OCCUPY THE BANKS

WHY BANKING IS PROBLEMATIC.

Firstly let's look at how the banking system works. Every nation has a Central Bank. This Central Bank produces currency. It also controls interest rates and inflation. A Central Bank does this by loaning, not giving, money at interest to a nation. Inflation is dependent on increasing and decreasing the supply.

This loaning of money produces debt. It can ONLY produce debt because for every dollar loaned what is owed back is the initial dollar plus interest. Where does this money to pay the debt come from? The Central Bank, loaned at interest thus producing even more debt. It is impossible for this debt to ever be repaid. In fact, the debt can only ever increase. This is a system of slavery, Debt Slavery.

The problem here is not just banking. Whether you are looking at a theoretical dollar in a bank account or a physical dollar in your hand, it came from a Central bank, loaned at interest. A long-term goal of all peoples across the earth may have to be the tearing down of this system because the cycle of ever increasing debt has only one end result; all the money, and all the resources in the hands of the bankers with homelessness, destitution and abject poverty for the rest of us. There really can be no other result of this system.

For the time being we need to address the next level of banks; the large National and International banks that borrow from the Central Banks. If, like me, you live in a country where you cannot get paid without a bank account, then you must have one to live. This is actually a corruption. It was not so long ago that you could receive a pay packet; cash in an envelope with a time sheet, calculation of gross amount earned, tax, union fees, and net earnings. Now, everything is done electronically forcing us all to have a bank account. But is this legal? No. In most countries it isn't. You cannot legally be forced to use a service; any service.

I understand many people will not wish to be paid in cash. What if I get mugged and I'm carrying my entire pay? You are already getting mugged every week by the banks through forcing their service upon you in order to live, eftpos fees, automatic teller machine fees, face to face teller fees, internet fees, other bank fees, monthly fees, interest fees on loans... You get the picture.

If it is impossible for you to receive a pay packet and you are forced to have a bank account or the fear of not having a bank account means you choose to pay the fees to have one then you can use a Credit Union. Credit Unions are the smallest banks, often offering lower fees and sometimes even higher interest rates than the large banks. They also operate more locally which is of greater benefit to the immediate community. But please remember that even credit unions and cold, hard cash does not address the corrupt banking system. All it does, is cut out the large banks that are also using a system of debt to chain a nation into debt slavery. Thus it reduces the number of bankers getting rich off your work.

What does this have to do with #OccupyWallStreet? The bankers first introduced to Wall Street margin loans in the 1920's. Margin loans mean that stock can be bought for a percentage of their value with the remaining percentage being debt. So a person may own $1000 worth of stock while only having to front $100 initially. These loans were very popular prior to the Great Depression and are increasing in popularity now. Margin loans can be called in at any time. This is called a Margin Call.

Lets take a look at history so we don't make the same mistakes. The cause of the Great Depression was an en masse Margin Call which sent smaller banks into bankruptcy where they were bought up by larger banks at a fraction of their worth. Individuals also went bankrupt en masse. Simultaneously Central Banks decreased the money supply thus deflating the value of the dollar. This done, Central Banks and large banks gained a monopoly on fees, interest rates, the distribution of wealth and control over the nations debt. Thus was born the worst depression in history. Lets not walk that path again.

The attack on #WallStreet and the #LargerBanks is the perfect action of protest against debt slavery and a future repeat of the Great Depression because it preempts these tactics being used again while making a huge dent in the current system opening the way for a possible more equitable situation in the future (which of course will require a great deal of work by us, the people, to create).

So, close accounts entirely if this is a possibility for you or move your money into small local Credit Unions. It may not be the end game but certainly is a good start.

OCCUPY THE STATISTICS

UNMASKING THE LIES

To unmask the lies within any set of government statistics the first thing to look at is who not is included and who is included. Here, I am going to use the Australian statistics of employment and unemployment as a working example. This can be applied to any country with just a little bit of research. I apologize if this article is a little dry but numbers, facts, figures and percentages are hard to make super exciting. The interesting bit is how they are manipulated to produce falsehoods.

Right now Australia is boasting a low 5.25% unemployment rate. But how accurate is this? Who is and who is not counted?

NOT COUNTED

The homeless: it would be fair to say the homeless are likely to be unemployed. Objection.

Under 15 year olds: fair enough. There are child labour laws for a reason. No Objection.

