The Difference Between You and a Corporation

If you agree that we can't allow American taxpayers to be robbed by 16 international corporations who pay to manipulate our government so that we pay more, and they pay less to operate it, please use the tools you have at your disposal — your social network — to share this video and make the truth go viral.

C a l l C o n g r e s s !
(202) 224-3121. That's the Capitol Switchboard. Put it on speed dial, because you're gonna need it!

We may not have our own news channel, but We the People, using our intersecting spheres of influence, can challenge the corporately-generated narrative about how our tax dollars should be spent. We believe our money should be invested in America's future. They believe our money should be spent on tax breaks for the wealthy and tax giveaways for corporations.

The disproven framework by which the corporate agenda is sold to unsuspecting voters is called trickle-down economics: the notion that if enough of our tax dollars are given to the wealthy, some of them will come back to us in the form of jobs and charitable donations. It was a theory. We tried it. But look at the results.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

The style of the video was inspired by the success of Wesleyan University's "I have sex" / Planned Parenthood video, which has been viewed over 300,000 times, with most of its views coming from Facebook. The video inspired a series of similar videos from across the country and around the world. The question Annabel and I posed to these students on March 25th was, "How can People Power stand up to Corporate Power?" Their answer was simple: an innovative idea, a notebook, some magic markers, and a camera. They spent zero money, used web tools that are free for anyone to use, and they contributed to the defeat of a corporately-funded, ideological assault on women's rights and public health.

So, when it was time to promote our Coffee Break Campaign to Save America — Coffee Party's April initiative to bring some factual basis to our national conversation about taxes, the deficit, and spending — we decided to attempt a multi-generational version of Wesleyan University's idea. It's a web series we're calling it "Survivor: Trickle-Down Economics" and it's designed to give ordinary Americans (who can't afford to purchase a news channel or a "grassroots" movement) to add their voice using video, digital photos, or by just picking up the phone. The video above is the third episode of the series.

It was really a lot of fun shooting in Pittsburgh PA, Kalamazoo MI, St. Michaels MD, Silver Spring MD, and Washington DC.

I found it amazing how receptive people were to this message. In fact, they were finishing my sentences for me. In all my travels during the past 2 weeks, just about everyone I talked to had heard about the General Electric and Bank of America tax controversies, none of them were happy about it, and none were surprised when I said these were only two of many examples. Best of all, when offered the opportunity to contribute to the video project, they did so with pride and enthusiasm, thankful to be offered a way to make their voices heard. That's the sort of thing I live for.

The ground is shifting beneath our feet. When exactly the corporate media does justice to this story it is not important. The narrative is changing. We the People have the tools and the knowledge to make it change for good. And when that happens, all the expensive TV advertising in the world will not be able to reverse the tide.