace our capitalist system of economic inequality with an economic system of equality. That system is democracy.

This is what we can achieve if we made our economy democratic:

* Everyone in society would be wealthy as a birth right
* You would get paid an income of at least $115,000 per year
* The work week could be cut in half
* People would no longer have to do menial work
* There would be no difference between work and play
* Interest would be eliminated which would cut your mortgage in half
* Crime would be virtually non-existent
* We could fast-track the transition to a green, renewable economy
* You would get paid to go to school, not the other way around
* There would be no such thing as recessions or unemployment
* And nearly every social problem we have would be gone

The inequality of capitalism has left 97% of all workers earning a below average income, 46 million in poverty, 16% underemployed, 1 in every 5 kids in poverty, 25% of all blacks in poverty, half of all wage earners making less than $26k, 52 million without health insurance, and 55% of all workers doing pointless jobs that can be automated with existing technology.

Just in case you missed that, 97% OF ALL WORKERS MAKE A BELOW AVERAGE INCOME.

Most of those people are responsible, competent, hard-working people. They are just victims of an unfair economic system. The only fair economic system is a democratic economic system.

CHANGING THE SYSTEM

The economy is not working for 97% of workers. If they organized through OWS and 97% of the workforce - WHO ARE CURRENTLY ALL EARNING A BELOW AVERAGE INCOME - demanded a democratic economic system that worked well for everyone, through just a simple general strike, the system would have no choice but to submit to their demands.

ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a Greek word. It is not a Greek word for "voting" or "mob rule", it is a Greek word for "people power". It means power rests with everyone equally.

Since democracy is a system of equal power, and income is your source of economic power, economic democracy simply means you get equal income for equal work.

Equal income for equal work means that the only legitimate, justifiable reason for paying one person more than another is to get them to do difficult work and to get them to give their maximum effort. In a democratic economy, that would be the rule governing compensation.

The whole purpose of income is to motivate people to work. Its only purpose is to motivate you to give your maximum effort and to do difficult work.

How much more you need to pay people in order for it to be an effective incentive can be scientifically determined, and it is not much more than double their pay.

If you limit differences in income to just what is necessary for incentives, there will be enough income to make everyone wealthy. There would be no poor or middle class. There would only be the wealthy class. And most importantly, there would be virtually no inequality.

The final compensation plan would be directly voted on by the population, but if we determined that mentally or physically difficult jobs should get paid double that of a regular job and the top performers in performance based jobs get paid four times the pay of a regular job, that system, based on the American economy in 2010, would pay top performers $460,000 per year, difficult jobs $230,000 per year, and the remaining jobs $115,000 per year.

Every job would pay a minimum of $115k and a maximum of $460k.

Everyone would be wealthy at a minimum, and there is enough incentive for workers to give their maximum effort.

COMPENSATION DETAILS

The purpose of compensation is to provide an incentive for people to work. We have decades of research on what incentives are effective and which ones are not. Although this idea is radically different from what we do today, the science says it will work better.

(View this TedTalk for a detailed presentation on worker incentives: http://youtu.be/rrkrvAUbU9Y)

Ultimately, the final compensation plan will be determined democratically. The political process will filter out reasonable proposals that are supported by objective, scientific evidence and the worker population will vote directly on its approval.

So we can't predict what the exact final plan will be.

But what we can predict is that you will not come up with any valid scientific study that says we need to pay people much more than $230k (or twice the amount as everyone else) in order to get them to do difficult work or that we need to pay people much more than $460k (or four times the amount as everyone else) in order to get them to give their maximum effort.

You do not have to pay someone billions in income in order to get them to build a social networking website or a cell phone. In fact, we know you don't even have to pay people anything at all when you see all the free open source software and maker faire inventions.

If Mark Zuckerberg was offered the choice to make $115k sweeping floors or $460k programming the world's most popular social networking website or to do nothing because he doesn't get out of bed for anything less than $5 billion, he would choose to build facebook for $460k. And he would be as dedicated as he is now.

The same goes for Steve Jobs.

We also know that studies show the general public wants equality, not inequality. So they will never vote to lower their own income in order to give celebrities or Kim Kardashian or athletes or bankers or anyone else the ability to earn, say, 10 times what they make, let alone 500 times or 10,000 times.

The voting public will make sure differences in income remain where they are supposed be: just enough to get people to do difficult work and to give their maximum effort.

HOW A DEMOCRATIC ECONOMY WOULD WORK

For the most part, the democratic economy would run just like the existing economy runs now. You will still have a separate government, separate economy and separate legal system.

