Another Diarist today talked about a potential weakness that OWS has to contend with over the days/months that are to come. How to turn an occupation in to a movement, and from a movement in to a juggernaut politically.
I don't begin to have all the answers, and while I'm there in spirit, I'm like millions of others who cannot occupy a park in a city.
So I have been left to ponder what I can do (other than donating money) to get the message out.
I know that there are many who resist creation of a focused set of messages from OWS, and while that's a critique regularly applied by the mainstream media, I am not trying to address that.
What I am doing is trying to show support and solidarity to those encamped in parks around the world now from the only place I can: My computer.....I occupy the internet....they whole freaking internet. I am literally everywhere, referring, linking, posting and responding. Below the magic message squiggle, is what I do and what I say:
- every blog I can find, I post as many of the OWS messages as I can - rapid fire - and relentless. I have dozens of handles and post and run. When I see tours to Bank HQs, I send emails to my representatives in congress, and to the Bank in question with my point of view.
Most newspapers have blogs, many companies have them (Microsoft for example). Banks, unfortunately, don't that I can find, but there are lots of places where you can go to complain about Banks.
Right-wing blogs were heretofore things I never allowed myself to look at, but I've now gone on them with great gusto with key messages that I think may at times resonate with the reasonable few who are left on them.
I don't spend much time responding to messages or replies to my postings - I prefer to travel light and keep moving to maximize the coverage of my message....so here it is:
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Want to know why people are occupying Wall Street? I think it's pretty simple and it's going to get worse unless people start getting jobs and we generate demand in an economy which is for the most part stalled. Consider these arguments:
1. The liberal publication "The Wall St. Journal" ran a piece that talks about the crisis of demand in our economy.
Demand is low because anywhere between 9.1% and higher are unemployed. High unemployment puts a "chilling effect" on an economy. People without jobs cannot spend. People with jobs, don't spend as freely because they are fearful of losing their job. There are between 14 and 21 Million Americans out of work.
2. Leading up to 2008, the Nations' financial institutions invested recklessly. When we were poised on the precipice of total financial meltdown, the American Taxpayer was more or less forced to bail them out of the mess. This one action may have added somewhere around $10 Trillion dollars to the nations' debt. When the housing bubble started to deflate, it took $1.5 Trillion dollars in annual spending out of our economy (poof!)
Add to that the profits some of these same banks are recording right now and the recent revalations of a "secret" set of loans provided at low/now interest to these institutions by the Federal Reserve Bank...and to add insult to injury, we find that they are loaning this cheap/free money back to the US government by buying Bonds - and you have a formula that is guaranteed to boil peoples' collective blood.
This is not capitalism - it's cronyism. It's not free enterprise - it's large-scale collusion. Conservatives don't want to talk about it because it's largely indefensible.
No one who professes to be fiscal conservatives should tolerate this. It's what originally got the Tea Party out en masse and now it's getting the OWS people out. Simply put - it should piss you off, and if it doesn't, then turn in your conservative credentials because it's the largest state-sponsored welfare program .... EVER. No one who professes to be a fiscal conservative or a "free marketeer," should favor such actions and behavior.
3. We are being fed a load of crap now by some of the same banks who had their hands out just 3 years ago, and they have perpetuated the myth of a crisis of indebtedness. The "debt" crisis may not be one at all. It is likely based on a lot of confusing and inaccurate or exaggerated assumptions - and some bad data. As reported by "business insider," Credit Suisse published an analysisof the US Debt to GDP Charts that have been floating around and concluded not only that the underlying data and assumptions are wrong, but that US Debt Levels are fine
As more evidence of this - if US Credit was in such poor shape why are people still willing to loan us so much money at the paltry interest rates we are offering?
4. What caused the "great depression" was not the 1929 collapse, but what happened in the aftermath....there is no historical argument to be made go rebut that fact. What Caused the "great depression" was a combination of tax hikes and "austerity" measures that sucked more productivity out of the economy. It was not until WWII created the political will for the US. Government to spend on deficits (1946 saw a Debt/GDP ratio of 51%) that the economy really started clicking. In the 1930's the economy was stuck in a malaise with political gridlock in Washington and a huge divergence of opinion on whether stimulus or austerity provided the key to recovery...sound familiar?
Ask yourself - if you were willing to have the US go to Iraq and Afghanistan, and if it was the right thing to do to have the Bank Bailout - where is that patriotic sensibility when it comes to paying for those things via higher taxes? After WWII, the so-called "greatest generation" not only paid much higher taxes, but it bought war bonds to further help fund the effort and aftermath. Where is that patriotism today? I guess we don't consider ourselves to be the "greatest." After 9/11 it was all about flags and patriotism. Now it's time to pay for the party and we all are looking at our shoes and trying to pass the buck to someone else. Patriotism to the US of "Me"
5. The private Sector is not spending. Low inflation creates no penalty for institutions like Banks and Corporations to sit on giant piles of cash. And there are Trillions of dollars sitting idle in investment accounts and bonds that the private sector has chosen not to invest because they don't perceive demand in the market justifies it. That money is not sitting in those accounts because of "excessive regulation." If private enterprise felt they were missing a market opportunity, they would spend money with or without Federal Regulations and high tax rates - historical data bears that out. Our economy grew just fine in many times in the past with high taxes and stricter regulations, so there is no data to substantiate the myth of a "suffocating" federal government.
so it's a standoff....and I'm not talking about the irresponsible behavior in Washington - I'm talking about the marketplace.
Private enterprise is not spending - demand is weak
The misdirection around austerity and the so-called "debt" crisis is probably ... well.... misdirected. Regardless of your visceral reaction to the word "debt," it's a reality in a modern economy and it can work in our favor. History and Historical data agree with me.
The one simple fact of life is that in an environment where no one is investing to stimulate the economy (private v. public), there will be no growth. If private enterprise won't move to create jobs (and it has not), then that leaves the public sector as the only place where they can be created.
It's about jobs - there are tens of millions who are unemployed or underemployed. Give them a paycheck and the economy starts growing again.
Continue to run these unemployment rates, and a quick glance at history shows that things can get a lot worse. Act now, Operators standing by - call you congress person and/or senator and tell them you need them to act on job creation.