Poor coverage

I read here and there not just that 54% of US citizens support the occupiers, but that some police are turning in their badges and quitting their jobs in the US rather than arrest or harrass the occupiers. I think they are brave young people, the occupiers, and if I lived closer I would join them or help them though I am 75.

Remuneration

I wonder what the opinions of pundits and newsreaders would be like, if they would get paid the same as advocated by our government for teachers. Only for the time it takes to read the news or write a biased article. Preparation, research, stuff like that does not count.

taxes

One tax regime change which could make a big difference in fairness is to institute a flat tax, across the board, corporations as well as citizens, everyone, and I mean every person, rich or poor, pays 15% flat income tax. Those who earn below a certain amount, currently on welfare, disability, and other government support, either pay no tax or are granted rebates. The point here is that if I knew that the CEO was paying 15% of her income, and the MP for my riding was paying 15% of his income, no exceptions, no deductions for expenses, then I'd be willing to pay mine. As it is now, I and everyone I know does whatever they can, saves every receipt, notes every expense, no matter how dubious, to write off against income tax. Not only does this favour those with accountants and those who spend more, it supports an entire and expensive bureacracy whose job it is to weed through millions of tax forms annually. A flat tax is a fair tax, a flat tax is a tax everyone can live with.

Robert Reich on the Occupy

Robert Reich on the Occupy movement.

If there ever was a nutbar it has to be O'Leary on CBC: "Greed is good!" "Money is everything".

Ed Deak.

Worth a read:

".... for the first time in more than half a century, a broad cross-section of the American public is talking about the concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top.

Score a big one for the Occupiers.

Even more startling is the change in public opinion. Not since the 1930s has a majority of Americans called for redistribution of income or wealth. But according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, an astounding 66 percent of Americans said the nation’s wealth should be more evenly distributed.

A similar majority believes the rich should pay more in taxes. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, even a majority of people who describe themselves as Republicans believe taxes should be increased on the rich.

I remember the days when even raising the subject of inequality made you a “class warrior.” Now, it seems, most Americans have become class warriors.

And they blame Republicans for stacking the deck in favor of the rich....."

http://robertreich.org/post/12168464049

re: mjscox

A flat tax still favours the wealthy, the real problem is the loopholes in the present tax system where business people go to Hawaii for a 2 day conference and can write off a 2 week holiday. Also a rich person can give a million dollars to a University and get a 40% tax break, the 40% is made up by other taxpayers. The problem is to repeat ARE ALL THE TAX LOOP HOLES AND TAX BREAKS THE WEALTHY GET.

#takebackCBC

Revolution usually occurs when the disenfranchised reach a critical mass in society. That critical mass is closer to reality in the U.S. than ever before but will still take more time through the relentless grinding down of the general population by the few. In Canada, the grinding is slowed by social programs which Harper is racing to dismantle so timing here will depend on the success of his plans. Europe is almost there. But has anyone wondered what the hell happened to our so called "public broadcaster"? How can CBC continue to collect over $1B annually in our tax dollars while cheer leading for the criminals who are robbing us blind? What happened to public accountability? When will the taxpayers of this country demand fair and unbiased journalism from their public broadcaster. I was one of those disgusted taxpayers who sent a letter to the ombudsman over O'Leary's disgraceful display with Hedges but nothing has changed. We need an Occupy CBC movement to take back our public broadcaster!

That is why I have not

That is why I have not watched mainstream media news for ages. It is so annoying I want to kick my tv. All the media is right wing pro corporations except for the Toronto Star. Even the CBC which used to be fair and balanced has not been for ages. They are almost as bad. They spin for right wing parties (just see how bad media is in BC for example.) and corporations and anyone else with a different opinion is branded a hippy, commies, lefty loser and other shaming language. Harper brought the divisiveness' into Canada..

On the other hand these Occupy Canada seem to be a flop as not many at all at them. The last big protest I remember was in the 80's in Vancouver where the finale was in Empire Stadium...during the solidarity era.. Ever since not much sad to say.

