Greedy When Fearful

10 Demands For The Occupy Wall Street Protest

The protestors don’t have an official list of demands, but I have some for our protestors.

1. Get off Wall Street.  Why just be symbolic when you can get real results? Here’s how to get results:
2. Get friends and family to switch to a local bank, or even better, a credit union. The banks can’t be too big to fail if they aren’t too big. Obama didn’t break up the banks but you can. Big bonuses can’t be paid if they don’t have money to burn.
3. Find Out When Teenagers Learn Personal Finance In Your Local Schools. If they don’t, lead the effort to make sure this is taught with writing, math, and history. If  you don’t know how to read, you shouldn’t be signing contracts. By recognizing a bad deal, you won’t make one. This is the #1 cause of the great recession that nobody talks about.  Education is your best defense against greedy corporations.
4. Pay Off All Credit Card Debt. The banks have no power over you if you don’t owe them money.
5. Massively Cut Your Spending. “The things you own end up owning you.” – Tyler Durden. Americans spend the majority of their money on three things: housing, automobiles, and education. Forget clipping coupons or canceling cable. Move to a cheaper area. Downsize your house. Rent instead of own (but do the math to make sure it’s actually cheaper). Sell your car and buy a used car with cash.  Ride a bike. Use public transportation. Try car sharing. American’s didn’t even have mortgages until after WWII. We set housing prices. Who says we need them now? It’s the serial savers that buy houses with cash. You can take guitar lessons or computer classes without going into debt but can’t get a degree without a student loan? When I got my CNE I could have paid $12,000 to a local tech school. Instead, I just bought the books and learned at home. Tested at the school. Cost? $1,000. I have seen this model applied to State University BS degrees as well.
6. Save 20% Of Your Gross Income. It doesn’t matter if banks aren’t lending to you if you don’t need their money. Start by auto-deducting $31 a month from your bank (it’s just a $1 a day!) and keep increasing it until you hit 20%. Pay this like your power bill.
7. If You Don’t Have A Job, Create One. Take your favorite part-time hobby and turn it into your favorite part-time job. The best way to bring economic equality is to compete with the fat cats and take market share from them. Apple, the biggest corporation in the world, started in a garage and a bedroom. What are you doing with your garage or bedroom?
8. Prevent Monopolies. Every dollar going to your neighborhood business is a dollar taken from the greedy fat cats. Paying more for a product built in America keeps jobs in America and builds the middle-class. I know this isn’t always possible. I occasionally shop at Wal-Mart. But, to prevent monopolies I also go to K-Mart, Shop Ko, Fresh Market, Smith’s, Amazon, eBay, mom and pop markets, and lemonade stands. Buy local and American as often as you can. If you patronize everybody with your hard earned cash, you have more power than our government to prevent monopolies, bail-outs, too big to fail, corporate lobbying, and outsourcing. Voting with your wallet is the most powerful vote in America.
9. Know who makes the products you buy. You may be supporting a monopoly and might not even know it. You may be supporting a company you are against when you could be supporting a company you are for. Look at what Procter And Gamble makes.  Check out General Mills. The amount of monopolies in America is shocking and is hidden under brands if you don’t pay attention. Next time you are at the grocery store, try to buy nothing made from Procter And Gamble Or General Mills. Flip the bottle over and find the distributor, that’s an easy way to find out. I have nothing against these companies but it’s a great exercise in monopoly detection.
10. Destroy The 99% By Becoming The 1%. Start your own business and become the 1%. Then, give the money back to the people that made you rich, your employees. Reduce the 99% to 90%, then 80%, etc. Taxing the 1% won’t fix the problem as the government is the leader in wasting money. We need good people to rise to the top, and then reward everyone who helped them get there. Why aren’t Apple Store employees making over $100,000 a year? They should be. The middle-class is shrinking because CEOs aren’t doing what’s best for society, they are doing what’s best for shareholders. YOU can build the middle-class. YOU can be the non-greedy thin-cat CEO. Just ask Derek Sivers. A multi-millionaire who cares about society first, and corporate profits second.

 Thanks for reading.

Monty