November 20, 2009
Guest Blog: JP Morgan Chase sells Americans on consumerism, and leaves them homeless, from Appalachia to New York City.
The argument has been heard all over the United States – that extractive industries will create jobs – and the results are all too well-known. With the promise of consumerism – the promise of jobs, the promise of material goods, and the promise of chain stores popping up out of the ground – JP Morgan Chase seduces rural neighborhoods all over America. They have done so in South Dakota, they have done so in California, they have done so in Alaska. And the results have always been the same. After JP Morgan Chase has extracted the commodities they want from these communities, they have left them to rot. They have left the land destroyed, the buildings abandoned, and the people without jobs. They are not interested in building communities, they are only interested in the profit they can make off of those communities.
The same is true in our very own New York City, the great city that JP Morgan Chase calls its home. Yet they are treating New Yorkers the same way they are treating those in Appalachia. They have sold New Yorkers on the idea that the basic human right of housing is a commodity to be traded, even while 40,000 families sleep on the street. They are the largest ware-housers of livable units in all of New York City, which put in plain words, means they, more than anyone else, are keeping New Yorkers homeless, are denying New Yorkers shelter, are making families sleep in boxes under bridges. And they tell us this is okay. They tell us to go along with this because it's good for us, it's good for the economy, and it's good for our property values to keep our neighbors homeless.
But this should come as no surprise. When you look at environmental and social injustices all over the country, one villain keeps popping up. It's JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan Chase puts profit over the people of America all over this country. They don't care about building communities and local economies. They care about making us into consumers, making us buy into the capitalist dream that consuming will fulfill us while they skim money off our labor and turn a blind eye to the plight of our neighbors.
But no more, neighborhoods all over America can rise up against JP Morgan Chase and demand that they be good neighbors. Demand that they support their neighborhoods by giving affordable loans not to multi-national corporations that want to exploit the environment, but to local groups that want to create sustainable neighborhood economies. Picture the Homeless leads this fight against JP Morgan Chase here in New York City. And RAN supports the fights against JP Morgan Chase all over Appalachia by lobbying their headquarters here in New York City, as well. They have simple demands that must be met. JP Morgan Chase must stop destroying communities across the nation. JP Morgan Chase must not destroy America's environment. JP Morgan Chase must not lock up empty buildings while New Yorkers sleep on the street. And they must support us in making our neighborhoods healthy, vibrant, viable, and safe once again!
Amen?
Comments
Chase Steal Blues
Let's chase them down.
Our banking system has become uroboros; when there is no real value, and money is backed by nothing, the only thing left for it is to eat itself. So, for example, in an attempt to artificially prop up property values it will keep the buildings empty, and poverty spreads. The more people homeless, the fewer people working, etc. decreases the 'value' of the U.S. dollar. The solution is to invest in foreign currency and assets you say, Chase? Well, that's just starting the whole process over somewhere else. It's a dead end system.
Are our financial institutions waging economic war against U.S. citizens? Is the purpose of all this simply to bankrupt the U.S.? These people are not stupid, so why do they behave in such a manner?
It's all well and good to say 'they must do this and they must do that', but the reality is we, as citizens, have given them no reason to change their modus operandi. How do you propose creating a system where they 'must' act in the best interests of those that have built a nation that has allowed them to thrive? The answer....
STOP SHOPPING.
Dear Brother CQ
What's next?
P.S.
And Bill- all rivers flow to the sea....
Catalogues
Oh, by the way let me introduce myself. My name is Karen. I found out about your group through my own church a Methodist church in Alexandria, VA. We saw your film and had a meeting about consumerism afterward. Then I was interested in checking you out because I'm literally going broke with all of my spending on things beside regular bills, food and the roof over my head. But if we don't spend the whole economy will collapse and then we'll be in real trouble. What is the solution to this dillema?
Karen JL's Last Two Sentences
Let me quote you: "But if we don't spend the whole economy will collapse and then we'll be in real trouble. What is the solution to this dilemma."
