(This is a piece I wrote for an open mic at the start of the occupation. It may be a bit outdated at this point, but I feel it is still important to share with you. There are many ways to be involved, whether or not there is an occupation in your town or area, and there are many forums and groups forming to educate, assist, and reform the way we are organized as a society. Whether or not you agree with this movement, it is happening, and will continue to happen. Much like voting, if you are apathetic and don’t exercise your voice, you have no right to complain about things, so get involved somehow or another, before we find ourselves in the dark ages, with the hands of criminals at our throats!)
Many people have been holding their breath for years at the mere thought of the words money, economy, and financial security. We are living in extremely trying times, often panicking every time the inflation rate increases. What I believe has been overlooked is the fact that our problem is not with “real” money. “Real” money hasn’t existed within the American markets since Nixon took away the gold backing of the US dollar in 1971. Thanks buddy! So, what have we been spending in it’s place? Theoretical dollars. It makes me think of the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force where the Mooninites have what they think is a crazy check of a family member, so they take it to earth to try to cash it. It turns out that instead of a crazy check, it is in fact a bill, charging for theoretical dollars. It is much the same these days. We have our own monetary system of theoretical dollars, and it is called credit. We have been lassoed into playing a game, in which we can never fesably win.
Credit was initially extablished to get us out of the depression of the early 1930’s. It was a sort of loan/repayment plan that was meant to give enough people the boost they needed to get out of the deep gullys that were created when the Stock market crashed 1929. Cue Bear Market. This system held us together for a time, largely due to the fact that there were paper bills and paper checks. I imagine at first, people regained the resources to repay their loans without much recourse, and they were not hit with insanely high interest rates upwards of 15-20%. Most likely, sometime after the dollar lost it’s backing, an overconfident populace started going apeshit crazy with the spending, racking up bills much higher than they were ever going to be able to repay. The banks started realizing that if they charged higher interest rates, they could get even more money out of people when they eventually forced them to pay, and alongside that, the banks acquired plenty of insurance, so even if someone defaulted, they’d get their cut.
Then, after almost 80 years living off of an ultimately unsustainable, and theoretical dollar system, something drastic happened. In 2008, our economic bubble popped. There was no evident market crash, however, because the popping of the bubble was not about entering into a Bear market phase. The credit system was actually what crashed, and, effectively, that crash ruined many people’s chances of ever getting back on their feet under these rules. All the while, the American banks continued making bank through their insurance companies, and the international centralized banks began making even more bank off of the American banks. You get the picture.
Our economy has been built up around theoretical dollar number manipulation. Many, with the assistance of a faulty government system, grossly skewed media news and advertising, and a false sense of security, have allowed the wool to continue to be pulled over their eyes. Just because we made it back to a Bull market, we, as a whole, do not get to breathe a sigh of relief. The system is dying. There are starving and homeless people living beneath the feet of billionaires. There is a vast discrepancy between the two classes, and the imbalance continues to grow. Yes, we have indeed returned to the days of a two-class system. Oh, how I miss you, 1990’s. Life was so good then…at least for me, and my middle class family living in excessive comfort.
Cue reality check. Now, many millions of people have lost the ability to realize their “American Dreams”. They suffer, struggle, and lose access to adequate education and healthcare, and are then forced into much lower standards of living. The problem is not with the amount of money we have in our market. The true issue is the overwhelming imbalance in the distribution. Oh, and the fact that the Federal Reserve is a private corporation that has now “lost track of” the spending records for somewhere around 7 trillion dollars. That is more than half of our national debt to the rest of the world. Just sayin’.
This brings me to my opinion about the current occupation of Wall St. Even though many still worship the bull market, protesting at Wall St will not truly solve any problems. The men and women who wake up every day and go to their cushy office jobs, make their Upper Class wages, and toast champagne over the suffering of others are not truly the ones with power. They are still mere working class citizens. Attempting to stop or dismantle a working class of people will do nothing to affect our levels of wealth…only our levels of poverty.
Occupying the trading territory of the upper crust offers nothing more than an idealistic dreamworld that has no foundation on which to build. Sure, you may have your face on film ranting, but what are you accomplishing? There are many many problems with the way our system is set up, but what on earth do you really think is going to change by marching through the streets with signs? How does getting maced and or beaten up by the authority who are now taking the liberty of using excessive force honestly help us? Guess what, it really doesn’t help at all. The only thing that is being accomplised right now is the continued waste of more theoretical dollars.
I do understand that people feel the need to exercise their voices, and that some feel it is necessary to live under the guise of righteous indignation, but come on… Wake up. The American economic system is not the top tier of the global financial world. Wall St. is a tiny speck on the map far away on the globe from Switzerland, or the Caribbean. These are two of the locations that house true criminals. Those criminals are the leaders of the centralized banks. The centralized banks are the ones calling ALL of the shots. They are not working class citizens. They are truly the elite, they are truly in control, and they are the institutions with all of the clout.
Yes, the Wall St. suits are making a lot of money, but they are only pawns in this game of chess. Employees of American financial institutions have no real power when it comes to our “crisis”. Besides, this goes way beyond the borders of our fine establishment. There is a global crisis going on, and they both revolve around the same thing. Money and power. For many many generations people with money have commanded a place of power. With such luxury, it’s no wonder the elite want to keep their thrones. At this time, I am having difficulty finding solutions to offer, but, instead of camping out and getting arrested, I have taken a little time to look deeper, with the intention of starting dialog, and I have been sharing information on this topic through social media outlets. So, what are we going to do about this mess?
Made You Look! 