Occupy Sheffield Cathedral

[onewheeldave 22]

Thanks for clearing up what it means the 99%,i didnt know 1% own 40 percent of the wealth.It still looks impossible to me though getting that 1 percent to give up that wealth without resorting to war.Surely thats not what we want or perhaps the mayans did know that something would happen in december 2012.

 

Well, as you can see on the wiki page under 'variations'-

 

"We are the 1 percent; we stand with the 99 percent" – by members of the "one percent" who wish to express their support for higher taxes, such as nonprofit organizations Resource Generation and Wealth for the Common Good.

 

some of the 1% are open to Occupys ideas.

 

I certainly don't think that war is the only way to sort out the problem.

 

Maybe a better way is to get people, both in the 99% and the 1%, to think why anyone would want to be in a group that owns 40% of the world wealth, despite making up only 1% of the population.

 

Currently the rich tend to associate ownership of vast amounts of money with things like success, happiness, accomplishment etc.

 

Which really doesn't make sense- plenty of others are successful, happy and accomplished, without feeling the need for hoarding some vast amounts of money.

 

Maybe when more people start to realise that such extreme hoarding is likely the result of an emotional or mental disorder, then obsessively pursuing money, just for the sake of getter richer, will become less appealing.

 

People like to be fit and muscular, but, if they get obsessed to the point of training 6 hrs a day, eating enough for 3 people and taking health damaging steroids- it's generally recognised that they have some form of emotional or mental issue.

 

It's good to be slim- but we know that if it goes too far and they become anorexic, that they have a disorder.

 

Why should we feel differently if a person aquires $70,000,000 and still spends every waking hour trying to get more, with zero regard for how or why, happy to invest in arms, landmines, poluting industries and exploit their workers- is that not a sign of an emotional/mental disorder?

 

Many of these people are also addicted to approval, to being seen as celebrities, as important people etc, etc.

 

Maybe if we got to a point where the ordinary public could see them for what they are- as people with a problem, then perhaps such extreme hoarding would become less prevalent.

[ab6262 202]

just a word to any organisers/members of Occupy on here , i will only say it once please do not leave your stupid pathetic leaflets in mine or any other business premises in the city centre without permission! found a whole bundle today of cheap photcopied tat, we dont appove and not do our customers, if i catch anyone leaving them again i will not be so polite, thank you

[onewheeldave 22]

The % that should be giving up their money/property/resources is you and me.

 

You have the kind of wealth people in Africa only dream about, but that doesn't bother you, you'd rather go after people who have even more than you, do deflect blame from yourself ?

 

(I don't mean you, as in you personally, I mean us, the west, the rich people)

 

There's a lot of truth in that.

 

I think some people are kind of thinking that if the 40% of the worlds wealth owned by the 1% were taken and distributed, then everyone could live really well- give the Africans some of it etc, and the whole world can live like our upper-middle class.

 

But you're right, over here people complain of poverty if they happen to earn £1k less than their neighbour- while the real poor in Africa are starving, watching their children starve, under threat of being hacked apart by macheti wielding militia, over here people want a pay rise so they can upgrade from a 40" to a 50" plasma screen TV.

 

But, the poverty of Africa is not natural or normal- it's being created and maintained by western foreign policy and is just one end of a thread that terminated with that vast accumalation of wealth owned by the 1%.

 

Neither can it be 'shared out' in the sense mentioned above. It's money, and money has not been linked to anything real (e.g. gold, as it used to be) for quite some time.

 

Much of that money is digital- it's an abstract concept, that really doesn't relate to anything actual- like resources (food etc).

 

People have to decide what's really important- if they're anticipating that equality will mean everyone in the world gets the 4 bedroom house, 2 cars, plasma screen tvs, a couple of holidays abroad every year etc, etc, then they're living in a fantasy world.

 

If that's the only life that can be envisioned as being worthwhile, then they, just like the 1% with their obsessive hoarding disorder, are also under a delusion.

 

If, instead, they see that what's really important are the basics of adequate food, shelter, warmth, happiness, for everyone, then maybe we're in with a chance of this working.

[Tony 10]

You do a great line in why other people should change but not you.

[onewheeldave 22]

just a word to any organisers/members of Occupy on here , i will only say it once please do not leave your stupid pathetic leaflets in mine or any other business premises in the city centre without permission! found a whole bundle today of cheap photcopied tat, we dont appove and not do our customers, if i catch anyone leaving them again i will not be so polite, thank you

 

If you pop by the camp, I'm sure they'd appreciate you dropping said leaflets off so they can reuse them, and, I expect you'd get an apology and an assurance that it won't happen again

[jim lyon 11]

Has anyone actually seen a concise summary of what these 'occupy' protests are protesting about and what they want as a solution.

Several areas of the media in London have tried but we've still seen nothing apart from 'wooly' comments.

 

You're NEVER going to learn from mainstream TV as they're just part of the establishment & are sucking up to the corporations !

If you REALLY want to know, try looking around the internet or RT freeview channel 85, particularly "The Alyona Show" - 3-4 AM or the "Keiser Report " !

or try looking @ RT.com or on facebook.

