Group inaction in action

So here we are in 2011 bouncing along down the road.  Butts will be worn slightly more bruised this season.  America is starting to appear less like the place the olds used to speak of proudly, and more like countries the olds used to warn us about.  Something fundamental has changed.  So?  What is it? 

For one a certain segment of our population is under a kind of get poor slow attack the last few decades and it has worked to perfection.   Whilst another segment, a much-much smaller one is just giddy from the take all you can and pay nothing blitz rave they have been on, all the while enjoying a nice long mimosa scented tinkle down upon the rest of us.  Oh happy Fourth of July by the way. 

As a growing portion of us examine our economic conditions more closely than ever before, it is important to remember that even a struggling lower middle class lives much better in the US than in most other countries.   A comforting thought to be sure, but hungry is hungry even in Hungary.   Greed or something like that has pushed our leaders towards bowing down to the super rich at the peril of so many others.  Egypt and Syria showed the world you can only push people, so far.   While there is no equating the level of corruption, violence, cronyism, and thievery, in the US to anything near what has been perfected by our Eastern brothers.   They do seem to be “sending in plays”.  As we act and overreact to their troubles diverting desperately needed attention from our own. 

One small miscalculation being made by our leaders, is that here in America you will not find a more medicated, caffeinated over armed group of citizenry on this entire planet.  While I’ am a devote coward, it is much in the same way Shaggy & Scoobie are.   Afraid, but we act, because we must.  I do not condone violence of any kind as the solution for anything, to paraphrase, “violence is a blunt tool for carving out peaceful change.”

Nor I do not subscribe to the notion that all one need to do is open yourself to the universal love and you will find inner bliss, diet soda will be good for you, peace will bloom like a flower in the mid east and that stubborn last 5 pounds you have been running your ass off to lose will melt away then there will be key lime pie for dessert. 

It comes down to two lies were, are told.  One lie is that we as a country are broke.  Second is that the rich pay the lion’s share of the taxes both are untrue.

If we are broke?  How is it we have spent $ 758,956,404,867 and, change in Iraq and, we are still spending.  This is according to http://costofwar.com/en/.  

 Not to mention the thousands of dead American’s, that we so rarely seem to mention.   Second.  Well let’s put it this way.  How well has your 401k been performing over the last decade or two?  The single sector of growth in our economy are families earning 200k and over.  Every other sector has either fallen or remained flat.  This is according to http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/where-do-you-fall-on-the-income-curve/.  For the very top families wealth has more than doubled.   All this as our leaders from both sides display their mock indignation and scruples to the public and their privates to selected twitter followers.

Would you believe me if I told you that I think we can change this?

Lets wind the clock back 70 years.  People just like you and I put down there pencils and hammers walked away from there typewriters and coffee shop grills then willingly went far away to a place they were told someone was going to be shooting bullets at their heads.  They did this because they knew they (or were told) they needed to.  There is no discussion on whether the world has been a better place since.  They rightly have earned the moniker of “the greatest generation.”

Here now we are lucky enough not to have to go through all of that.  We still must act be act smartly and with out the need for bloodshed.  Yes we need to sacrifice but only a little bit.  The idea is a simple for one day every American voluntarily stays home from work.  If you are a 1^st responder, look inside yourself and make the choice.  In any case we consume as close to nothing as we can, on that day.  Understanding that every action taken every bit of power saved whether it is buying power or from our limited natural recourses will be felt, tabulated and analyzed by the huge corporations we all love so much.  And who in fact run to a large degree own our lives..

So you take one day off.  Spend our time reading or actually snuggling with loved ones.  Play games or sleep.    If you must watch TV or go on the net do so sparingly remembering the goal.   Be bored but be focused.   Focused on one goal.  Getting the top 1% in this country to pay their fair share.  Maybe even some back taxes.

We could do this people!

They are cutting funding to our schools and high-speed rail to keep tax breaks for the rich.  That is for the top 1%.  Hey!  The rest of us are 99%, so do the math they lose.  It is only by our inaction that this can remain the way it is.

Small business that is Americans buying stuff accounts for 70% of our economy.  If for one day there was reduced commerce in America our leaders would notice.  With out violence or mass street protests.  They would have little to hold over us to dampen the message.   The effect on the stock market alone of a one day American buying stoppage would be staggering.  It is true that some power brokers will try to take advantage of an action like this.   Any time you stand up for what you believe in it costs you something.  

 If history holds true than “first the will ignore you, then they will laugh at you, then they will fight you, then you win.” – Nicholas Klein.   Imagine Banks unable to stay open, gas stations unsuccessful in pedaling $5 gas.  If you took a date like 23, 2013 and no one bought or worked, consuming as little as they could for one day.

Just as in Egypt and other places the job will not be finished in one day.   The power of this protest is we can and will do it again.  The second time more people will join.  You know they will.  People are hurting angry and feel dismissed.  Hurting, angry dismissed people just love to join a crowd.  The third time even more will join.

It makes me wonder why it gets to the point where people have to shoot at one another to achieve change.  Is because people missed all the chances they had to get the same thing taking smaller actions because after all things are not so bad?  By the time it gets “so bad” will it be too late to take the smaller actions?

So I ask myself could I make such a sacrifice?   Am I willing to do nothing to achieve change?  For one day?  Two days?  Long enough to have eaten all the half bags of Doritto’s and cans of green beans in the back of my cupboards?  Could you?   Is it bad enough yet?

Diet soda will always be bad for us.  Many of us do not care for key lime pie.  But we can make our owners and leaders listen so they just can’t tell us how more tax breaks will get the idle 9.7% of us working again.  The real number of unemployed is closer to 15%.  The books are cooked to keep the numbers artificially low.  If you have stopped looking you are counted as employed. You just have more vacation time but you lose the dental.  This way we can effect change.  No war.  No people pouring into the street.  Our effect will be a hole, in the bottom line of our owners tally sheets.  A hole made by ordinary citizens like you and I taking action, by taking no action.  Eventually it will become less expensive for them to pay the tax than to keep seeing ever growing gaps in their income stream.  Just the threat of further uncertainty alone would have an effect.  The stock markets hate uncertainty. 

It is bad enough yet?

I return you now to your previously scheduled life already in progress, and I thank you for your time and careful attention.

Copyright © 2011 JV Wilder
All images from Google images