Lisbon, Portugal - September 29, 2012
Before I briefly dive into our current economic situation, allow me to define Capitalism and Democracy.
Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
If I was to take a few key words out of these two definitions and put them in a sort of mathematical order, I would get something like this:
system - private owners - eligible members - whole population - profit
Let me define another word.
Corporatocracy is a term used to suggest an economic and political system is controlled by corporations or corporate interests. It is generally pejorative.
Does this sound more like our current economic situation? Could the United States be next in line for extreme austerity measures?
Austerity in a country is when the government cuts their deficit by reducing benefits and public services. Sounds a lot like what Governor Mitt Romney and the Republican Party wants to do in 2013 (another rant for another day). The Occupy Movement that started in September of 2011 and is still continuing to protest today believe we need to change our economic structure to be more fair. They were partially inspired by the Arab Spring, who wanted to move out of dictatorship and into democracy. But is that what we have today? Do we have a true democracy?
Today, tens of thousands of Spaniards and Portuguese rallied in the streets of Madrid and Lisbon to protest against tax hikes, government spending cuts, and the highest unemployment rate among the 17 nations that use the euro currency. They want to fire their conservative governments. The people suffer from the bailouts and budget cuts while the governments do what they can to please the European Union, which is nothing more than a world bank, founded by the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC).
Today the EU operates through independent institutions such as the European Commission, European Parliament, and the European Central Bank. Don't be fooled to believe that actual European governments control the bank and profit from the interest. Just like our own Federal Reserve Bank, it is privately operated and owned by the central banks and its shareholders.
Banks are businesses and are on the top of the pyramid in a Capitalist society. And a business MUST make profit to stay afloat. We can go over exactly when these central banks made deals with world governments another time, but for now know this: OUR SYSTEM IS BROKEN.
The rich are getting richer. The rest of us are becoming poor. It's a catch-22 for corporations. They profit from the rapid growth of technology and the internet, yet as more of the world wakes up due to fast communication, the corporations will evidently have to change their ways. First, they need to stay out of government! They need to stay out of our resource management! They need to stay out of our infrastructure and healthcare decisions. Most importantly, they need to not be the final judges of human rights. The fight won't stop and will get more intense until we achieve our goals and fix the system ruled by the elite.
OCCUPY PORTUGAL! OCCUPY SPAIN! OCCUPY WALL STREET! OCCUPY EARTH!