Consumers will decide what is produced based on how they spend their money. Entrepreneurs with new ideas will go to banks for funding. Companies will be individually run and managed. Companies must generate enough revenue to cover expenses in order to stay in business. Managers will be responsible for hiring, firing and company performance. Companies will still compete for your business.

And if you do not do the job you were hired to perform because of incompetency or laziness, you would still be fired. Or if the company you work for becomes unprofitable, it would still be shut down and you would be required to find a new job.

However, there will be three primary differences that make it democratic:

1) Income - your source of economic power - will be allocated equally based on effort, and the final compensation plan will be determined democratically which sets minimum and maximum income so that the economy works well for everyone.

2) Investment will no longer come from personal savings. Instead, a portion of GDP will be allocated to banks for them to manage as investment funds just like they manage savings today.

3) A group of managers will be elected (just like we elect a government president and reps) to ensure that the general direction of the economy is also democratically accountable to the public, so that we can, for example, make sure the economy always has full employment or begin the transition to a green economy or build a new national transportation system or improve the economic operating system.

ELIMINATE HALF THE JOBS WE DO

And so long as we have democratic control over how our jobs are paid, we should also have democratic control over what jobs we do.

55% of all the jobs we currently do can be automated with existing technology. We don't need people to be waiters or office clerks or drivers or cashiers or salespeople.

Wasting a human life, the most sophisticated piece of machinery in the universe, on moving a plate of food from one end of the room to another is a criminal waste of the most valuable resource we have.

If we made a deliberate effort to automate every job possible, we could cut the work week in half. And the only work people would have to do is the kind of fun activities that you would be doing if you didn't have a job to go to. There would be no difference between work and play.

And to make sure everyone has an opportunity to contribute in important and meaningful ways, people should be paid to go to school and get trained. Education is a part of work, it is not a consumption item. So you should get paid to get educated. A 4.2% tax would enable us to pay every student $40,000 per year to attend school.

ELIMINATE INTEREST

And when we have democratic control of the economy, we no longer have to charge interest because it costs absolutely nothing to digitally increase your bank account when you get a loan.

Eliminating interest will cut your monthly mortgage in half.

Everyone deserves to live like a king. Everyone should live in their own palace.

If a couple who made the minimum $115k income wanted to spend 1/3rd their income on a home, since mortgages would be interest-free, they would be able to buy a home that cost $2.3 million. At $300/sqft, that is enough to buy a 7600 square foot home.

But we actually have more than enough rock to build everyone a 15,000 square foot home if that was what people wanted.

And our total developed suburban/urban areas (homes, roads, business) currently take up less than 3% of the land space in this country. If we allocated our total urban and rural land space equally, that would amount to 1 acre each and still take up less than 8% of the total land space available.

Understand that the housing collapse didn't happen because we ran out of sheet rock or cement or nails or construction workers or because people no longer wanted new, beautiful, large homes. The collapse had nothing to do with demand or our ability to build homes. It collapsed because of home speculation and mortgage speculation.

Having everyone live in 7,500 sq. ft. mansions on their own 1 acre estate is more in line with our actual productive capacity. And we can achieve that if everyone is guaranteed a job that pays well, pays for a home based on its cost and doesn't have to pay interest on their mortgage.

DEMOCRACY IS THE ONLY WAY TO ORGANIZE SOCIETY

When every citizen has access to a job with the incomes and benefits outlined here as a right, and society is no longer based on inequality of income and power, there would be no social problems.

Full democracy is the only way to create a society that works well for everyone, that provides the highest standard of living for all, that maximizes every one’s ability to flourish and that eliminates the need to force people to waste their lives toiling in involuntary jobs.

Boycott Fox news advertisers

NoMore — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:08:23 -0700

I propose that we boycott every advertiser that runs their ads during any of Fox network news shows. I'm talking about the Smith, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Greta so called news shows. The 99% have a very potent weapon against trash news shows like these, it's called consumerism. The advertisers are what keep this trash on the air. In fact, we should do the same for Limbaugh advertisers on radio. When advertisers see that running ads on these shows is damaging their profit margins, they'll pull their ads faster than you can say Republican. Once these shows start to lose money, watch how fast they'll change their views on what they report. So, we should refuse to buy any product or service that is advertised on these shows.

Proposal to Revolutionize the Information Age

hereincapitalism — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:45:59 -0700

I, _________, propose to write in full sentences, and where possible, to write grammatically. In this effort, I refuse to text from cellular phones, use slang, and other online blog/chat lingo, especially the annoying hip-hop, rap talk found in most blogs and discussion groups. I also intend, where possible, to make reasoned arguments regarding a topic rather than statements about what I believe or want.