Or less recently - anything by John Pilger , Naom Chomsky etc.

As for ORIGINAL causes as to why our soceity's are so dysfunctional &

our governments corrupt, then read Alice Miller @ http://www.alice-miller.com

or look her up on the Amazon book catalogue ( NB I don't mean Alice DUER Miller, as the Amazon search engine doesn't discriminate bwetween them )

[ghost rider 10]

Well, as you can see on the wiki page under 'variations'-

 

 

 

some of the 1% are open to Occupys ideas.

 

I certainly don't think that war is the only way to sort out the problem.

 

Maybe a better way is to get people, both in the 99% and the 1%, to think why anyone would want to be in a group that owns 40% of the world wealth, despite making up only 1% of the population.

 

Currently the rich tend to associate ownership of vast amounts of money with things like success, happiness, accomplishment etc.

 

Which really doesn't make sense- plenty of others are successful, happy and accomplished, without feeling the need for hoarding some vast amounts of money.

 

Maybe when more people start to realise that such extreme hoarding is likely the result of an emotional or mental disorder, then obsessively pursuing money, just for the sake of getter richer, will become less appealing.

 

People like to be fit and muscular, but, if they get obsessed to the point of training 6 hrs a day, eating enough for 3 people and taking health damaging steroids- it's generally recognised that they have some form of emotional or mental issue.

 

It's good to be slim- but we know that if it goes too far and they become anorexic, that they have a disorder.

 

Why should we feel differently if a person aquires $70,000,000 and still spends every waking hour trying to get more, with zero regard for how or why, happy to invest in arms, landmines, poluting industries and exploit their workers- is that not a sign of an emotional/mental disorder?

 

Many of these people are also addicted to approval, to being seen as celebrities, as important people etc, etc.

 

Maybe if we got to a point where the ordinary public could see them for what they are- as people with a problem, then perhaps such extreme hoarding would become less prevalent.

As you say people who think that way could suffer from a mental disorder.I believe a fair proportion of them, not all of them are probably sociopathic, one example being gadaffi.They tend to show no morals or emotion and no feelings of remorse for their actions and believe they are the most important person and their needs come first.They wont give up that wealth easily much like gadaffi wouldnt,talking to them just wont work.There are exceptions like richard branson,bill gates.Sociopaths cant be cured either.

[nomis78 10]

As you say people who think that way could suffer from a mental disorder.I believe a fair proportion of them, not all of them are probably sociopathic, one example being gadaffi.They tend to show no morals or emotion and no feelings of remorse for their actions and believe they are the most important person and their needs come first.They wont give up that wealth easily much like gadaffi wouldnt,talking to them just wont work.There are exceptions like richard branson,bill gates.Sociopaths cant be cured either.

 

oh i dont know, bullet could do a good job of it [/sarcasm]

 

and i agree that the situation in africa is more presing then our own, but in alot of ways we are rather powerless to help that until those at the top are knocked down a few pegs and start listening to the people they are supposed to represent, bit of a catch 22

[Tony 10]

We're not powerless at all. How would you feel if the UK government increased its overseas aid budget from £9bn to £100bn?

 

It would only need a small cut of 10% in government services and civil servants wages. How about it?

[Bulgarian 10]

But, the poverty of Africa is not natural or normal- it's being created and maintained by western foreign policy and is just one end of a thread that terminated with that vast accumalation of wealth owned by the 1%.

 

I'm not sure, a lot of it is down to having too many people living on land that can't support them, in the past they would have just starved to death, now they are kept alive, but only just.

[nomis78 10]

We're not powerless at all. How would you feel if the UK government increased its overseas aid budget from £9bn to £100bn?

 

It would only need a small cut of 10% in government services and civil servants wages. How about it?

 

I think you may have missed the point I was making.

 

I would like to see that on the proviso that the cuts were made I sucks way they didn't jeapodise our allready struggling services like te current cuts are doing. I've seen many people in our local council loose their jobs thanks to "lack of funds" because of cuts that really shouldn't have been made

 

These cuts are simply putting more and more pressure on allready faultering departments. Why I meant was, as an average person on te streets tere isn't much that we can do until those in power actually begin to listen to those that try are supposed to represent instead of the interests those that have deeper pockets and money invested in the parties.

 

(and no, I dont work for the council, I am however employed by a charity that is hosted within a council building so I have no vested interest in making those comments)

[anywebsite 10]

We're not powerless at all. How would you feel if the UK government increased its overseas aid budget from £9bn to £100bn?

 

It would only need a small cut of 10% in government services and civil servants wages. How about it?

 

That depends how it's spent. A lot of foreign aid is just bribes to other governments so that they support our government politically. Even some of the most well intentioned aid can help to prop up bad governments (lots are even worse than ours), or worse undercut & kill off local industry to make them more dependent on aid.

 

I'd rather have a tax rise than a cut in already stretched public services to pay for it, but it'd have to be aid that helps those areas to develop, rather than what usually happens.