Consumerism, like all systems, seeks to keep itself alive at all costs. We've been told for years that we must shop till we drop for normal living to be possible. That's a bluff. We routinely hear apocalyptic horrors - if we should ever dare to stop shopping. Consumerism wants us to never EVER question the basis of the consumer economy, which is that deadly cycle of cheap labor/fossil fuel shipping/heavy marketing/debt and waste and many would add -- climate change and war. That is - necessary? Because it isn't Communism - it is inevitable? Do we still hear "Well it's the best system we ever had in the world?"
The defenders of Consumerism all work for that system. They are the talking heads who keep saying that there is only one game in town - corporations and their Wall Street game. They believe that we will never be radical Americans ever again, because there's no need. And if within a Democracy we start believing that real change is necessary, Consumerism then wages war on that Democracy. A good example is the "green-washing" movement in corporate marketing, which is a broad attack by Consumerism on the possibility that we would ever ive sustainably with the earth.
Karen, our economy IS flopping. It is going down because it needs to devolve and we need to begin trading, manufacturing and servicing in a much different way. And Consumerism can never be sustainable, because of what it does to people, yes, but also because of what it does to the life of the earth, of which we are a part.
Karen, don't be afraid -- you can stop shopping because there is life after shopping.
Amen?
What can we do? Besides Stop
Real danger
In my opinion, we are living in a dead end system; it's bound to collapse at some point. Let's all prepare for this so we can reduce the harm this inevitable transition may cause.
Culture Jam Chase's bullshit viral PR propaganda campaign
"We're not participating in Chase's "Community Giving" Viral PR campaign on Facebook and help spread the word!
There is hope!
There are so many connections I make taking the train. Connections that is key. Not connections to a technological surrogate, but rather to a community of citizens not consumers. That is what we lack the community connection that feeling that if I don't have what everyone around me has I will still be accepted. Just like if my neighbor doesn't have equal or better to what I have I still accept her. In fact I celebrate that we are different and that I may learn from those differences how to survive in this disconnected world. I celebrate those who chose to think outside the box and show us that there are always other ways of living. I would hate it if we were all shiny and new and still in the box. Thank you for reaching out!!!!!!
I love love your website. I'm
On Black Friday of 2008 I started dumpster diving. Continue to go out nightly. The amount of food and other products that I've found would blow your mind.
Tons and tons of perfectly good food is being thrown out while Americans are hurting. The stuff I find I give to myself and my other neighbors who are hurting financially. Many of my neighbors are either on unemployment OR their benefits have run out and they have nothing left.
That's where I come in. I find it morally reprehensible that these corporations continue to get away with their callous greed and disregard of the American people, the SAME people who bought stuff (cheap plastic crap made in China) and put money in their coffers.
About the only thing I buy now is gasoline for my car and meat, period. I've retrieved meat out of the dumpster but I only take the pre-cooked stuff that is cold and just been thrown out. I will sometimes go to the grocery store with my one friend who is still a spender. Food prices have went up people and they're going up, but wages haven't.
It was only a matter of time before the economy collapsed. It's common sense. You cannot have an economy when people have no money to buy food and shelter. If you outsource jobs overseas to save money (and it's odd they're paying third world wages but the prices haven't went down).
There are plenty of empty houses in my neighborhood (the McMansions) that were built in 2005/06. They're still empty. The owners place their cars there and the lights are on timers to make it look like someone lives there. They're not fooling me, I know the truth.
Why couldn't we place the working poor who have lost their homes in those houses? We could let them work off the rent by picking up litter (the pop cans and bottles could be resold at the local recycling center), weatherizing homes for seniors and providing meals on wheels for seniors and homeless vets.
That would make too much common sense.
Then you get the stores who have locked dumpsters. That alone makes me irate. Locked dumpsters. You'd rather throw that stuff in the trash (perfectly good stuff) rather than give it away. Complete soulless theiving bastards.
gfd
Thank you to the article author.
they invest with you and then Rob the whole system
They take away jobs, make you loose home while they have recovered entire cost and then the cycle repeats..The Government and the Banks are there to make sure they skim as much effort and money from common people and hand it over to the World Government and the Too big to fail banks...
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