Through this great effort, we shall see the world change from a shoddy computer Information Age to a world of stupendous thinkers and activists.

Who's with me?!

Proposal to Sock it to the Federal Government

hereincapitalism — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:26:43 -0700

I propose under section...no section of article....no article....to refuse to repay student loan debt. The Action-Plan 2011 calls all people with student loans to simply refuse to repay their loans and hide their money in accounts untouchable by governments.

Who's with me?

Anyone? Anyone?

Why won't anyone take part in my Action-Plan? :-( You're not scared, are you? Why would you be scared of the government? It's there to help you, and support you, and unleash your human potential.

Proposal: An "Open Global Distributed Occupy Network"

webtweakers — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:29:38 -0700

This same proposal is also being discussed at OccupyWallStreet (http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposal-an-open-global-distributed-occupy-network/) and OccupyTheNetherlands (http://occupythenetherlands.nl/forum/index.php/topic,681.0.html).

Proposal
An Open Global Distributed Occupy Network

Reasoning
One of the main goals of the Occupy movement is to extend awareness of critical issues and provide information to the general public. The occupy encampments have send out the message that we are unsatisfied and want things to change. Many people have come to realize that the problems we face are global in nature and affect everyone the same and can only be solved if people unite and focus on common goals. I think we should unite our information and communication as well.

Currently news is decentralized in several different platform solutions (social networks, forums, blogs, etc.), which become hard to find or follow for the general public. The wheel is reinvented, information is scattered and communication is lost.

Goal
In the hope to find a solution to these and other issues, I propose a two-stage plan:

1. Setup an open source project that implements a system (website) that functions as communication platform with distributed content.

2. Connect the systems, share the content and create a global network where all information about the Occupy movement is available.

Some Details
The system should provide at least the following content items: discussions/comments/forum, messages, events/calendar, blogs, tasks, projects, wikis, news, files/media, manifesto. All content should be marked with a location, language and tags to allow for (site-wide) filtering on these properties. People should be able to share and vote on content, so it can be distributed and the system can become self organized and self-moderated.

A backend process will manage distribution of the content (in near real-time) into the network.

Local Occupy initiatives can simply install the open source software and become part of the network. They can provide the services to the local community and/or publish (specialized) content. Every new installment will strengthen the global network.

To make the network findable to the public, it would be great if the "occupy" domain name could be used in all countries: occupy.nl, occupy.gr, occupy.it, occupy.us, etc… Most of these seem to be available or already in use by occupy sites.

All this is based on internet technologies already in existence.

All this will hopefully help in presenting a common face and message (and url!) to the world and establish a world-wide, open, independent and secure media, information and communication platform.

I have some ideas on user management, content distribution, data modeling, architecture and more and would welcome any kind of input: positive, negative, additions, deletions, contributions, anything, let me know!

Signature Issue – Get the Money Out of Politics

billclare3 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:55:50 -0700

The Occupy Movement needs a signature issue.
..........
Such an issue should meet the following criteria for popularity, effectiveness, unification, and practicality:
• Almost all citizens can agree to it.
• It will significantly empower citizens relative to entrenched interests, in the interests of fairness.
Note the distinction here between citizens versus interests, rather than citizens versus citizens.
• It can focus and unify many disparate interests within the Occupy Movement.
• It is achievable.
................
My proposal for this is simple – i.e. a Constitutional Amendment to limit money and other favors for government officials or candidates. There are several candidate wordings for such an amendment.
......
Or more simply - “Get the Money Out of Politics”
...............................................................................billclare3@aol.com

The simple answer: Eliminate borders and money and remove religious influences from society....

