Tax The Rich

Sender: anonymous submitter <noone@nowhere.edu>
Date: 3 Nov 1995 06:43:37 GMT
Organization: Tax The Rich Saturation Poster Campaign

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TAX THE RICH Nationwide Saturation Postering Campaign

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Manifesto & Instructions
3. Why tax the rich?
4. Why posters?
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*****Note: This TAX THE RICH packet has been formatted for electronic
distribution.  To receive a fully-formatted version of this packet,
including a free TAX THE RICH poster and membership card, please send a
self-addressed stamped envelope to TAX THE RICH, P.O. Box 8090, Middletown,
CT 06457.


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1. Introduction.
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Welcome to the TAX THE RICH Nationwide Saturation Postering Campaign.

Remember as you read this packet that TAX THE RICH is not an "Organization"
in the traditional sense. There are no committees, no board of directors,
no corporate sponsors. Rather, TAX THE RICH is an idea, and it is everyone
who is working to make that idea into reality. If you think it is a good
idea, you need to do your part as well. No one else can do it for you.

Remember, also, that there are no rules; you don't need to ask anyone
permission for anything. If you want a local TAX THE RICH group, start one.
If you want a new pamphlet or a new TAX THE RICH poster, make one. Just let
us know about it afterwards, so we can share your designs and ideas with
other TTRers. The only thing you must not change is the Big Day - February
18, 1996.

Sincerely,
The members of TTR-Middletown


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2. Manifesto.
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1. ENDS.

The TAX THE RICH poster campaign aims to mobilize public opinion towards
making TAX THE RICH a major force in the 1996 elections.

Specifically, the campaign's goals are:

--> To demonstrate to political candidates and would-be candidates that a
large and vocal constituency is already in agreement with the TAX THE RICH
concept;

--> To educate and inform voters who are unaware of the social benefits of
strongly progressive taxation, or who have been misinformed by an
inherently biased, corporate-owned news media;

--> To demonstrate the power of loosely organized, do-it-yourself
"info-activism;"

--> To empower TTR campaign participants.

TAX THE RICH does not aim to implement or advocate specific legislation,
but rather to have a general impact upon voting patterns, candidates'
behavior, and the national consciousness.

2. MEANS.

The message you are reading is part of the campaign's first stage.  During
this stage, awareness of the campaign will spread exponentially to
thousands of potential TAX THE RICH participants.  Campaign growth occurs
in two equally important ways: distributive mailing and localized
postering.  For maximum growth it is essential that each participant
practice both these techniques, as detailed in Section 3 (below).

On Sunday, February 18, 1996, (two days before the New Hampshire primary)
the TTR campaign will enter its second stage.  Throughout Sunday and the
predawn hours of Monday morning, participants will engage in massive,
simultaneous "saturation postering."  This postering may be accompanied by
stickering, chalking, banner hangings, local rallies, and such other
activities as local participants see fit to organize.

To maintain the mystique and surprise value of the Feb. 18 action,
participants and organizers will remain anonymous.  Mainstream news
coverage will be delayed until Feb. 11; groups may then begin sending press
releases to local and national media.

3. FIRST ASSIGNMENT.

***** electronic version:

1. Think of five friends (preferably in other parts of the country) who
will be interested in TAX THE RICH.  Send each friend one copy of this
message.

2. To register for postering and receive a free TAX THE RICH poster, send a
SASE to PO BOX 8090, Middletown CT 06457.  If you are trusting and can
spare it, please include $5 to cover office and administrative costs. (Make
checks payable to TAX THE RICH; donation is optional and is not
tax-deductible).

***** standard version:

1. Make 30 copies of the TAX THE RICH poster and five copies of this page.

2. Think of five friends (preferably in other parts of the country) who
will be interested in TAX THE RICH. Send each friend one copy of the
poster, and one copy of this page.

3. Put up the other 25 posters in your  neighborhood.

4. To receive additional posters, updates, and instructions,  send a SASE
to PO BOX 8090, Middletown CT 06457.  If you are trusting and can spare it,
please include $5 to cover office and administrative costs. (Make checks
payable to TAX THE RICH; donation is optional and is not tax-deductible).

4. FURTHER ACTIONS.

--> Design your own TAX THE RICH poster and put up a bunch of them.  Send
one to the PO Box.

--> Mail and/or put up extra copies of the provided TAX THE RICH materials.

--> Go to a rally, fair, etc. and set up a TAX THE RICH booth.  Write the
Box for materials to hand out.

--> Pool money to take out a TAX THE RICH advertisement in your local
paper.  Design your own ad, or write the Box and ask for one.


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3. Why Tax the Rich?
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This section is a brief introduction to the realities and results of
economic inequality. Needless to say, there is much more to be said about
these issues, and there are many other reasons to tax the rich which this
document presently overlooks.

The Growth of Inequality

Graph 1 shows the percent of America's total wealth controlled by the top
one percent of the population.  (Graph 1: wealth controlled by top 1%
doubled from 20% to 40% between 1970 and 1990. From Edward N. Wolff, "Top
Heavy," Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1995, ISBN 0-87078-360-2).

As of 1990, the wealthiest 1% controlled 40% of the nation's wealth - twice
the percentage they held just 20 years before.

This means that if there were 100 people living in the U.S., with a total
of $100, then one person would have $40 while the others, on average, would
have 60 cents each. In fact, since the next-richest 4% of the population
controls an additional 20% of wealth, it's more like one person with $40,
four people with $5, and ninety-five people with just 42 cents each.

Is this fair? That's for you to decide... but it sure ain't equal.

