Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Coming "I Don't Pay" Movement

Adbusters, the outfit that launched "Occupy Wall Street" is calling for an "I Don't Pay" Movement to be launched in May. It is completely unclear what Adbusters thinks this movement should be about, although it references the chaining open of subway entrances. Adbusters seems to be calling for some kind of complete grabfest, since it is calling for a "consumer revolt" in May. From Adbsuters:
Last week, occupiers in New York City chained open subway entrances and posted official looking notices inviting the public to ride for free. Their innovative action caused an immediate sensation in the Occupy movement suggesting that similar jams will be carried out worldwide in May.

Jammers explained that the fare strike was done to show the connection between the de-funding of public transportation and the financial takeover of democracy: "Instead of using our tax money to properly fund transit, Albany and City Hall have intentionally starved transit of public funds for over twenty years; the MTA must resort to bonds (loans from Wall Street) to pay for projects and costs ... more than $2 billion a year goes to debt service ... by 2018 more than one out of every five dollars of MTA revenue will head to a banker’s pockets." Union leadership agreed.

Authorities in New York City were swift to condemn, even going so far as to release surveillance footage of the occupiers calmly pulling off this audacious jam. It is no surprise that they are worried. This is perhaps the first time that the fare strike tactic has been successfully deployed in America and it is a sign that the I Don’t Pay movement which has been flourishing in Europe is finally leaping to North America. In Greece, jammers routinely occupy toll booths and public transportation entrances allowing everyone to pass for free.

As Occupy matures, it is beginning to learn a few new tricks. If Occupy adopts the I Don’t Pay movement’s fare strike tactic, we just might see May’s uprising snowball into a wildcat consumer revolt–a mass refusal to pay–the likes of which the world has never seen.
The consequences of such a "consumer revolt" is easy to understand, stores will close their doors if packs of "I Don't Pay" protesters are near. What such a nutty protest would accomplish is hard to understand, since suppliers of retail goods have nothing to do with coercion as displayed by government. With retailers, you are free to exchange with them, or not.

The "I Don't Pay" movement sounds like an attempt at crowd sourcing for theft.

7 comments:

  1. Soros, what are you up to now?

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  2. Back some time ago NPR ran a segment about OWS. It seems that the masterminds of this movement are people involved in the so called Summer of Love of 1968 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_protests) This was a global Marxist push. That is why Hollywood and the mainstream press romanticize about the "Summer of Love" so much.

    "Oddly enough" many of the '68ers have been ranking pretty high in Soros' Open Societies Foundation. "Oddly enough" again, Soros seems to be financing much of OWS (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/04/soros-organization-to-host-training-for.html)

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  3. I will do my best to keep the good message of the free market alive there when I start attending more often in May. I will try to explain to them that while yes - the banks are "bad" and deserve as much retaliation to their actions for the bailout as possible -- they were not practicing proper market functions. I can't imagine how much worse this country will get if small businesses become the target of these angry exploited masses who blame capitalism, and not the fascist system we have in the usa for our woes.

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  4. If the "I Don't Pay" movement was about telling government and its cronies on Wall Street that we aren't going to pay for their wars, to fatten their wallets, or something along those lines, then I'd be all for it. But this is just stupid. All they're doing is showing that they want a handout, nothing more. It's self-defeating, because it undermines any legitimacy that they seek to have. Nobody likes a deadbeat that thinks they deserve a free lunch.

    At least the entitlement generation thought they were working for the entitlements, the government just ended up spending it all and had to borrow to cover. This newer generation doesn't even put up that front. They want it all and they want it for free.

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  5. The UK is familiar with all of this:

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    Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay

    Having just been taxed the frankly f****** rude sum of two quid to get on a bus from Tottenham to Walthamstow (due to being 20p short on our oystercard, what happened to the 3 quid ‘returnable’ deposit) we’re more than happy to promote tomorrow’s train fare strike organised by More Trains, Less Strain.

    This recently established group (so far without a website, get it together folks) have called on all travellers on the First Great Western London to Bristol route to refuse to pay the exhorbitent fares tomorrow (Mon 22nd Jan).

    Direct action is the only way that rail fares can be brought within reach of most working people. In the 80′s during the Fares Fair campaign tube stations were occupied and ticket machines vandalised in protest at punitive public transport costs. Don’t expect any support from champagne (ex)-socialist Ken Livingstone this time round however as he seems intent in turning the tube into a no-go area for working class Londoners.

    http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2007/01/21/cant-pay-wont-pay-2/

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    In the 1980's there was a revolt against the rising prices of public transport, lead by Ken Livinston, who forced the tube and buses to reduce their fares temporarily. This "I Don't Pay" sounds like a hollow echo of that activity, but without official sanction.

    The OWS brigade are a terrible, uneducated, spoiled rotten bunch of children, who are doing nothing more than playing silly games. The problem is that they are being used as a pretext to accelerate the birth of the overt police state.

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  6. I submit that this "I don't pay" movement be referred to as the Deadbeat Occupiers, since they refuse to pay for services rendered and goods obtained.

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  7. If the Adbusters were real radicals, instead of Soros-funded corporate whores, the "I don't pay" movement would be about refusing to repay mortgages and college loans. Nothing about that? Ok, no problem. Just stop pretending that you're a radical by pulling stunts.

    Is it relevant that Soros owns billions worth of securities while he directs these shenanigans? Isn't it obvious?

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