djjohnthomas — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:24:21 -0700

Is it really that hard for people to go from where we are as a society now and figure out the REAL problem? There is no getting around the inescapable truth. Money, the whole concept of it, is the root cause of almost EVERY problem we as a society face. The sheer fact that people believe that we as a society would not even be able to survive without an almost 3000 year old system is quite frankly an insult to our entire species, and only shows the deep seeded greed that has been practically breed into our society. Money has throughout its history been responsible only for war, slavery, greed, the raping of our planet and creating wealth for those that are the most psychopathic of our society. I have no doubt that most of everything that has been accomplished would have still been discovered and invented. The true genius of our history did not spend their lives devoted to research for money; they did it for the betterment of humanity.
Borders are another ancient system than is probably older than money itself and really entails a lot of narcissism. Who is anyone to claim anything on this planet over anyone else based on where they happen to be born? Because you have been there longer? Or Paid for it? Or killed for it? That is ludicrous when we are all evolved not just from this planet, but from the very origins of the universe. The atoms in your body and everything we see, smell, touch and taste was born out of the explosions of stars. Is someone actually going to step up and claim right to that? Everyone has the same right not only to this planet but the universe itself and anything created from it. Everything we have accomplished as humans has been due to combining the knowledge of great minds throughout history and the production of ANYTHING requires resources that belong to this planet and therefore belong to each one of us equally. We are able to do all the things we can do now because of our ability to build on knowledge. Imagine the combined knowledge of what the entire world working as one could accomplish. It’s actually mind boggling to think of the wonderments we could discover working as one.
It scares the hell out of me with as much as we know about the history of our own planet that we are not working together to find ways of traveling the universe and do not have contingencies for inner planetary, atmospheric and/or extraterrestrial catastrophes (no not UFO’s – Asteroids and Comets). The fact that we know as an uncertainty (and yes “we” do know) something could happen to either us or future generations and we are not planning NOW for those things could eventually lead to our own extinction. Instead our focus is on how much we can accumulate even if it is at the price of the only planet we currently can inhabit in mass numbers. Wouldn’t this seem like a worthwhile goal for us to achieve (and one I might add I believe to be absolutely achievable)? Again I go back to what we could achieve working as one. What we MUST achieve for our very survival, if not ours a future generations.
I know there was one more thing I said to get rid of…. For the purposes of this discussion, I’m not getting into religious aspects, but I will say that no religion should ever be allowed to influence society as a whole.. In the first place there are way too many conflicting religions and somebody has to be wrong. And in the second place it is hard to say which has killed more people in our history… Religion or Money? Plus too many people use religion as a shield to do bad things and still be ok because the believe… I have the upmost respect for peoples personal beliefs and would never suggest repressing those beliefs in any way.. As a matter of fact in the society I envision, you would have more time to devote to a variety of life enriching activities including arts, education, research, teaching, family, personal development and absolutely religion if you so choose among other things.
Society CAN and will at some point learn to work together; I fear that this may not be the time…… As much as I had hoped it might when people started saying they wanted equality. There is no other path to true equality other than the elimination of the things that prevent it.

Global Constitution

TheRielDeal — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:36:25 -0700

We need to look at the model Iceland gave us and expand to an open source global constitution formation on the web.

I think wikileaks could play a role. Certainly a clause on freedom of information must be included and wikileaks could provide research, organization and information to help formulate a well informed global constitution movement.

The American flag use in protests.

chuckmullin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:57:51 -0700

Lately some comparison pictures have been floating around on facebook. I reposted some of them and got some feed back from some tea-party members.... in the tea-party pictures there are American flags everywhere, I think if we show some patriotism and show the world we are Americans we should incorporate some American flags in the protests. We are Americans and proud of it, I think this along with the yellow balloons for children in the protest to help cut down on police violence to the children. We are the true Americans, corporations are not!

How to Win this struggle. Occupy

radsupporter — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:57:27 -0700

Any one of us know and feel it is futile knowing that money and power have become an obstacle

to having a say or even that a vote can make a difference in national affairs or even in the

direction their communities are planning from the education of their children and even

the local sales tax they will have to pay and where the taxes are spent.

Even though a two party system has shown over time to have

brought out some of the best of the people, it has mainly created an elite class of

political groups that use wealth to control while ignoring,

discourages and beats down any one not in their group.

Anyone who may have a contrary opinion or outright disagree.

This system does not serve democracy or the greater voice of the

People. This corrupted system needs to end for the democracy founded in

this country to work according to the constitution,

declaration of independence, and the bill of rights where all have a voice.

Proposal: How to End the Political Corruption.

What if we vote out the political parties and instead elect individuals that

Genuinely by their actions do serve the discourse and

compromising from the people, government can be run

for the people with the provision during the term

the elected person would serve the voice of the people

by democratic recognition of the concerns of the people.

Would the government be different, this wouldn't bar poor or wealthy

from representing the community that elected them.

But it would remove corrupted groups and make it harder for

any minority or majority to oppress and deny basic freedoms.

We who occupy must remember the majority do not vote,

If we can change this and get the entire population to vote,

then we the people will occupy as the people’s stewards of

democracy and the prosperity and liberty

that is the core base of civil discourse and human dignity.

