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May 15, 2025
Americans Go On Strike: Refuse to Work Until Democracy is Restored
Nilbert D'inkling, Senior Correspondent
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USA The international community looked on in wonder last week as 50 million U.S. Citizens went on strike, threatening to stop working until Congress amends Citizens United and protects the public from the corporations controlling politics.
Fernando Bigglesforth, one of the strike's most vocal spokespeople, explained the rationale of the movement. “As you know, our democracy has been falling victim to systematic corporate control--unchecked monopolies and consolidation of power into the hands of a few, with taxpayers bailing out their mistakes--for decades. Of course, there have always been oligarchical undertones with the wealthy having more power--that’s hard to avoid in any society. But Citizens United, which allowed unlimited corporate funding of our elections, cinched the deal and paved the way for the U.S. to become an all out corporatocracy, or corporate autocracy. "What we have been living in for the past decades was already considered an unsustainable system--where the biggest companies control legislation through lobbying and funding whoever comes into office, writing the laws that govern themselves with no thought to the greater good of the public, which is ironic since the role of government is to protect the public and prevent this. But what we are seeing now, in 2025? It's an all out coup that is putting the lives of the entire human race at risk for the sake of short term profits.” Rita Von Clewn, an economics professor and one of the grass roots leaders that started the movement with her non-profit People Over Profits, emphasized the strike is not meant to demonize any particular political party, or even the people running the corporations. Its point is simply to incentivize the government to create stricter policies on how corporations can lobby and influence policy. As anyone who has studied economics knows, the “ideal free market” where everyone gets their needs met in proportion to what the contribute and are willing to pay, relies on things like equal access to information, and rational, moral and logical behavior, which simply doesn’t happen in reality. A free market system that is fair cannot exist on its own, because it leads to monopolies. Without government intervention, those in power are the ones writing the rules, the rules will always unfairly benefit them. Incentives have to be inserted into the market to direct institutions to take actions that promote the well being of the whole. Otherwise, the profit maximizing algorithms will continue to bumble down the short-sighted "business as usual" path |
towards a world where humans go extinct.
“It’s kind of like babysitting,” Rita said. “On some level, I don’t think the corporations even know what they’re doing – no one’s really running the show up there when they get that big. They just grow for the sake of growing without thought for humanity—the kind of emotional intelligence you’d expect from, say, a 5-year-old child. People are misguided when they point their fingers at people like Trump and Musk. Their rise in government is just the inevitable result of the system we have been allowing for decades and especially since Citizens United. Deep down I know we all care about the future of the earth for our children. That’s why we have to get corporate money out of politics and return our country to the democracy it originally set out to be.” Sources report that so far, 55% of strike participants consist of small- to medium-sized private business owners who have committed reducing work and therefore tax revenue, while 40% are full-time employees who have walked out of their offices and been home since last Friday. AI Fintech professor, Rifgard Nothingdales, a strong supporter of the strike, said: “It was only a matter of time until the citizens became uncomfortable enough with the widening income gap and environmental catastrophes to be willing to take drastic action. It often takes a certain level of misery to rally the forces needed to shake up the status quo. “What we didn’t expect,” he continued, “is that the game changer would be technology itself. While smartphones and social media have had a hypnotic effect on the masses and is monopolized by some of the very corporations we want out of government, artificial intelligence has had the opposite effect by impacting peoples’ real lives with its mass disruption of jobs spanning all industries and income classes--leaving more people with more time and less to lose. It’s moments like these, when people have the courage to stand up both for themselves and a purpose far greater, that I just feel blessed to have lived long enough to see it transpire.” He added with a chuckle, “It truly is the Age of the Aquarius they sung about in the 70s.” The White House has not yet released a statement and it remains unclear whether they will sit down and negotiate with the U.S. citizens, or if they’ll take retaliatory action to squelch the very people who voted them into office. Either way, this represents a major turning point in the war that is filling people with renewed hope. |
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