The ‘hungry ghosts’ who own your mind and mortgage your soul

The Occupy Movement: What do they want and What do they stand for?

The Occupy Movement began as a people’s expression of dissatisfaction with Big Money’s manipulation of the economy, economic vehicles and sponsoring governments. Not only have they (Big Money) totally broken the systems while gouging loyal (read brainwashed and addicted) consumers but they have robbed the world of trillions of $s that could have eradicated poverty, could have saved millions of people from suffering, and could have ended hunger in the world. Not only that, but they crashed the economy (again) and eradicated trillions of $s in pensions from the stock exchanges of the world and government surpluses.

Lately, however, Occupiers are illustrating their dissatisfaction and resistance to gouging and manipulation where it matters most to most people, in the household budget.

You may be an Occupier

Occupiers are people who illustrate, in a non-violent manner, that they have reached the point where they are prepared to actively resist the manipulation of Big Money’s mechanisms of the economy, people’s lives, and the very world that we live in.

These activists are people like you and me, who pay bills, send children to school, run a household and work for a living. Anyone, such as yourself, who ever wondered how (for example) banks and cell phone companies get away with charging any sort of fee thumbsucked for every so-called service that they provide, and have started to take steps to avoid giving them more money, is en-route to becoming an Occupier.

Ever wondered what may be the actual cost of a text message? If you ever wondered why a text message can cost 25 cents in Canada and 35 cents if you text to the USA, and why you have to pay for incoming AND outgoing calls (no-one else in the world will do that), consider that most countries, especially the so-called poorer ones, give text messages for free. Even the poorest countries in the world, where people earn about twenty times less than people in Canada/USA, are as addicted to their cell phones as we are. How can someone in the Philippines, where the average household income is about $4,000 per year, afford cell phones for the family? Easy, they pay one way for calls even on pay-as-you-go packages (the expensive route) which include free voicemail and text, and charge 15 cent for a peak-time call and 7 cent for off-peak calls. Why then do we pay $100 month? Why are we paying so much for a cell phone contract that a family of four in India, who themselves have a cell phone contract, can actually live and eat and dress for that same $100 AND pay for their cell phone contract?

We are being gouged. Big Money’s greed is gouging us and milking us dry. Occupiers are the ones who are sick of the abuse. Big Money has been taking advantage of our goodness; we are being rewarded for being loyal consumers by ever-increasing traps in contracts, ever-increasing usage fees, never ending new taxes and levies. Occupiers are those people who are taking a stand against the abuse and manipulation of our lives.

It is becoming impossible to navigate the seas of corruption, greed and manipulation

I live in Canada, in a border city. I bought a snow blower in the USA last week (November 2011) just 5 minutes from my home. It is a $1,000 machine. Its manufactured by a Canadian company, and has a Chinese motor. I had to pay Michigan’s taxes of 6%. Then, coming through customs into Canada I paid another 13% HST. Nevertheless, I saved $350 by buying it from a big box store in the USA rather than from the same named big box store in Canada. It was almost 50% more expensive here in Canada to start off with. On the way over the bridge to Michigan I looked down into Sarnia at the petro-chemical plants pumping gas over to the USA. It went through my mind how ridiculous it all was. Thought about just how, within 5 minutes from, I would be filling up my vehicle in the USA with that same Canadian gas being pumped over the border. Canadian mined oil, refined in Canada, transported to the USA, sells for 13 cent a litre (48 cent per gallon) cheaper than what I can get in Canada. Why? Because the people of Michigan have illustrated their resistance to the fictional price increases of gasoline more effectively than we Canadians have done—but that is about to change.

The Occupy movement is in its infancy. It will grow, and grow, because Big Money is addicted to their greed. Big Money operators will go bankrupt because of lack of sales rather than become fair in their dealings with people. Rather than turn a company around, admitting that they had gouged too much and have a change of heart, they would rather keep the gouging up and just vanish, like thousands have done over the past few years.

Any good parasite knows not to kill the host. Big Money has lost that perspective. They have become bad parasites. Their hosts are sick, sucked dry, disillusioned and in mourning because politicians and Big Money abused their trust. The hosts are starting to push back to rid themselves of the debilitating effects of the parasites. Some people suggest that an enema can be a healthy start to rid oneself of a bad case of bankers.

There are thousands of ways big and small in which you can resist, irritate and throw a wrench into Big Money’s works. I discuss some of these ways in my writings. Also, hundreds of contributions from others flow in regularly. Share these ideas and help make their gauging and addiction to greed a little less pleasant.

During November 2011 we phoned Rogers to enquire why it was that we could not get a month to month cell phone contract when we don’t buy devices. They said that we can, it is possible. Just give them a credit card to bill and it is all done. We did that. A few weeks later the first bill arrives by mail. They charged $2.50 for a paper bill, but the good news was that we could change that if we went online and opted out. I was about to phone and make a stink about the $2.50 undisclosed fee because that, exactly that, is what these people have been getting away with for way too long. I was prepared to go to court over that. But then my eye caught something else. They described our agreement as a 3-year contract, not a 30-day contract. And then something else, voicemail was not included and would now be an additional charge, and the 911 charge, and the additional charges for “long distance messaging”, and there we went headlong into the abyss of lies and deceit that so often come from the likes of these people.  We phoned up and said cancel the damn agreement; this is just too much of a lie to want to associate with you guys. They said sure, the cancellation fee will be $800. Well, that was that. One contract for me, one for my wife. Two separate incidents. You know, of course, what that means. Yes, you are right. We will go to the Small Claims Court and file two separate court cases against Rogers and it would cost us $150 per case. Rogers would have to send a lawyer to Sarnia for each case, for each phase of the process (its a 3-step process). It would cost Rogers no less than $20,000 per case. Needless to say, we got what we wanted.

Imagine, if only few thousand of the many thousands of people burned by their cell phone company (Rogers are definitely not alone in their unethical practises) take them to Small Claims Court. There are not enough attorneys in the country to handle all those cases. Take it from me. It is easy to navigate that Court. Small Claims Court was made for this kind of thing. It gives the little guy the ability to exact justice against bullies. Been there, done that, even up to the Appeals Court, and all alone. The systems are friendly, just do your homework. I promise you that there is great satisfaction in attending the Court knowing that they are paying out tens of thousands of dollars to defend an $800 claim. Just because they gouged the wrong person, it can cost them a fortune. Be that wrong person, it is a good thing to do.

What do Occupiers want? We want to occupy our communities in peace and with goodwill in our hearts. We want to stop teaching our children that, “they are all out to get you”. We want to change the maxim of business from “buyer beware” back to, “your word is your honour”. We want common decency back in our everyday lives. We want to be able to trust in banks rather than despise them, we want to believe in attorneys rather than look at them in disdain as we recall the previous pig who lied to us and neglected his duty, we want to trust that elected officials will at least try to do a good thing before lobbyists and politics neutralize them and employ them for their own devices. Would it be nice to look at civil servants again one day and be proud that s/he is working for our city, or government and thinking that they actually cared to do a good job? We want to believe that the stock exchange is not manipulated, that mutual funds are not just shills and scams. Yes, Occupiers are idealists. We probably ask for too much. One thing that we won’t concede though is our dignity. We will take back our country and we will again occupy it with good people. If it means that we should dismantle Big Money, then so be it, but we will get our humanity and our land back.