Find me an OWS demonstrator that lives off the grid, grows his own food, makes his own clothes, uses no motorized transportation, built his house out of the forest, shoots a muzzle-loader, and I’ll listen. The rest of you hypocritical no-loads better take a hard look in the mirror before you rush out to condemn the corporations that provide you with all the paraphernalia required to survive in your soft condition. Your own purchasing habits have created the very evils you’re protesting against. You wail about all the jobs lost to cheap foreign labor and yet you bypass domestic craftsmanship in favor of price. You curse CEO’s for chasing profit while you surf the net for a better deal. You cry foul because the wealthy are not sharing with you and yet you’ve risked nothing to earn their favor. You are entitled to opportunity, nothing more. What you make of it is entirely up to you.
Stop your whining and build something. Build a house, or a company, or maybe a resumé. If you want to affect real change then change your own habits first. Buy value not price. Seek out quality in durable goods (pun intended) and buy local where you can, especially consumables. Local produce is better, fresh, and sustainable. Of course buying local also means you’re limited to what’s in season locally, not in Peru or Chile. So if you want corn or peaches in December then you better get your granny to teach you how to can produce in July. (And again we are slapped with the painful fact that we are soft and no longer self-sufficient.) If enough people embraced buying local produce, U.S. agri-business would have to make fundamental changes. It would no longer be profitable to irrigate the California high desert and truck lettuce to New York if the people of Manhattan insisted on stuff grown just up the Hudson.
This is just one example, loosely constructed, of how a shift in purchasing habits could affect the big bad corporations. It won’t happen overnight but it could bring about long-term change. If you disagree with the business practices or ethics of a particular company, avoid supporting it. Find a better alternative, and tell your friends about it. If you want some book shelves for your study don’t go to the big box store and get some cheap crap made from clear-cut rain forest materials shot together with staples in Taiwan. Find a local craftsman and buy something made by hand that will end up serving your great-grandchildren in stead of ending up in the burn pile in ten years. If you’re in the market for a canoe and want a boat the kids will name and use to teach their kids one day, I know a guy…
Captialism is far from perfect but if you hate it enough to protest against it at least have the purity to do so without simultaneously depending on it. If you truly feel everyone should share everything regardless of input, Aeroflot has a non-stop from JFK to Moscow departing at 7:00pm.
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An interesting read, and I agree its hard to hate a system your a part of. I didn’t take part in the protests because I wasn’t sure what the clear goals were. However, corporations do have way too much infuence in politics. especially since the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Citizens United case. While it is possible to live off the gride (ala the Unabomber) that would be a step in the wrong direction.
Most of the problems we face are because of outdated systems. Government, religion, capitalism, socialism, have become outdated in their current forms. No amount of reforms will fix the problem. We need to evolve and bring our institutions into the 21st century. We need a new system. Keep the good stuff from the old ones and build the new ones from past lessons.
Is it possible? Maybe. Are we ready? Some people are and some would fight change. So in my humble opinion its time to go forward not backwards.
Me thinks that Johnny isn’t from around these parts. I’m not so sure traditional “government, religion, capitalism” are out dated. The problem seem to be that the baby boomers (of which I am one) have been brought up on Dr Spock theories followed closely by “I’m OK, you’re OK” nonsense. To many of these folks have changed the traditional values of our country and ahve not kept “the good stuff from the old ones”. What I do have trouble with is constitutionally mandated items such as defense becoming discretionary spending while welfare, medicaid and yes, social security are mandated spending. Did I miss that day in Civics class? I believe in a fair wage for a fair days work I don’t believe unions of any have a right to dictate where a company can or cannot do business. I believe that at one time teaching was a calling not a place to work for 8 months (counting holidays and summers) and get paid 12. I also don’t believe in tenure, you do good you keep your job, do bad bye bye. Sorry for the rant but between NEA, SEIU and AFL-CIO this is becomeing a 3rd world country IMHO
GREED!!!!!! ITS ALL ABOUT GREED AND WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME.
THE WHEEL HAS LOST ITS SPOKES.
NOW WHAT ?
SIMPLE FIX JUST SIT DOWN AND THINK ABOUT IT. THEN FIX IT. WE HAVE TO MANY MINDS AND TO MANY IDEAS IN THIS COUNTRY.
IF I AM OUT PADDLING MY CANOE ON A NICE SUNNY DAY AND HIT A ROCK AND END UP WITH A HOLE IN MY WOODEN CANOE IWILL STOP AND FIX THE HOLE. THEN GO ON MY WAY UP RIVER AND REACH MY DESTINATION AND HAVE A GREAT DAY…
THIS COUNTRY IS IN A BIG CANOE GOING DOWN RIVER VERY FAST WITH A HOLE IN IT AND NEVER STOPS…
JUST MY TWO PADDLES!!
WHAT CAN I SAY I LOVE CANOES.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about buying local, and about self-reliance. I also understand that you see hypocrisy in a person spending their money on Chinese goods and then complaining about corporate greed. I endeavor to learn how to maintain my own equipment, build my own boat, to sew, and even to raise as much of my own food as possible. With that said, I have to say that I agree with some of the Occupy Wall Street crowd, because I understand how Wall Street thwarted the system for protecting investors, how they exchanged money for political favors that inflated the bubbles higher, and how they got the taxpayers to bail them out when the bubble inevitably popped. I am not against capitalism, or corporations that provide a reasonable product or service for a reasonable fee. I am against the expansion of the financial services industry into more and more exotic and arcane forms of finance, most of which was unregulated entirely. Consumer banks have rules they must follow, but the investment banks had very few rules, no oversight — even from their own CEOs — and ultimately few consequences when the whole house of cards came down.
I am for the reform of financial regulations. I am not for nationalizing banks, or their losses.
Agreed. Corruption has no place in business, finance, or government and should be dealt with harshly where ever found. Unfortunately our institutions are a reflection of society in general and until people of character take action, little will change. And characters squatting on Wall Street is not the kind of action that will affect real change. The American people need to reaffirm the values that built this nation and change our habits/behavior to match the results we wish to obtain.
Steve is going to get me for spam!! HE HE HE.
Hey maybe one of us canoe builders should run for office.
We have a shortage of people that don’t have a trade. Shop class in the schools has been gone for years. Not everything is computer related .
Us Americans need to put our helmets on and get in the game. I have had a few kids at my shop that show no interest in canoe / woodworking. Your not going to get rich building wooden canoes I grant you that, but what about pride. OH MY BLOOD PRESSURE IS GOING HIGH!! Everything needs to be regulated. 4.00 for a gallon of milk :{ gas 3.55 Gallon. When I was a kid we had jobs all over.
I could make 200. to 300. per week extra.
I could save a a new car cash. Rent an apartment for 350.00 month. Today these poor kids are having a bad time starting out in life. We need a scrap all the rules and make new rules.. Don’t invest your money if you have any, Or some one will madoff with it.
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