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Comment by Jeff on October 29, 2009 at 2:28am

Thanks for reading this and THANK YOU for responding with your comment.

Obviously I don't have all of the answers.

However, let me say this. The power, as you rightly point out in your response, is in OUR MONEY. The few dollars all of us (well, not us) keep parked in the banks.

The reality is that we probably can't convince 330 million, or whatever the population of working adults might be in this country, to withdraw funds and close bank accounts, but we don't need to.

Only a small portion of people would be needed to affect a major change. Yes, it would play havoc with the system we've all come to enjoy. But at the same time, many of us are distraught, overwrought and distressed that we simply can't have an effect. Perhaps we would all be willing to endure a short period of hardship to affect the changes we so desperately want. I am.

I haven't got all of the answers.

What I am convinced of is this. If, over the course of the next year, or more, or less, we were able to convince a fair number of people to close their accounts we would be able to take back the power we've ceded. Then, we would have the ground to stand on to demand and get the things we want.

I want an end to foreclosure. No American should face losing their home because they've lost their job. I want health care for all Americans, NOT health insurance which is a waste of money. I want an end to money in politics. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in North Dakota. We need to declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We can build this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended on it. It does. We here at 12.160Mhz know that better than anyone else. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and your community and your nation.

As I've stated, we've closed our accounts, discarded our credit cards, we are allowing our home to foreclose after 19 years of diligent on-time payments, we've given up our cell phones, we no longer buy anything other than real food and even the most innocuous additives are avoided, we do not eat out, ever, we repair our clothing, we buy only the minimal gasoline for trips we absolutely must make. I'm almost 60. I've stopped shaving and I've stopped cutting my hair. I look like an American Taliban and I'm proud of it. We're doing whatever we can to avoid participation in the system.

And as a caring American citizen, I urge everyone to consider the impact these statements would have if we all collectively enacted them in our lives. They aren't permanent. They need only be used for a short period of time. BUT, they would work if enough people participated in non-participation.

Since there are people on this planet that live their entire lives in mud huts without electricity or any modern conveniences, it's the least I can do as an American citizen.

Comment by youhavetoforgiveme on October 29, 2009 at 2:00am

Hmmm....an interesting concept.... If I understand this correctly, it could and should work :) May I? May I play "Devil's Advocate"?

Starting a website is easy....driving traffic to it isn't much harder (and believe me, that's not easy without an advertising budget).... How do you propose to convince a third of a billion people-- most of them lethargic-- to work harder when they don't believe that there will be any benefit in even trying? Hell-- most of them won't even so much as VOTE once a year....let alone buy money orders once a week or month.

Another challenge I see is at least two-fold. The first is that if everyone did as you suggest (close their bank accounts tomorrow and demand the money that they are owed), the banks would pull that horseshit rule where they have up to (I think) 60 days to actually pay you your money. Most American families (if they are lucky) are floating "hand to mouth"/month to month....they cannot afford to wait that long. Another challenge is that if they couldn't play that card against us, then the resulting chaos would bring not just the banks, but everything else to it's knees. For example...there would be no money to pay the public utilities workers or the electric bills that pump the clean water in and the raw sewage out. If nothing else at all, without proper sanitation our society as we know it today would collapse within weeks.

Another challenge: How do you propose to convince tens of thousands of businesses to stop using direct deposit and pay their employees in cash-- especially the ones that are forced to make payroll on credit?

Just a few thoughts....

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