Proposal: The Vote - Write in Individuals

People that could run for office for Congress, local officials, Senators, and for

President. These people must not be affiliated with the two party system. This is the way we as

a people could elect individual(s) and not political parties. We could in the next election

liberate our government. This is the way we as a people can reclaim our

government by electing people who represent the people and govern for the people.

For too long the political parties have been involved to

closely with large model corporate global business. They continue to not represent the

majority of people in the USA. The parties are scripted ,tailored, and a commercial money making

machine that has corrupted the ethics and core beliefs of our democracy.

Republicans and Democrats even those who are independent or of another party.

There is no difference between political parties they both have been corrupted too their very core in

service to large model fascist style corporate power.

The economic proof is the ever increasing cost of living

and the way products are designed to be highly consumable and short lived made upon

the lowest cost of labor, and there is to this day slave labor employed.

These same corporations say it is for low cheap prices to the

Consumer ,these prices rise annually and the item needs replenishing.

Imagine 9 billion people consuming and being subjected to the economic cycles of 90 million.

The political proof watch how there is a synchronic press and movement

of parties how they lead from one crisis, the super committee,

European debt problems, scandals, and the amount of insider and

entrenched lobbyist have made wealthy every elected representative that goes to DC.

Be Peaceful, But Occupy the vote.

Radsupporter

Fire Everyone in Congress

NoMore — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:56:08 -0700

America HAS TO recall, impeach, fire or remove from power every person in Congress. If any of us were to go to our jobs and refused to do any work, we would lose our jobs in a heartbeat. Congressmen should face the same consequence that everyone else faces. The time has come to revamp Congress. Get people in there that care more about America and her people than about political parties and affiliations.

"OCCUPY SHELTER" a human right not a code or law

Governmentalfreedom — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:10:36 -0700

David and Goliath - Go where there money is

Why occupy public places that use the dirt of the law, CODES and city tax payers money to have you removed in minutes?
Help families being foreclosed on Occupy the property that Codes and taxpayers money don't apply.
Want publicity - Occupy foreclosed homes, protect vacant property from vandalism, drug labs helping community neighborhoods watch over vacant homes. Do to the banks what they will not do for American People - negotiate giving them shelter.

Let's make December 10th THE day!!!

djjohnthomas — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:12:59 -0700

THIS IS MY PERSONAL CALL TO ACTION FOR INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY DECEMBER 10th

OK… So here we are… We have the attention of the world, “The whole world IS watching”….So now what?

I guess I should first introduce myself. My name is John.. I am a 40 year old Father/Partner/Son/Grandson and I have been involved with the occupy movement since basically around the first of October, when I first saw the mass arrest in New York. Had I not been a 24 hour a day news junkie I would have probably misses it, since the event barely made overnight headlines; However, I did notice and became involved locally. The one thing that stood out to me more than anything else was one word -“Equality”. That one word encompassed the feelings, frustrations and the, not to be too over dramatic but by all accounts hopelessness I have been feeling on a very personal level for over 20 years… I thought to myself “This is it. This is the movement I have been hoping for all my life.”

Since becoming involved in the movement, I have heard a lot more words. Like Bank Bailouts, The Fed, fractional reserve banking, and corruption in politics just to name a few (but seem to be the most popular) of the buzz words. I have always been very aware of these things, I just always wrote all that off to the way society as a whole had become and not the fault of any particular entity. All of which, on the surface and under our current system, are very bad things. While I guess if we plan on keeping things like they are and the way they have always been, since practically the earliest days of ancient civilization, we do need to fix it. I, however, am getting discouraged by the notion of fixing a system back to broken and morally bankrupt and just asking for a fair share of it. Please understand I am not bashing any part of this movement, I think it is a great thing, it is bringing people together, making people talk, and bringing us to the brink of enlightenment. I believe there are many people that believe passionately in what personally brought them out here and I am NOT belittling those beliefs. I guess I am just aspiring for so much more, and I hope it is not too much…

A little off my own topic here, but it does kind of tie in to whether this is a national or a global movement. Everyone has been outraged with the incidents of pepper spraying and people not being allowed to assemble (rightfully so) – But where is our outrage and solidarity for our brothers and sisters in Egypt being murdered in the streets for assembly? For the men, women and children around the world being slaughtered while fighting for their rights? Are we really only fighting to make the system we have a little fairer for us, or are we in this for true equality for everyone?