America's wealth inequality is still growing, and it's already well beyond
the levels found in other industrialized nations. Graph 2 shows how the
U.S. stacks up against some European nations.  (Graph 2: wealth controlled
by top 1% in 1989/90: England, 18%; Sweden, 21%; France, 26%; USA, 40%.
Also from "Top Heavy").

In fact, the more you look at the numbers on inequality, the less the U.S.
looks like a first-world democracy... and the more it looks like some
underdeveloped third-world oligarchy.

Divided We Fall...

But you don't have to look at graphs and statistics to see what's
happening. A look through the newspaper or a bus ride across town is proof
enough.

As wealth has grown more concentrated, our cities have crumbled. Once-proud
neighborhoods have decayed into vast wastelands of crime and poverty, their
streets filled with potholes, their sidewalks lined with uncollected
garbage, their people miserable and hungry.

Meanwhile, the wealthy have retreated into 20th-century castles: stately
suburbs and soaring office towers, guarded by armies of private security
guards, served and maintained by millions of underpaid gardeners, nannies
and clerical assistants.

If the growing gap between rich and poor isn't outrageous enough, take a
look at its direct consequence: the ongoing elimination of social programs
which provide basic services to rich, poor and middle-class alike. (Graph
3: Declines in three areas of Federal spending, 1980-1990: Transportation
Infrastructure, down 32%; Education and Training, down 40%; Law Enforcement
and Government, down 42%. From Harper's Magazine, June 1995, page 46).

It's no coincidence that as the rich become richer, public services become
fewer and farther between. After all, if the rich can afford private
schools, private police, and even (seriously - there are currently plans in
the works in 12 states) private highways, then why should they pay for
everyone else's education, security and transportation?


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4. Why Posters?
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Social spending cuts, poverty, environmental degradation... these can all
be seen as the direct results of spiraling economic inequality.  But
inequality has another consequence, more subtle and potentially much more
dangerous. By consolidating their control over our cultural communication
networks (television, newspapers, and other mass media), a small number of
wealthy corporations are rapidly gaining the power to influence entire
belief systems to suit their economic best interest.

Corporate Media and the Death of Democracy

Big money has always had a corrupting effect on political systems of all
kinds.  But in the last half century, with the growth of electronic mass
media, the political effects of money have leapfrogged out of control. And
in a modern democracy, where proper political functioning depends on the
informed self-interest of every citizen, wealth and media concentration are
more than corrupting - they are deadly to the democratic system itself.

Nowadays, the fat cats don't buy politicians - they buy politics. In the
modern electoral race, local meetings and personal discussion take a back
seat to the corporate-owned broadcast media: network newscasts,
nationally-televised debates and syndicated talk shows. Even the local
papers are mostly just branches of some merger-bloated media conglomerate.
And big money doesn't just buy advertising; it buys editors and columnists,
reporters and anchorpeople. In the end, it owns the airwaves themselves -
the neural channels of the American brain.

If big money doesn't like a candidate, it serves up a Willie Horton or an
orgy in the governor's mansion. And if big money doesn't like an issue...
well then it just ain't news.

Needless to say, big money doesn't like to talk about inequality. So it's
no surprise that the issue is usually blown off or ignored by the
corporate-owned media, leaving readers and viewers just the way the fat
cats like them: uninformed and helpless.

So-called "alternative media" (mostly in the form of small leftist
magazines and community radio stations) have done their best to fill in the
gaps left by their corporate counterparts. But without the rocketpower of
advertising behind them, existing alternative media are incapable of
reaching beyond an extremely limited, highly-educated liberal audience. For
twenty years the American left has been screaming - but it's screaming
through its own headphones.

Saturation Postering

Saturation Postering is an equal opportunity, high-volume megaphone
designed specifically to cut through the stifling loops of traditional
closed-circuit communication. Saturation Postering is cheap and easy to
organize; yet properly done, it can be an extremely powerful political
tool.

It is important to keep in mind that the TAX THE RICH poster campaign is
not "just a bunch of people putting up posters." Like a march, rally, or
boycott, political postering is an "action." Like all other political
actions, it makes its statement in two different ways: directly, to those
who witness it firsthand; and indirectly, by attracting news coverage. At
the same time, however, the TAX THE RICH poster campaign differs from more
traditional actions in several important respects:

--> Geographical Distribution. While marches and rallies require
participants to gather in one central location, the effect of Saturation
Postering can be felt clear across the nation - without any of the
participants travelling more than a few blocks from home.

--> Longevity of Effect. Marches and rallies last only a few hours. Even if
they attract significant news coverage, their effect on the public rarely
lasts more than a few days. Postering, on the other hand, lasts until every
poster is physically removed - often up to a month or more.

--> Ease of Organization. Holding a march or rally means applying for a
permit and renting special equipment like buses, stages and PA systems.
With postering, all a volunteer or local group needs is access to a copier
and a few bucks worth of glue, tape and staples.

--> Shock Value. Marches and rallies are nothing new. They have become so
commonplace that many people who should be interested - both those in power
and the participants themselves - have stopped taking them seriously.
Nationwide Saturation Postering, on the other hand, is novel enough to
attract significant interest from an often oblivious public.


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5. Congratulations!
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Congratulations on reading all the way to the end of this message!  If
you're ready to participate in the TAX THE RICH N.S.P.C., don't delay --
send your SASE to P.O. Box 8090, Middletown CT 06457.

________________________________________
TAX THE RICH
PO BOX 8090, Middletown, CT 06457
ttr@webcom.com
http://www.webcom.com/~ttr
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