Over 65 year olds: Many over 65 year olds need to work. Some do work and some are looking for work. Objection.

Anyone in a mental or rehabilitation facility or hospital: Surely these people will need to work upon their return home. Objection.

Adult students: Most students need to work to survive. Objection.

So, is Australia's unemployment rate really 5.25%? Clearly it isn't. The only people included are between the age of 15 and 65 years old who are not adult students, homeless, in hospital or in an institution.

Are the other 94.75% in full-time employment, receiving AWOTE's calculated average wage? No, they are not. AWOTE (Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings) only calculates full-time workers. It excludes part-time and casual workers, of which there are 3 407 100, anyone institutionalized, those in hospital, the unemployed, adult students and the homeless. So, realistically AWOTE figures are completely useless. I could pull a figure out of my imagination and have a better chance of being more accurate.

The Australian population is 22 742 803 people. Of these, 18% are under 15 years of age leaving our 15 and over population at 18 649 098. 13.5% of the Australian population is over the age of 65. So, what we really have here is:

3 070 278 over 65 year olds who may or may not be retired, still working or in need of work. Over 3 million people ticking the unknown box hardly leads to accurate figures!

19 672 525 people are left minus adult students, the institutionalized, those in hospital and the homeless. There are 2.118 million adult students in public funded university's and Apprenticeship Incentive Programs. The figures for institutionalized, homeless and hospitalized people are not included in The Australian Bureau of Statistics.

So, what is the real unemployment rate in Australia? 5.25% plus adult students 9.31%

Total 14.56%. Plus all those for whom there no figures available and who amount to over 3 million!

The true figures can only be approximated as between 15 and 30% unemployed and a further 15% under-employed in part-time and casual work.

So, what looked like 94.75% of the population in full-time employment, turns out to be 55% in reality.

Unmask the lies. OCCUPY!

OCCUPY PUBLIC TRANSPORT

A think local, act global article

How does public transport relate to the Occupy Movement? The answer is simple. Big oil has had the world over a barrel, pun intended, for long enough. Even with a global oil crisis; world trade, governments, politicians and local councils have refused to begin switching to non-oil transportation methods. Science has found alternative methods. The resources are available, so why then, do our politicians and world leaders refuse to play ball? The simple answer is big oil is big business. Oil tycoons will not willingly relinquish their hold over the worlds wealth and will use every method at their disposal to keep governments beholden to them. The 99% can change this.

Here I will begin by using a local example and then look at how this can be expanded to a global understanding.

Queensland's public transport system is called Translink. Translink provides buses and trains throughout all of the State. Not so long ago it switched from cash tickets to a swipe card system. To 'encourage' the card system it grossly inflated cash bought ticket fares while swipe card fares were inflated but to a lesser degree. If anything goes wrong with the card $5 is automatically taken from the cards value even if the fault rests with translink. Now, if I tried to steal a $5 bus ride I would face the full force of the law which is currently an automatic $200 fine. Translink has 23 zones with fares up to $24.60 for a one-way journey. Bottom line, petrol costs less there and back than the public transport system does one-way! To add insult to injury Translink is able to steal amounts of $5 periodically from over 300,000 public transport users without facing any repercussions at all. There is process one can undergo to get their $5 back but it requires knowing the exact day, date, time, bus number and bus-stop number to prove the fault lies with Translink. Even if one does manage to succeed at this much, there is then a two week delay in having funds returned. One person cannot take this company to court for system theft and win. It requires an entire community to picket local government. Translink's excuse for the swipe card system is to make it easier and faster for the consumer. I don't know about you guys but it's easier for me to not be stolen from and for companies, councils and multi-national industries to be subject to the same theft laws I am.

So, why is Translink so expensive? Simply put, it is expensive because it relies on oil. In Melbourne where public transport uses electric trams, trains and buses, the public transport system is under a quarter of the cost. So, what is your local public transport system like? Does it encourage or discourage public usage? Is it environmentally friendly or running on dirty oil?

So, lets expand this back to a global understanding. By applying pressure to local councils, state councils, local government, national government and international trade for non-oil transportation we can drastically lower the cost of public transport and all products transported in an environmentally friendly non-oil manner. This redistributes the wealth by lowering each individuals transportation costs and product costs while simultaneously crippling big oil and it's tycoons. In this way, the 99% get to reverse the situation and have big oil over a barrel for a change.

SabA-DVal