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Forum Post: Something to Consider

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 16, 2011, 3:35 p.m. EST by jk1234 (257)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

From Market Ticker - cut and pasted below:

I've watched this movement, I've talked to people within it, I've observed.

And now I have to ask the salient question: Where do you actually stand on one important part of the issues facing this nation -- and indeed the world?

You need to decide.  And the question being asked here is simple: Do you or do you not accept, and formulate all of your other views and premises, around the following central point -- "Government must spend no more than it taxes."

It's a yes or no question and no weaseling is allowed.

A "yes" answer means, incidentally, that the government must cut spending by some 45%, raise taxes by 45% in received funds (not "rates" on some group), or some combination of the two - right now.

Now let me put the gauntlet down in front of you: If you don't support this, and come out for an immediate cessation of all deficit spending pretty much in the contemporary, immediate format, I cannot support you -- and neither can anyone else with any hint of intelligence.

I recognize that "the 99%" believe they got screwed by the banksters (the "1%", which really ought to be the 0.01%.)  You're right.  But screwing others will not make you whole.  You cannot become better off economically by taking a dollar from one pocket and putting it in the other.

This means that the "Free $hit" army nonsense has to be eliminated from your ranks, from your speech, from your demands and from your protests.  And it has to happen now.

It should happen because you voluntarily recognize that continuing it is (1) destructive because it is (2) impossible to provide and thus (3) you will contribute to the destruction of this nation and her government if these demands continue.

Note that this does not mean you can't argue for justice.  Justice occurs when you borrow money and can't pay -- you go bankrupt and lose your "stuff" and your credit rating.  But it also means that the person who loaned the money loses his or her investment at the same time.  That is justice -- not getting a "free house" or "free education" because you "deserve" it.

It is the latter half of the check and balance found in justice that hasn't happened.  It is the frauds involved in making bogus loans, securitizing bogus loans and lying about them, then knowingly selling crap labeled as "Grade A Chocolate", cost-shifting in the medical system and exempting student loans from bankruptcy that has led to these problems.   Private banks put all this crap together and lobbied for it, getting the ability to steal from the common man in the process because people demanded "free stuff" and to get it government had to deficit spend.  That in turn resulted in the ability to cover up the economic rot caused by offshoring your jobs and destroying our economy -- for a while.

The limits of that cycle have been reached.  It thus now will end, not because someone wants it to or doesn't, but because the math mandates that it cannot continue.

If you continue to press for this destructive cycle to continue the damage that will be done our nation, to you, to your children and grandchildren will go up exponentially.  That damage may reach the level of government and civil society collapse, and if it does odds are that what comes out the other side is much worse than what we have now in terms of corruption and loss of freedom.

In short, we have to be adults and cut that crap out -- right now.

So read the question above, debate it and then answer it.  Do so in your General Assemblies, on your mailing lists, in your public pronouncements.  But do it soon, because just as the Tea Party was co-opted by the "Guns, Gays and God" radical right wingnuts I see the same bomb-throwing rhetorical garbage corrupting what you're trying to do from the radical left.

There is no solution in the GGG radical right wing.  It won't work because it does not demand the cessation of the theft and fraud, the end of deficit spending right here, right now, today, and the prosecution of those who committed fraud upon the public everywhere we can find it.

But likewise there is no solution in the "bomb-throwing anarchist" left wing or calls for more "free stuff."  It won't work for the same reason: It does not demand the cessation of the theft and fraud, the end of deficit spending right here, right now, today, and the prosecution of those who committed fraud upon the public everywhere we can find it.

You must, and only you can, decide.

Is OWS a force for positive change, or have the real and just complaints that led to your formation been co-opted by those who have no solution to offer that can actually work and will advance justice and freedom for everyone in society, just as the Tea Party was co-opted and hi-jacked?

I, and others, are waiting for your answer.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=199297

6 Comments

6 Comments


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[-] 4 points by BlueRose (1437) 12 years ago

You all want a leader's name and a demand to smear.

[-] 1 points by ZenDogTroll (13032) from South Burlington, VT 12 years ago

You need to decide. And the question being asked here is simple: Do you or do you not accept, and formulate all of your other views and premises, around the following central point -- "Government must spend no more than it taxes."

that is a stupid right wing attempt to bind the hands of the government, even during times of emergency.

It's a non issue, and we will not be passing any Constitutional Amendments on it any time soon.

What we will do is

  • raise taxes

  • end corporate welfare

  • and jump with delight at the implosion of the repelican party

[-] 1 points by ithink (761) from York, PA 12 years ago

A. Government should not spend more money than it has. B. It should be some combination of cutting spending and raising taxes. C. This is a no brainier. Majority of the country agrees. So, someone remind me again why our government is unable to functionally work this out? Umm.. lets see. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that our government doesn't give a shit about what the majority of the country wants. It has been co-opted by a small percentage of the population that now make the decisions. The 99% has no power in government... at the moment anyway.

[-] 1 points by nograve (23) 12 years ago

We have no leader and our demand is far too simple for you to twist against us in your media. We are anonymous. We are you and me. We are he and she. We prepare your food, build your cities and cars, clean up the garbage. We are everywhere and everyone. We are the nine out of your ten. Expect us.

[-] 1 points by GirlFriday (17435) 12 years ago

Oh, dear gawd another fucktwit.

[-] 1 points by randart (498) 12 years ago

There are many people in our society who only want to cause problems and stir the pot. Some of them are far right and some are far left. It is incumbent on us as user of this site to ignore the idiots and fools.

There is a serious problem in this country and it seems to be related to the income gap. We need to figure out how to make this country work for all of us. I, for one, don't want to see starving children near death in our streets but that is where we might end up soon if we don't begin to agree on solutions.