I’m working with my daughter Diana Korten on a 3 minute video animation we hope to distribute in November or December 2010. Diana is the over a director/producer. The intention is to make clear the distinction between the Wall Street phantom wealth economy and the Main Street living wealth economy. This is the most recent version of the script for the voice over narration.
Have you ever wondered? Why do Wall Street speculators, who brought down the global economy, still get bonuses in the hundreds of millions of dollars? Or why do teachers, nurses, factory workers, truck drivers and all the people who do useful work struggle to put food on the table? Economists talk about a jobless recovery. What’s a recovery without jobs and a living wage? Why do so many people find that the harder they work, the harder it is to make ends meet, and the more they owe the bank?
Welcome to the reality behind the deceptions of the Wall Street phantom wealth economy and its promise of effortless abundance. It is designed and managed by Wall Street bankers and their captive corporations to serve one purpose: maximize their financial gain. It rewards insiders for mortgage fraud, monopoly pricing, market manipulation, financial bubbles, predatory interest rates, low wages, foreign sweatshops, pollution, resource depletion, war and wasteful military spending, privatized prisons, tax evasion, political corruption, public subsidies, and debt slavery— none of these benefit the rest of us.
We the people bear the cost; Wall Street reaps the profits. From our perspective, the economy is a disaster; from the Wall Street perspective, it’s a brilliant success.
Fortunately, we have the right and the means to build a New Economy—a Main Street real wealth economy that features local control, sound market principles, and the creation of real goods and services that meet real needs and restore the health of our families, communities and the natural environment.
American Patriots of an earlier time declared their independence from a British king and his predatory corporations. They walked away. We have the same right to declare our independence from Wall Street bankers and their predatory corporations. We too can walk away.
What gives me hope, are the millions of modern American patriots who are already doing it. They’re educating themselves in New Economy principles and organizing for action through New Economy discussion groups and Common Security Clubs. They’re rebuilding their local economies and food systems, moving their money to local banks and credit unions, and organizing Buy Local campaigns, all of which keep their money circulating in their own communities. At the same time, they’re reducing their dependence on money by practicing voluntary simplicity, establishing home and community gardens, retrofitting their homes for energy conservation, and biking rather than driving.
They are taking back their governments by running for political office and demanding legislation that gets big money out of politics and frees the world from corporate rule.
Imagine what it would be like to have a New Economy with meaningful, living wage jobs for all who want them, a healthy environment, hope for our children’s future, and a preference for the interests of working people over the interests of financial speculators. It is ours to choose between a Wall Street phantom-wealth economy and a Main Street real-wealth economy. We’re the one’s we’ve been waiting for.
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Read Agenda for a New Economy:
From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth.
A Declaration of Independence from Wall Street.
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