This idea might be the most radical, yet ridiculously simple and effective. Instead of marching on the street, join the occupy movement by occupying your house. Let me explain. The Occupy movement claims that 1% of population controls all the wealth in the world and the working class, the remaining 99% has nothing. How do we change that? Their idea – walk and sit on the street, maybe you’ll get noticed. Here is another idea.
If you want to affect the 1% of wealthy, instead of marching somewhere, stop paying them! Do not sign into their 30-year loans with high interests rates. And if you did already, perhaps, you can change your mind. Now if they ask you to give it back, don’t. Not until they refund you all the money you already paid them, and, perhaps, refund whatever money you put into maintaining it. Occupy Your House!
Don’t own a house? No problem. You can still participate in the revolutionary movement. Buy less things! Be selective about what you buy. Your money supports businesses! Buy organic. Buy locally.
This will bring most quiet, intelligent, peaceful revolution we need.
Simple.
I think your idea has the best of intentions, but it isn’t accurate.
The 1% is not all bankers and fat cats. Very few of them are. Did you know the 1% account for nearly one in three dollars of all philanthropic giving. They work more hours than the average person. The majority of them earned their wealth, not inherit it. And most are either doctors or people who built a successful business from the ground up (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc).
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/who_are_the_percent_b53YH1O3zjel3L6wRJmjbI#ixzz1pbBEqxZw
Personally I don’t care for populism. I think it causes more damage than good and usually leads to a bad outcome. But that’s just my opinion. I mention it because the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) and the 99%’ers is a good example of populism. It’s always someone elses fault for everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularist
I enjoy your blog but I think more debate and disagreements are needed to really come to any good conclusions.
Hi, thanks for your comment! Excellent points you make.
However, I agree to disagree. I read the NY post article. I would be curious to see the source of the study that found all those “facts” about the rich 1% “elite”. Yes, they might have built their business from the ground up. But are they exploiting workers, stealing ideas.. etc..? I personally, do not support OWS movement because it doesn’t present any solution. Yes, there is a problem, a big gap between the rich and the poor. But how do we solve it? I think people who march on the street are generally tired of working a lot and getting very little. There is an issue of corruption at the Wall Street and the banks with the bail out money, multi million dollar bonuses and sky rocketing real estate prices (yes, still outrageous). So the majority of OWS supporters are there because they protest this mixture of things. Yet, they have no idea how to fix it.
I presented a very simple example of better spending their time.
It is one way, it is not the only way.
Oksana
I also wish to agree to disagree.
You do realize you are asking to obtain something unobtainable (or has never been obtained)? You want equality for all. If you give equality to everyone you make everything unequal. You mention there is a problem because there is a big gap between rich and poor. But when in history was there not a (huge) gap? And you are assuming there can be a time when there is no gap and that things will be better. I disagree. You must reward those who work harder, educate themselves more, and apply themselves harder than the “average” person. Would you pay someone who works twice as hard as the other workers the same amount? Wouldn’t you consider that person for promotion over the others?
You said “I think people who march on the street are generally tired of working a lot and getting very little.” Isn’t that a personal decision and perhaps an excuse? Why don’t they go to college to increase their knowledge and their value? Or move to a new location that needs the skills they have. There are a lot of options.
I agree that your suggestion is much better than what the OWS is currently doing. However I think the best solution is for people to deal with the reality of their situations and find an acceptable solution. It’s easy to blame someone else for anything unhappy in your life, but it’s difficult to actually deal with it and find a solution that betters your situation. Not many seem to want to deal with anything difficult anymore. It’s easier for me to just to blame .
I didn’t ask for equality for all. I asked for people to be fair. I won’t suggest promoting someone who is lazy but I don’t like when people get greedy. They know who they are. People working a lot and getting little is not a personal choice. It is a reality for anyone if not most working middle class. How much money do they need to earn a month to be able to afford $4000/month mortgage or house rent, car, car insurance, health insurance, electricity, food and education?? How many employers would pay 3 times 4000? Even people with higher education can’t get that. And few that make close to that, hardworking people, pay 40% in taxes. Taxes that go to fund banks who sell education (in student loans) and house loans! These same banks ask for MORE tax payer money (see bailout) and pay themselves huge bonuses! You don’t think there is anything wrong with that?? I’m NOT generalizing – equality for all. I am being very specific. The congress keeps making deals with big companies (like banks) and pass bills benefiting them, not people (the working class). That is where we have a problem.
This article, however, wasn’t mean to get that deep. It was an example to show a better way, to point out a real problem. It also provided other ways to make a change. Because we know from history what happened when the gap between rich and poor got too big. Things got nasty and violent. I’m just trying to provide other ideas…
Compensation is always a matter of perspective. Someone making 20k a year probably thinks they are underpaid for the work they do. But also people making 150k a year also think they are underpaid.
Salaries and income (in America) are based off free market capitalism, which is also based off supply and demand. If you do a job that countless other people can do, why would you think that entitles you to higher compensation? If you do something that very few do, you are in high demand and can request nearly any compensation you wish. Everything is always supply and demand except when the government gets involved. A perfect example is governmental jobs. Some of those workers are paid a greater amount than what supply and demand would dictate. So what’s wrong with that? Money isn’t free and it comes from everyone’s taxes. Everyone’s taxes increase to give people higher salaries than a free market would dictate. Is that fair to workers who don’t have governmental jobs but must subsidize inflated salaries of others?
Personally, I struggle to make ends meet every month. I also think I’m underpaid. But I have an option to try to increase my salary by trying to increase my skills, make myself more valuable, or switch employers to one that might appreciate my skills more.
I understand where you are coming from. And I understand your complaints and agree with some of them. The lack of fair taxing, tax breaks, and subsidies given to companies and banks by Federal and State governments is quite worrying.
I also understand you are proposing ways to protest those that take advantage of our current system (like some financial institutions). The best way to punish large financial institutions is to not use them. The less people use them, the less power they have. This is what you originally said in your post, and I agree.
The only thing we disagree about is who to blame. I agree you can blame the financial institutions. But I disagree that the financial institutions have anything to do with the top 1%. They are completely separate animals, IMHO.
But in the end I don’t think it’s the banks fault or the top 1%. Nor is it the governments fault. It’s ours. We elect our officials. We know what they’re doing. And we allow it. Until people’s opinions change regarding our politicians and political practices, nothing else can or will ever be fixed. That is a very long process of educating voters one by one, generation after generation.
I don’t think we’re that far off from agreeing with each other in the end.