"Economics for the 99%" by The Center for Popular Economics, Truthout | Op-Ed [View all]

Economics for the 99%

By The Center for Popular Economics, Truthout | Op-Ed


http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10141-economics-for-the-99-percent

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The movement coalesced as a response to the damage caused by the financial and economic meltdown of 2008, but its relevance extends far beyond the most recent economic crisis and its effects. The OWS movement has done something that seemed nearly impossible a mere year ago - it has made this a time for new thoughts and new conversations. Thanks to the OWS movement, millions of people have begun to say, possibly for the first time, "There is something very wrong here." There is something wrong with our society that is not simply the result of greed or bad luck - there is something wrong with our economic system.

For decades, we have been told that "there is no alternative" to an economic system in which hundreds of thousands are homeless while millions of houses stand empty, truckloads of food are wasted while 20 percent of all children live in poverty, ever-increasing resources are devoted to war while schools and hospitals fall apart, and millions are unemployed despite wanting and needing to find work. But now, in the United States and across the world, a new declaration has arisen: "Another world is possible." Now we can imagine something new, a world in which all human beings have access to a decent education and health care, to a good job and housing. Now we can imagine a world in which the economy is not just a force of nature beyond our control, working for the enrichment of a few, but something we create for the well-being of all.

The struggle for a new world requires many things, and one of them is an understanding of the current economic system. The ongoing economic crisis that exploded in 2008 left many people wondering, "How did this happen?" How does our economic system work? Why does it work the way it does? Why does it produce the problems we see all around us, and what are the alternatives?

The new booklet "Economics for the 99%" is designed to help answer these questions. It is intended for distribution to activists in the OWS movement, and for anyone working in any of hundreds of ways to build a more just and sustainable economic system.

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