So I return to my original statement, “The whole world is watching” – Should we not use that to unite the world for global change? I for one am, and have always been, bothered by the fact that in this day and age, when we can travel to the moon (and should be living on it), that we cannot insure no man, woman or child EVER goes hungry, without shelter or without equal medical care. Isn’t it time that we all realized we are all born out of the very universe itself and that borders on our lands are outdated and truly naïve, almost egocentric in nature? That this planet and everything born of it belongs to each of us (and all living things biological and ecologically) equally. That everyone’s contribution to society must be equally valued.

All the non violent direct action to get all the different messages out has its merits. But for how long do we gather and then go home? A lot of people have been coming together now for almost 3 months both to occupy and for various calls to action… My final question is how do we get everyone that wants to change the world to gather NOW (figuratively speaking – gotta be some notice) and not move until we fix the world the way it should be. Not just in your city or state, not just in one nation, but everyone across the world united to demand equality. International Human Rights Day is December 10th... just sayin’….I can think of no better day to make this final stand…. Occupy the EARTH!!!
Peace to everyone…

(I have edited this post on occasion (mostly for grammar), not changing context, but making small additions as I think of them)

Please share if you feel the same….

Transfer of Wealth

daleypage — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:04:53 -0700

By transfering our banking business from a national traded bank to a non profit bank or credit union and at that point the credit union can begin buying our land back!!! This is a win win solution

Beyond Campaign Finance Reform - Political Finance Reform - Incentivize Congress to Effect Change

JPSayles — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:06:41 -0700

Until we remove private money from politics we're just spitting into the wind. And until we offer to replace with tax dollars the revenue and benefits currently provided Congressional members by the 1%, we will have no change. There's only 537 federally elected officials causing this harm. Why not incentivize change? We can afford it.

It would cost just $1.5 billion per year to add a zero to Congressional pay and pensions IN EXCHANGE FOR campaign finance reform and the illegalization of Congressional connections to private money. We'll save trillions, our middle class and democracy itself. http://politicalfinancereform.org/

We can't afford not to. The 1% did not risk life and limb to acquire control. They used money to incentivize and create Congressional dependence. So can the 99%.

Need to Join forces with Obama

seegramp — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:42:19 -0600

Hello
I am one of the informed, educated individuals in that 99%.......and believe I have some reasonable ideas to be discussed. One is the need for organization and a reasonable, concise statement of what the protest stands for. I have some ideas. 1. Reinstate the middleclass 2. Taxation of the wealthiest corporations/Americans 3. Keep Big corporate interests out of political decision making/keep it democratic, not based on who's getting funded.
Include our President, who wants to help, and can be a powerful ally. He wants what the protesters want,.....the protesters say they are not involved in choosing sides. Otherwise, I believe, the powers that be think protesters will just be frozen out when the bad whether comes.......the waiting game.......#@%&***??????
Thank you, Christine Gramp contact me at cgramp@hotmail.com

Should We be inviting, or allowing Infiltrators on this Forum?

Durandus — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:19:44 -0700

It has become obvious to Us at BeingQuestOccupy that the Web is beginning to crawl with sock-puppets, or what must be understood as a coordinated Personality (State sponsored propoganda) that hopes to shape the Dialogue to their ad-hominem characterizations of, supposed, Occupiers and of Occupy itself.

For the Ten years that We have been Administrating a Forum at BeingQuest, We took good care to Filter out the obviously non-cooperative spirit of certain Personalities because We could easily estimate the value of their Contribution as being counter-productive to our Dialogue, which revolved then upon Social Psychology and the Mythology of Xtianity. Sock-puppets, as U all must come to know, are Instruments of the State, some unconscious due to their Programming in the System, but many, most sponsored by the likes of Our Opponent in various tones of Personal Attack and mis-characterization.

I understand that Administrators and Moderators here have adopted a policy of Open Dialogue, even with apparent distractors in the hope of Education; but I must urge a more cautionary approach, even as We here have launched a new Practice of identifying and confronting sock-puppets across the Web under the Forums of News outlets of the popular variety as touching upon Occupy. We shall continue our Practice daily in order to confront the Narrative manipulations that are the working aim of these Infiltrators of the Public Space, the Commons, for obvious reasons.

However, as OccupyTogether is a Forum for Serious Dialogue, I cannot understand the value in this Policy of Open Dialogue when it comes to the repeated ad-hominem, unreasoned, unjustified assertions and comments of the likes that have appeared here yesterday and today under, at least, one nic (pretended member). I believe that You need to tighten your Security and the Security of this Forum.