World monetary system

We have a debt based monetary system. All money is created through debt. The monetary system depends on money being borrowed so they can create more money. Without money being continually created the system would fail. Borrowing money to buy property or develop land creates over 60% of all money created. That make sustainability impossible. More land has to continually be develpoed

The Occupy Movement: the new 1960's

Back in the day, students protested the Vietnam War. It was an easy target that affected very family in the USA. So does the financial instability following the 2008 crash and the ongoing financial meltdown disaster in Europe.

The Occupiers may not have a single coherent voice now, but they will. The Wall Street Wankers should be hung, drawn and quartered for selling off skanky derivatives as if they were investments. It takes guts to protest the current state of affairs, but once the movement begins, there is no turning back the clock. This is no flash-in-the-pan demo.

When Mr and Mrs Ordinary are thrown out of their home by a bank, they will retaliate. Everyone has a phone number these days and eventually, so some of those bankers will find thir own homes in ashes.

OWN OUR DEBT!

Taking ownership of our Federal and Provincial debt and the printing of our own currency are by far the most positive steps we can make towards our reclaiming our sovereignty. If we as a people cannot agree on how much sweat equity we're willing to put towards our present and future as a country then we're doomed to have the private banks dictate what that slavery will look like. The choice is ours in Canada. We have the vehicle in the Bank of Canada but we have chosen to park it. We are test driving the private banks and compound interest has proven to be a more insatiable appetite for them than oil sands to the Alberta govt! Without being an expert on monetary policy and economics I would say that the little I know of compound interest gives me a feeling of nausea and makes me question the morality of allowing it to be legal.

Making banks an essential service and insisting on having a people's non-profit bank owned by Canadians for our every day needs such as transacting purchases of essential needs, student loans and housing loans makes much more sense to me. Private banks should be used for non-essential needs such as credit cards, car loans and vacation needs as well as corporate banking needs.

If I were to have a single demand for the Occupy Canada movement it would be: Own OUR Debt!

This would lend credibility to the movement as one that is will to assume responsibility for its action both now and in the future and would dispel the image of a bunch of displaced, wandering deadbeats with nothing better to do than hang out in a park as is often portrayed in the media.

OWN THE DEBT!

decoupling of the 'money economy' from the 'real economy'

as john mcmurtry and many other dissident economists have observed, the 'money economy' has decoupled from the 'real economy' (the economy of people and community and life and living). 'economic performance' is no longer based on 'real productivity', it is based on where money moves. government has attached itself to an economy that no longer relates to 'the economy of community/life and living'. does the performance of the CEO, the corporation, the Canadian dollar have anything to do with 'productive performance'? No. to use the metaphor of baseball, economists and government talk as if the 'hitting performance' is due fully and solely to the competencies of the 'hitter' as if 'fielding' did not predominate. the IMF celebrated Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and China, as having 'sound fundamentals' a mere few months before the Asian financial collapse. A huge influx of capital was suddenly withdrawn and so the performance of these 'hitters' was amplified and then attenuated, by, the 'movement of money', not by variations in the real economy. Does anybody really believe that there is a strong correlation between the CEO's performance and 'the real economy' that benefits community? His compensation soars when he is selling his own company down the drain, exposing it to takeover so his stock options will go through the roof. How about the Canadian dollar, the US economy hiccups and the Canadian dollar drops 20% overnight. The hitting performance has decoupled from the hitter and is being manipulated by the 'fielding', the movement of money.

Turn Off Your Cable TV

The MSM (Mainstream Media) is 99% propaganda. TV shows are called 'filler', to fill in between corporate advertising. The clients of MSM are corporations and governments. Not us, the people (the 99%).

As soon as our family turned off our cable TV, we suddenly found we had an extra 4 hours a day. To read. To think. To ponder. To become active. To support activists. The possibilities are endless.

