There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear.
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
-Buffalo Springfield
The media attention about Occupy Wall Street is on how some cities are turning to violence and police actions to scare off the movement. Wounded Marine and Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen was in critical condition after a police raid on Occupy Oakland.
The Occupy Wall Street protesters can take heart in knowing that police and military action is usually the last desperate act of power brokers trying to hold on to control.
If you can speak to the ghost of Muammar Gaddafi, he can tell you how firing on his own people worked out for him.
The days of clamping down free speech with violence are over. The average citizen, using social media, has too many ways to communicate, organize and stand up to oppression.
I think it will be difficult for the Occupy movement to maintain its outdoor protests through the cold winter months but I expect the seeds of their protest to have an impact for years.
Already, they have had an immediate victory.
Like many, I was outraged a few weeks ago when Bank of America tried to impose a five dollar a month fee for using debit cards. Although I wrote about it extensively, the ears of America were more attune thanks to Occupy Wall Street. It was another example of Wall Street and Main Street not connecting.
In the past few days, most of Bank of America's competitors have decided not to impose a debit card fee and even Bank of America itself is looking to modify (or hopefully eliminate) the charge.
Chalk this up as an Occupy Wall Street victory. Big banks have been sticking it to us for years, even after the Wall Street bailouts in 2008. This was one time where consumer outrage made a difference.
It may not be the last time.
I've been on a book tour promoting my new book, Wealth Without Wall Street, A Main Street Guide to Making Money.
The audience for my book has been those who are looking to implement ideas in a post Occupy Wall Street era.
Although the goal of taking money away from Wall Street is the same as people who are protesting, most of my readers are the "silent majority". They approve of the protest against Wall Street, even though they are not marching or gathering.
The Move Your Money movement has taken off since Occupy Wall Street started. People are taking away the power of Wall Street and giving more power to Main Street.
My book pushes the idea of individual action over collective action but Occupy Wall Street has a little of both. The Occupy Wall Street movement is giving voice to a wider group who are angry at what Wall Street has done to America.
I am sure the Occupy Wall Street supporters have to have days of discouragement, especially on days when they are being gassed, arrested and watching their colleagues be carted off to hospitals.
But as the debit card victory has shown, they are making a difference. They are voicing the anger of millions and that voice is having an impact on Wall Street.
And on Main Street.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the bestselling author of the book Wealth Without Wall Street: McNay, who lives in Richmond Kentucky, an award-winning financial columnist and Huffington Post Contributor. You can learn more about him at www.donmcnay.com
He is the Chairman of the Board for the McNay Settlement Group (www.mcnay.com) which provides structured settlement consulting for injury victims, lottery winners, and the families of special needs children.
McNay founded Kentucky Guardianship Administrators LLC, which assists attorneys in as conservators and setting up guardianship's. It is nationally recognized as an administrator of Qualified Settlement (468b) funds.
Follow Don McNay on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Donmcnay
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Yes keep on going OWS, one day ALL businesses and banks will be State run, just like China, yes. The USSR did it many years ago, Mr. Marx yes he would be proud of this, so proud. And Chea? Mr. Chea (ugh, forgive me the spelling of his name, it's OK?) anyway he would have been very happy to see the effort to harm America's businesses. I hear you all in SD California closed a coffee stand. Perhaps the State of California will send in a worker to reopen the coffee stand for the OWS down their. After all it is your right to have a coffee. Very impressive to be seen all over the world, like the former Soviet Union, can you imagine the happiness your spreading there? You should be so proud. It is sheik for them and you to be anti-business and anti-American.
The single best thing everyone can easily do, (right now), is to withdraw your money from the overly corrupt banking institutions we all know about and deposit it into your community banks. The community banks are just that... set up to invest back into our communities. This is a no-brainer people! It's easy, it's fast, it's non-violent and it will bring about the change everyone is looking for faster than anything else. Do it!
I use a small community bank. I can use any ATM for free (my bank pays any fees) and my money is still insured.
I cashed out in 2001 and plan to never go back to retirement accounts, George Carlin was right, they are out to get our retirement and won't stop until they do. Check out youtube video by George on the Owners of America. I watch it weekly, it gives me inspiration to do something for America...
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.
Here's another fun little verse:
They say our day is over; they say our time is through,
They say you need no union if your collar isn't blue,
Well that is just another lie the boss is telling you,
For the Union makes us strong!
Honestly, this country really needs a labor party.
I wish telecommuting were encouraged. Jobs like that are impossible to get. My work could be done at home, my daughter would have been home schooled and receive far superior education and I would have saved a mint on gas...less stress... We've had the technology to do this forever. Tools for having your own business are also available for e-commerce. We were supposed to have evolved long before this.
With interconnectivity and instant access to anything we could possibly need (including information) at the touch of a button...
the old brick and mortar crime castles seem doomed to extinction.
(the sooner the better)