I have no doubt that there are Trolls watching the Dialogue here without commenting...and these pose as much a threat, perhaps more, to the Cause/s of Occupy than the openly brazen and derogatory mis-characterizations of those who dare to participate by their crass, demeaning, misleading comments and assertions. I believe that the true Members of Occupy who exist here are safe from such predators...but I also am aware that there is Dialogue here that would be useful to Our Enemy (State/Corporatism), by simply having access to the Ideas that are developing here. You need to close this Security hole, and do it very soon, or risk showing Our hand to those whose very long practiced Art of Manipulation gets ahold of our more useful Strategies that they can Co-opt and then destroy by Plants and False-Flag operations so well understood by the likes of private Security Agencies (think Mossaad, G6, CIA).

We at BeingQuestOccupy are not intimidated by being Identified by these Cohorts of Destruction as We have been long on the Map and have a nice, articulate File of Opposition in these quarters of the State apperati. They can do Us little harm and have Never attempted Assault upon Our Operations and Dialogue, being too under-educated to match our Virtue and too cowardly to confront Our Intelligence; but for a budding organization such as Occupy, the risks are far more grave because what U may attempt to do upon the face of Change is more vulnerable to manipulation and distraction. This is Our warning to Occupy here and abroad...coming from a place of experience and heart-felt association in a shared Cause...Truth, Justice and Cooperation among the Peoples of Man.

As for more specific recommendations from Us to U, I will broach the Principle of Transparency, as follows.

It is the Practice and Custom of sock-puppets (propagandistas) to hide behind Anonymity, to shift their identities from the apparent to the non-apparent, maintaining Plausible Deniability...it's their Shell Game, practiced by Security Forces everywhere who share the common goal of misinformation and manipulation of the Public Commons (think Public Awareness). There ARE ways to filter these sock-puppets out...both from the beginning when they apply for Membership and afterwards, by measuring the tenor and sway of their communications; the first is by Transparency, the second is by the intelligent clarity of their expressions, or lack thereof. These two aspects of an avowed Person's Identiy should be looked at very carefully and JUDGED authentic by the Facts...not allowing for too loose a Practice of Open Dialogue, which will serve to cut U'r throats if U are not careful enough. DONT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF DIALOGUE, good or evil. U must be daring, intelligent, and pro-active in U'r self-protective instinct...beware.

What we did at BeingQuest is require all Comments, all Source Identities to certify their Authenticity by submitting contact information that is certifiable through a Persons' search on the Web, which is to say that they, personally were required to have an independant Web Presence that calculated positively in favor of their True Identities...that is, Transparency. Those who could not provide this Standard were forbidden Access to certain Information Sanctums of BeingQuest, which we divided into Outer Court (PUBLIC); Inner Court (Members); and Inner Sanctum (Contributors). We thus sealed off Access (firewalled) to our most sensitive Trade Secrets and Communication Aesthetics. Occupy, as an Association of Care must consider doing something similar, or risk a dire consequence that We needn't elaborate on here, being too well established speculatively and by the historical record of Security Agencies Infiltration everywhere.
You must make each and every Member "show their hand" by more than just an application to the Forum...but through a Biography and Profile that invites Full Disclosure. If Occupy Members are intimidated by this level of Transparency, they should confess their unreadiness to participate in the Heavy Lifting requisite to the Task at Hand...nothing short of the Reclamation of the World from the Powers of Enslavement.

There is no place for Cowardice here...Stand-up and be counted, dear Sojourners. Sharpen your Defences at the outset, before it is too late and your Communication Aesthetic be co-opted, confounded, distracted, or otherwise captured by the ElitePowers who have already confessed their Program of Infiltration of the Commons (Public Media)...see the Wall Street memorandum to Banking Members for a million dollar campaign to sway the mood, tenor and Identiy of Occupy to their purposes of manipulation, mischaracterization (Assassination), and betrayal. I urgently warn U not to drop the ball on this Letter. We will continue to stand with U, alongside U, and behind U for support...but We will not stand idly by while you expose your throats to the knife's edge of sock-puppets and apparent Infiltrators, despite the fine standard of your Open Dialogue.

Forum Post: Recapture the Message: The STOCK Act

JimiNixen — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:53:44 -0700

"Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it..."

I'd like to suggest that it will not be enough to just complain, and at some point, action will need to be taken. To that end, I would like to suggest that the STOCK Act, makes for the perfect 'takeoff' issue. If you want to see the movement really take flight in the next 60 days, here's your issue.

Why? It solves a problem.

We have the Media's attention, but we've lost the message. And the result is that the public has no clue what 'OccupyWallStreet' would do if the Public supported the movement.

