Perhaps the biggest reason I take issue with the idea that any of you speak for me is this ludicrous list of demands that you claim 99% are in favor of. From what I can gather, you simply want the state to solve all your problems. A living wage... a trillion dollars for this or that, debt forgiveness, free college, extended union rights, rights based on gender or race... you know the list. The only thing you do propose that I am in agreement with is your proposal for open borders.
If you truly want living standards to raise in this country, then from my point of view, you should want more investment in capital goods. If you want wage rates to raise, again, more investment, since investment capital is used to pay for wages during the production process prior to the consumer good hitting the market. The only way for an economy to grow is through savings and investment; that is the reality of living in a world of scarcity. Forgoing consumption in the present in order to invest in tools (capital goods) that make production of consumer demands quicker and easier. All this government manipulation of the market place will only make us all impoverished in the long run. Hence, if you really want the end to fossil fuels, you should be investing in alternatives and refusing to use fossil fuels. I wonder how many people out there who hate oil have actually refused to use it? I wonder how many people out there who think cars are causing global warming or climate change, and constantly complain about their existence, have stopped using cars themselves?
Why? because everything the government does is through force. Any proposal for a "living wage" neglects the very purpose of the pricing system to begin with. Housing, cars, healthcare, and every other good out there, does not come out of thin air. Labor, mixed with land and capital, is needed for it all. This is because we live in a world of scarcity. The affect of a living wage would simply be widespread unemployment and a situation in which big business has even more of a strangle hold on everyone else, since they would be the only ones capable of paying this living wage, and after all, not everyone can work for big business.
Rather than going through your complete list of demands, and how most of it would go a long way towards wrecking our economy and making everyone poor, I will finish off by a discussion of justice. I wanted to be a police officer once, but then I realized that all the government is is a monopoly of force in a given geographic area, marked by political borders. It's not that the government wants to end injustice, it wants a monopoly on injustice. Their theft is called taxation, their murders are called wars, their blackmail is called regulation, you get the picture. Why would anyone want to work for an entity that survives by stealing money from people who have done no wrong? This is what the mafia does... yet when the state does it, it is just. Taxes are supposed to be just a part of life, getting licenses to do anything you want to do is just another part i suppose... but my question is, where is the justice in having government in the form of a state? (state meaning a monopoly of force) What would you say if the people stopping you from driving too fast did not wear a uniform and have a badge on their chest? If the tax collector did not work for the state, what would separate that person from any other extortionist? If I cannot go to my neighbor's house and demand at gun point that he pay for my college debt, or to my boss and demand that he pay me my arbitrary estimate of a living wage, why should a person claiming to be a member of the state be able to do it??
If you can't tell by now, I am an anarchist. I do not believe the state is capable of providing justice since it thrives on committing injustices. And here you are, claiming to represent me and my voice, asking the state to inflict society with whatever injustices needed to get you what you want. Unfortunately for all of you who support the OWS list of demands, natural law cannot be repealed. Justice will be served. If, like a robber in the night, you wish to survive by inflicting injustices on everyone in society, whether it's to force them to pay for your debts or to extort money from your bosses, etc., the result will be more impoverishment. If force is your tool, in my point of view you do not deserve to attain your goals, and basic economics proves that you will not. Socialism doesn't work because the state in reality is not god. It has no possible way of turning the qualitative reality of human existence into quantitative measurements, let alone implementing a plan to keep up with the constant changes in human demands. That is to say nothing about building higher productivity through savings and investment. A society, like ours, that spends all its money on consumer goods, cannot possibly hope to develop the necessary capital goods required for the expansion of an economy. Socialism is by definition the elimination of such capital.
So please, don't claim to represent me. I am but a security guard, barely making enough money to attain subsistence. But I don't support your goals, because I find them to be evil in nature, acts of gross injustice, and quite frankly, a contradiction in their own terms. Using state power to obtain better living standards is akin to burning your home in order to maintain shelter.
***I realize not everyone in the OWS movement agrees with the list of demands, indeed there are those in the movement who are anarchists like myself... this is directed towards those who want the government to step in and control everything for them. Please do everyone a favor and at least read Human Action by Ludwig von Mises before claiming to represent 99% and thinking the state can solve all your problems***
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