Until we get the business and philosophy team sections on the new forum

[shotinthedark99]

Yesterday I circulated (aggressively) an idea that stemmed from a group effort on occupy together:

http://www.occupytogether.org/discuss/#/discussion/729/framing-our-own-narrative/p1

There is a vast amount of information in that thread, and I wanted to direct people there to debate the proposal. It should still be in the library or ask the medic.

The idea is to reclaim ideals of capitalism, free-market, and competition from the corporatists who have hijacked them. In so doing, if we can take a stand and support returning to the true ideals of capitalism and the free market we can turn the buzzwords for those wholly owned subsidiaries of wall street against them--I believe.

[shotinthedark99]

Third draft:


The growing Occupy movement all too easily points out what’s wrong with the country. The lists of grievances seem to grow every day. We at occupytogether.org have come up with a proposal for something the movement might stand for; perhaps something sufficient to unite the unconvinced and even members of the 99% who have been opposed to the movement.

Merriam-Webster definition of CORPORATISM: the organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction

Merriam-Webster definition of CAPITALISM: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

“Capitalism,” “Free-Market,” and “Competition” have become the buzzwords of the wholly owned subsidiaries of Wall Street, but I hope to make the case that Wall Street’s use of those words pervert the reason behind them.

The Founding Fathers railed against corporatism, upheld capitalism:

“I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
--Thomas Jefferson

“Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or will ever do good.”
--John Adams

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it’s issuance.”
--James Madison

Woodrow Wilson, who signed the Federal Reserve into law, later wrote against corporatism:

"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men ... [W]e have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.
. . .
Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."

Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom: A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People (New York and Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913).

If we, as a movement, stand for—in addition to the myriad issues we stand against—something 99% of the country wants we may very well unite, even with those who stood against us. This is a call to stand for an idea, and that idea stands directly opposed to anti-competitive business practices, fraud, the socialization of risk with the privatization of profit, and most importantly against the marriage of corporation and state. If we reclaim the ideals of capitalism, the free-market, and competition we can take with them those who support those ideals and use Wall Street's own propaganda against them.