Occupy Bristol - Towards releasing Points of Proposal

bristol | the environment | opinion/analysis Sunday November 06, 2011 10:55 by JPH

I am an individual who does not speak for the camp.

Overview: For me there are two issues to be decided; the Economy and the Earth.

The key questions are how do we distribute resources in a society, and how do we maintain the planet for our children’s children. Below is my views on how to proceed:

Economy

1) Implement "Tobin/Robin Hood Tax" on financial transactions.

Why: Discourage speculative high frequency trading.

2) Minimum tax on profit or income for large companies.

Why: Make all companies contribute more fairly by paying a minimum tax to the countries where the companies’ income comes from.

One Story: ABC Limited have received 50 bn Euros income from its worldwide operations. Although 30 bn Euros in income came from country E, it was previously was able to say its 5 bn profits were created in other countries which has a near zero corporate tax rate. Now however if it has not met a worldwide tax threshold the company is obliged to pay 1% of its income from country E to country E.

3) Stop current wars, prepare for future crises.

Why: The benefit of current wars against their cost is not sufficient.

4) Encourage more, and give recognition to contributions to community goods.

One Story: Jane is in-between jobs, she accepts she needs assistance from the benefit in order to have a safe healthy place to live. One night she uploads photos she has taken through out the day to a community image repository, which are tagged and released under a creative commons license. She receives a "thank-you" note for her images which she uses in her CV.

Earth

1) Compulsory labelling of origin of all energy sources.

Why: Give awareness to consumer of where the energy they are consuming came from.

One Story: Tim fills up his car at the petrol station. On his receipt he is interested to see that half of the fuel that supplied to the station on that day originally came from Venezuela, and one third from Norway.

2) Tax carbon based fuels at extraction point.

Why: Tax to discourage use of all carbon based fuels.

3) That there should be an upgrade of the structure of the United Nations (UN) in order to adapt to the challenges of the current century.

How: 1). Change revenue sources of UN. Partially direct fund from tax sources.

2) Change decision making structure of UN.

 Suggestion A) Weighted Energy Use. Each country has voting weights based on a healthcare and education rating divided by energy use per capita.

 Suggestion B) Consensus. Each country has the equal right to veto any proposal.

I hope this list is a step forward towards reaching a decision on what should be done to ease the real dissatisfaction in this society.