September 17, 2011 marked the start of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. That movement has went global in the days since Zuccotti Park was overtaken by the protestors.
The news media at first chose to ignore the movement; like a child, they hoped that by ignoring it the problem would go away. Despite this, social media covered the event.
Now, everywhere you turn there is a reference to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Twitter even has an Occupy Wall Street tag (#OWS). Everyone seems to have an opinion on this momentous time in history and no one is shy about broadcasting it.
Here are a few links for starters:
To My Friends at Occupy Wall Street: A Gift to Help You
Occupy Wall Street: The Gift
Anti-Semitism, Socialism and Delusion Within the Occupy Movement
Even I weighed in on my blog with a small piece on this phenomenon.
If you read the comments in the first three articles you will notice how heated these conversations have became; the sad part is that no one has hit upon the REAL solution.
The real solution is not protests.
The real solution is not welfare, socialism, communism or more government control.
The real solution is within reach of every single one of us, yet NONE of us want to take action and make a change. It is a simple action we can all take to make this capitalistic system bow down to its knees.
We need to stop spending.
Every dollar we spend is a vote we place in the marketplace. If two business are competing side by side, we have a choice of where we want to shop. Choose one because of a better service or a product and the other will eventually fail.
Choose neither of them and they BOTH fail.
It is called the simple economics of supply and demand.
When you to go a store and you buy something, you are placing a vote for that company’s practices. When you choose eggs from free-range chickens, you are voting against battery cages and animals raised in inhumane conditions.
When you buy a TV from china, you are voting to keep jobs in China. When you eat at a restaurant that only pays minimum wage and treats its employees like slaves guess what? You just voted for slavery!
When you buy that hand-sewn quilt at WalMart for fifty bucks you are voting for workers in foreign countries to continue making these items for pennies. When you buy a hand-made quilt from a local artesian you vote to keep your money in the United States.
If you are at a protest and you are filming it with your iPhone, you are voting for jobs in China. The same goes for taking pictures with your fancy cameras or wearing those shirts that were made with slave labor.
In fact, you are a hypocrite if you support this protest yet fail to take PERSONAL responsibility to the part YOU contributed to this mess. You are a hypocrite if you whine and cry and continue to vote for all of the things you see wrong in this world!
Consider this: for Halloween in 2011 alone, users spent $2.5 BILLION dollars on Halloween costumes, $310 Million of it just for their pets !
Way to go America! You gave $2.5 BILLION dollars to the very corporations you are fighting against at Occupy Wall Street! Good job!
If you are not willing to be the change then stop whining and asking for it! Change will NOT happen until YOU make it happen!
So close your mouths and check your wallets. How many votes are YOU casting?
References:
Occupy Your Checkbook
Proof that Voting With Your Money Works