Written By: William Marlowe

I believe the majority of the people in the U.S., indeed in the world, know the difference between basic right and wrong, fair and unfair. Arguably all people of the world believe slavery to be an abomination; Slavery is the nasty, ugly scar on the past of human existence, and rightly so.  Unfortunately slavery still exists on almost every continent and almost in every country in the world and even though it is illegal in all of these countries there is still a small group of sadistic sociopaths who would be a part of exploiting other Human Beings in some form of slavery.

Some of these people rationalize this practice of slavery as holding on to their culture and customs and preserving their way of life such as in the form of indentured servitude as it exists in India, the Middle East and much of Asia. I would ask if the same is not done in western society and culture.  Is not Capitalism a form of modern slavery?

Since the time of creating a Master and Slave culture the master has always created systems to shackle the slave, either physically or through other means such as debt to continue working for the master.  The master has created elaborate societal and cultural practices, everything from the company store to drugs, to keep the slave shackled to working for a cheap wage even in modern slavery, the corporation.

Modern slavery is only a more sophisticated form of slavery.  By keeping the slave in debt by providing what are initially cheap loans to buy items on credit such as homes, cars, food etc, the banking industry provides the Corporations with a large pool of slaves to keep their corporations operating while the corporations owe the banks money also and are also slaves to the banks. All in the name of the ‘American Dream’ that one day you can own a piece of happiness, provide a better life for your family, and that your children will have more opportunity than you had.

Are you truly free to quit your job and pursue your life’s passion with the tremendous debt you owe or the tremendous living expenses you must pay just to survive another month? Are we not in a form of indentured servitude if we cannot break free from our monthly toil to pursue our dreams, whatever they may be to each and every one of us?

Have you ever truly closely examined the rate of increase of rent or your house payment compared to what it was 10 years ago? Have you ever done the same decade analysis of medical costs, food prices, and the cost of energy? Yet there is no report of severe inflation by government but we all know 10 years ago our medical bills were probably 1/10^th of what they are today and our rent payment at least 1/3 of what it is today and college tuitions have reportedly increased 900%!  This while more corporations are running hospitals and more banks are foreclosing on millions of homes this year.

Are we not trapped in this cycle of working more every year to earn just a little bit less and giving away more and more of what used to be family time to our employer just to keep an equal footing of where we were last year? Isn’t that a form of slavery of sorts?

How much money is enough money? When do you think you will be able to stop working and retire like our parents were able to do? I do not believe that day will ever come for me and thus I have unknowingly, not of my own making, become a slave like the other 99% out there.

We are now all slaves to our form of civilization and society that would allow corporations to become the Robber Barons we outlawed so long ago. Most of us know this is wrong and know it is not what we want to leave for our children to inherit but we have created this form of cannibalistic government and we are the only ones that can change it but have enough people truly realized what the problems are.

Occupy Wall St. protestors present a great opportunity to make dramatic change in history not just for the United States but for all humanity if we can come to some common demands for Human Rights that will become the foundational building blocks of fair trade of the future just like the United States Constitution used to be before it was capitalized and sold to the highest bidder on K street.

All of this must start with a focus on some fundamental inalienable rights, the very same that were written about so long ago, the right to Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. We cannot achieve any of these in a government that does not represent the people but instead represents businesses that would seek to exploit the people.

We Demand:

1. Fair and firm regulation of Wall Street and the derivatives market that once again makes these markets transparent and responsible for accurately and fairly reporting the truth
2. Term Limits for both houses of Congress limiting it to two terms just like the Executive Branch of Government
3. Legitimate campaign finance reform that is written by and approved by the people of this country in a national referendum that no longer makes it legal for lobbyists, corporations or businesses to contribute to any campaign finance funds be it Federal or State
4. The right by the people to call a national referendum to recall Congress and replace them with new representatives if they are not representing the will of the people.
5. A flat tax where individuals and corporations alike pay a flat percentage of their income every year with no exemptions and elimination of the IRS waste of funding
6. Make an act of corruption by both the briber and the governmental official bribed an act of Treason punishable by life in prison