unfinished "money" opinion.

We have to keep money out of occupy because that holds it in check only to grow as a true grassroots and populous movement. Money begets agenda…

- When necessity for money (e.g. bail funds, etc.) the populous will rally around cause and quickly bring funds forward. When fundraising is a motive to store up cash then the money is a forethought and agenda is directed toward that. And we all know what happens after that don’t we? Poop.

- If we want to get past a monetary system (which begets evil, 1% sorta thing!) we act as without that system (i.e. live our ideology directly) and without doing so only are doomed to repeat the continuous mistakes of past “revolutions”. Paradigm shift, not reform. Fuck reform.

- Keep money autonomous. One-time use, etc. when needed. Not appropriate to make an agenda that’s formulated around allocating money. Same ol’ same ol’ and does nothing to exemplify the change we desire. If we do not want an economic system which begets inequality, etc. (all the issues we harp and protest around) then we have to minimize our participation in such a system. Having a job is not a fault, especially when it’s to maintain a familial unit, but the fault is found in organizing in methods all too familiar to failure or exploitation. Example: let’s not ever lobby congress or raise money to have the funds to battle an issue. This creates alienation and marginalization of those who disagree. To remain grassroots one has to remain fiscally inept, “under-funded”, etc. so it cannot act as the corrupting/manipulating power that it is. The true rallying point is not the money raised and the direction that money takes when agenda is created, but rather, the ability to remain loosely organized, transparent, all-inclusive, etc. Money corrupts and takes us away from those grassroots principles. Money in Occupy will not get anymore of the 99% out in the streets than any other lobbying group, mainstream media news source, bourgeois NGO, etc. Occupy will then be lost to those elite groups pushing their own agendas rather than the agenda of the 99%. They will no longer be an appendage of this movement, i.e. the global paradigm shift.

- AGAIN, lack of money creates broad and general rallying cries which unify the 99%. On the other hand excess money creates competition between affinity groups who view their cause as more important and pressing than another. Let affinity groups store and constantly raise money and do with it as they wish.

- OCCUPY IS AN IDEA, IDEA’S ARE HARD PRESSED TO KEEP A FORM AND THAT IS ONE OF THE KEY SURVIVING ELEMENTS TO A MOVEMENT THAT OCCUPY SHOULD BE SYMBOLIZING. IF OCCUPY FAILS TO SYMBOLIZE THAT THEN ANOTHER SYMBOL WILL EMERGE AND THE REFERENT WILL REMAIN THE SAME.

money control

Here are some stats that show how hierarchal institutions control our lives. Why do the rich get richer and the poor poorer? Because we do nothing about it except post it in a blog.

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

The source