The clearest message, is action. Action is indisputable. Make the World a better place, and the World will take notice.

Essentially, the 'The STOCK Act' would criminalize Congressional exploitation of the information gained in their public employment by prohibiting Congressional members and staff from trading these securities on Wall Street. see: http://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr1148

What we need are clear, simple, talking points. And, I'd like to suggest, that The STOCK Act, tells the story of the 99%, and pulls the movement all back together again by recapturing the message.

Just look at the Talking Points:
The STOCK Act is 'WallStreet related'
The STOCK Act is 'Congress Related'
The STOCK Act is 'Anti-Corruption'
The STOCK Act is a '99% issue'
The STOCK Act is a 'National Action that makes the World a better place'

These are the talking points we need for the next 90-days. We need to galvanize the movement. We need to secure wide-spread public support. And, we need to make the World a better place, through measurable political action.

The key with The STOCK Act, is that it's a Congressional litmus test.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litmus_test_(politics)
The STOCK Act will show you who is with the 99%, and who is firmly encamped with Wall Street and the 1%.

It is short, sweet, and to the point. What you want is every media correspondent, asking every Congressional staff member where they stand on The STOCK Act. To do this, you need every American telling the media, that The STOCK ACT is issue of the day. This Litmus test enables the media to tell us where Congress stands. Only the 1% would benefit from The STOCK Act not passing. And, thus, only those members of Congress that support the 1% would oppose The STOCK Act.

I'm sure that there may be 'bigger' issues that you think the movement should address. There will be plenty of time for these issue. But, we need to gain the trust and support of the 99%, the trust and support of those in the Media that are covering the story, and we need to show actionable results in a very short timeframe.

Again, we need the 'Galvanizing Story'. The talking points where we all (all 99%) agree. The Talking Points that re-capture the message. The Litmus Test, to know where Congress stands on these issues. And, the Congressional Results that demonstrate that American Politics are no longer following the Status Quo.

-Jimi

Separation of state and corporations

RobertH — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:39:38 -0600

Separation of state and corporations should be one of the central demands of the Occupy Movement.

The basic idea is extremely simple: Just like we have laws separating church and state, and for obvious reasons, there should be laws separating corporations and state. Otherwise, corporations will continue to dictate law making and policy making for their own benefit and to the detriment of everyone else.

The reason, I think, separation of state and corporations should be a central demand of the Occupy Movement is that it goes to the heart of the problem AND has immediate intuitive appeal: Most anyone among the 99% who hears about the concept will tend to agree with that we need laws prohibiting corporations from unduly influencing the political process. Campaign finance laws are one obvious example, but we also need laws outlawing corporate lobbying and many other, more indirect ways in which corporations exert political influence. It's really a no-brainer and should be something everyone - even the Tea Party - can agree on.

The Occupy Movement strikes me as the perfect platform to publicize this idea. The separation of state and corporations dovetails perfectly with the Movement's fundamental anti-corporate greed message, while packaging that message in a specific demand that EVERYONE can understand and relate to and that can, at least in principle, actually be implemented. We probably can't make corporations less greedy, but we can deprive them of the ability to let their greed interfere with the political process.

Moreover, there is already an indepent movement underway calling for an amendment of the Constitution along those lines, called Move to Amend:

http://movetoamend.org/

There is also a site called

www.ultimatecivics.com,

started by one of the key players in this area, Riki Ott, Executive Director, Ultimate Civics. I am not quite sure about the relationship between the two sites, but they appear to be closely related.

So, the idea would be to propagate the message of separation and state as a way to rally the American public around a specific, fundamental, and intuitive demand that can actually be met. Perhaps an alliance with the above movements that have been working on this issue for years would be helpful.

On a general note: As enthusiastic as I am about the Occupy Movement, I am greatly concerned that it may not go beyond the point of protests and that the American public will lose interest at some point. The movement needs to come up with a list of specific, reasonable demands very soon to legitimize its protests in the eyes of the public. It also needs to come up with at least an articulate spokesperson (not necessarily a leader) who can communicate its demands effectively to the media and the public. Otherwise the Occupy Movement will, at the end, be written off as another rag-tag outfit with no coherent agenda.

I hope no one will interpret my constructive criticism as anything but that - I am very supportive of the movement and understand that, right now, the idea is just to raise awareness of corporate greed, to start a conversation, to bring people together, etc. But if we are really serious about change, we'll have to take this to the next level at some point - before the momentum is lost.

Robert