Over a month ago out of curiosity, I had my first encounter with the Occupy Wall Street folks on-line. Although the majority of them seemed to be quite hostile to anyone who do not share their extreme left-wing oriented views, there were a few others that did set themselves apart from the madding crowd by showing some intellectual capability.
Now that they have been kicked out from occupying Zuccotti Park, I think they clearly need some intellectual leadership in setting some clear actionable goals in an OWS 2.0 movement effort next. Trying to solicit sympathy alone will most likely get them no where and offer really nothing to remove the crony establishments out of our system.
As far as our recommendation of actionable goals goes, how about trying to bring housing finance from the crony hands of Wall Street back to the common people on Main Street? That will immediately create many jobs that they could occupy themselves with, let alone getting a decent shelter for themselves, back on Main Street.
For a detailed plan, here again is the link to our public response officially submitted to FHFA, the regulator of the Fannie and Freddie, from PeoplesAlly Foundation in early September. http://www.box.net/shared/hpfqqajd1aremco716lr
Here below are some excerpts of our blog post exchanges on their site that I would like to give them an equal chance to voice their views to readers of our site.
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Oh, I see. PAF makes the mistake of living in utopian-capitalism-fairy-land, and judging others from atop the throne in his ivory tower there – all the while just dividing himself from the common ground and letting himself be conquered by oligarchs who would laugh at him behind his back …
My short message to all the Mises / Libertarian crowd:
I know that the current system is not the “capitalism” you regard religiously as near-utopia. But how in the hell do you not realize that the real world that people are living in today could not be brought to your free-market utopia for many, many, many years? How do you not realize that the money powers will not ever give you your utopia? This system is a one-way ticket to permanent, institutionalized, oligarchical collectivism. Oligarchy for the elites, collectivism for the masses.
Free-marketeers: you will be disenfranchised in the near future the way this system is going. Your idiocy is useful in think tanks and editorial pages when it comes to encouraging or justifying neoliberal economic globalization, or the latest privatization scheme, but your pesky idealism and your essential anti-authoritarianism leaves little room for you in the future of real capitalism – the capitalism of the real world. You need to realize that you are part of the 99.9% too, and you have to act on common ground with the rest of us now before we are divided and conquered into oblivion.
The unrealistic progressives are in the same boat as you are, and if you won’t help them now, they won’t be able to help you in the near future when Big Brother starts coming to oppress you, you unrealistic libertarian. This is about putting the brakes on a runaway capitalist machine heading for total fascism.
Why are you so paranoid that the Occupy Wall Street movement is more dangerous than the status quo? I too have grave reservations about what may come of nationalizations. The solution must be to come to the table and stand up against any tyranny that may come from any socialism that we enact to break the power of the big banks and the modern big politicos.
We don’t want to become the tyranny we despise. We don’t want to create a worse system. But the system right now is selling us out, totally abandoning us, and it will abandon you too. You won’t get your utopian free market capitalism from the status quo, ever. Just hold onto your highest ideals of liberty, opportunity, and justice and come to the table with us, and demand an end to the political bribery system, and an end to the power of the massive money-lending institutions known as the big banks and the Federal Reserve.
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Okay, I checked out your website for the first time.
I see you are pitching a new way of home-ownership. By all means, continue your business and continue trying to convince people who have jobs or savings that your business is a better way for them to own a home.
Your system, which pretends that the dollar won’t collapse, and pretends that “equity” isn’t just debt-based dollar ponzi speculation, is woefully inadequate to re-empower the people. As long as money only comes from debt, the banking money cartel will be the true government of governments and of corporations.
The “free market” is predicated in large part upon rational individuals using their money, their savings, or their capital to make free economy. It requires a fair and just system of law. But our very system of money is too far corrupted at this point to pretend we can use a free market to save ourselves. Likewise with our system of law.
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But I do respect your attempts to engineer something more fair for the common, Main Street people. Maybe your ideas will come into greater utility after we break up the money cartel and the Federal Reserve System.
Filed under: Economic Viewpoints, FARJHO, Federal Government, Housing, Mortgage, Occupy Wall Street, PeoplesAlly, SwapRent, Amped, Fannie, Federal Reserve, FHFA, Freddie, GSE, Housing finance, Libertarian, Mises, Occupy Wall Street, OWS, OWS 2.0, Zuccotti Park
Innovation Trio: SwapRent, FARJHO & TARELV 