Admittedly, modern TV is very, very addictive. Make no mistake. This is some very powerful (and very expensive) coolaide. Was it hard to quit? Yes. In the end, though, our lives are now changed forever. I can't recommend it enough.

Then one will get one's news from real sources (Tyee, rabble.ca, Al Jazaeera, Gush Shalon, Common Sense Canadian).

"Just give me MONEY"

I attempted to explain the concept of money to my children years ago and consulted the encyclopedia and thought about it a bit. Together we checked what a bank note said. In those days I believe it read something like:
"The Bank of Canada Promises to Pay"
Last time I looked it read: "This Note is Legal Tender". 'Course I do not have any bank notes in my pocket these days, just a bunch of plastic cards with many numbers and my name and a computer chip.
If I used all my "credit" left now I could probably put a down payment on some "Real" Estate. In the past that would have been just fine at times when "Nothing can go wrongo".
That time is over.
Now I don't know whether to keep on digging the hole I'm in or run to higher ground

What the Occupy groups are really 'demonstrating'...

However tentative, clumsy, or imperfect, I think the Occupy gatherings are showing us that there IS no place designated for democracy to take place. I think that is why the present 'democratic' systems aren't working, aren't resulting in self-governance or healthy, equitable societies. The system and infrastructure we have (nothing, basically, except political parties fighting for power through periodic elections at temporary polling stations), in not set up to produce self-governance. It is only a means by which one or another group gets control of spending and other 'governmental' decisions.

The type of 'democracy' I would like to see, and what I think many of the Occupy participants might be wanting, is a proper place for ongoing public, deliberative assemblies of citizens to discuss and come up with collaborative solutions to the problems, and responses to the predicaments, their communities and societies must deal with.

I do not mean the way 'democracy' has sometimes been represented: a mob of people incensed about this or that condition, event, or action, out to lynch the perceived perpetrator(s) and put some other dictator into power. I mean a respectful, orderly assembly with the mutual goal of self-government.

I think what all Occupy groups could best 'demand' is the allocation of a formal place, in every rural community and urban neighbourhood where all citizens (the 100%) could gather, where the rules of deliberative assemblies apply ("Where there are no rules, there is the least of freedom." Henry M. Robert, from Robert's Rules of Order). By keeping these local, they will remain small enough to function effectively.

The people we need to collaborate most closely with are, after all, the people in our own communities, globalization notwithstanding. I don't think globalization is going to prove viable as a means of organizing ourselves, either economically or politically, being based as it is on the conditions of cheap and plentiful concentrated energy from fossil fuels. We are on the downward slide back to relying on diffuse, locally sourced, locally distributed, and locally consumed energy sources, in my opinion, and we need to seriously take up the conversation amongst ourselves as to how we are going to organize ourselves to make this work and use what it offers to create healthy ecosystems, communities, and satisfying lives. There will be no lack of good, desirable work to do, I think, as we find ways to get closer to that post-intensive energy world, and no 'unemployment.'

mjscox - taxes

Every once in a while someone brings up the concept of a flat tax for businesses without really giving it any thought.
Think about a business with net income of 10% of sales. You would tax the 100% at an amount greater than 10% and obviously put them out of business.

Is that the objective?

"Taking ownership of our

"Taking ownership of our Federal and Provincial debt and the printing of our own currency are by far the most positive steps we can make towards our reclaiming our sovereignty."~ Aperalta

HOW? Democracy has been commodified, like everything the system decides is of value. We can beg and plead with the owners of the system, but we will get just enough to quieten down unless we DEMAND more. So what do we demand? A new system of governance, wealth and thus power.

"However tentative, clumsy, or imperfect, I think the Occupy gatherings are showing us that there IS no place designated for democracy to take place."~ shedding_light

Very nicely stated!

We ALL must move beyond this fallacy that we, the people, are in any sort of control. Without a revolutionary uprising to systemically change the brokerage of power, one which we must fight for, our future will be, at best, Singapore North.