Our organization is the next step in the evolution of the original 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement to stop economic inequality and to save those of us in the 99% from the toxic impact of economic inequality including saving our lives. The purpose of Today’s 99% Inc. is to create and sustain a movement whereby the 99% will gain sociopolitical control over the 1% to free ourselves from the economic inequality and oppression they create upon us. To attain this we need a revolution and this website provides the tools to accomplish it.
Our assessments show economic inequality is largely created by the wealthiest 1% of our society lobbying the US Congress to secure legislation in their financial favor. In turn, the resulting laws, rules, and regulations are toxic to those of us in the 99% – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike. We must all work together for our common good because stopping economic inequality will improve the quality of all our lives and, in the technological future, may even save it.
As advocates for the 99% our initial focus is hiring our own lobbying firm in Washington DC to advance the objectives of the 99%. We can accomplish our goal by pooling our financial resources together to use our own lobbyists on behalf of the 99%. Our center of attention is to change the US tax laws which will put more money directly into the hands of the 99 percent and ultimately reduce economic inequality. Doing this will counter and even has the potential to exceed the billions of dollars the 1% spends on lobbying to produce laws and policies that favor them; instead, our lobbying will produce laws and policies that favor us and places societal good before profits. Additionally, we will implement special projects to solve the many problems facing the 99% today and in the foreseeable future. An example of our first SPECIAL PROJECT, The EIRA, can be found on the top navigation bar and as one of our forum discussion topics for members. Should this app prove to be feasible, we believe it would significantly reduce economic inequality.
Our work is serious. Climate change, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, prison recidivism, alcoholism, infant mortality, and a litany of other social disorders are directly related to Economic Inequality. The science and the statistics linking these afflictions to Economic Inequality are sobering, making this work critical for us and future generations. In a very real sense, we are fighting for our lives.
Our VIP Members pay a $15/month subscription fee so TODAY’S 99% INC. can hire a lobbying firm to influence laws produced in Congress in favor of the 99%, to maintain our website, and to provide revenue for other community special projects if needed. This monthly subscription also allows our paying VIP Members to write in our Forum Topic discussions, to participate in our Polling (which also includes voting rights regarding our community and the direction our platform takes) and Messaging with other members on the site. These individuals are the tip of the spear of our revolution; we honor their devotion and service to stopping economic inequality holding them in high esteem.
Free Members have the same privileges as that of VIP Members, including posting in our forum topics, but with one significant exception; they can only read our Polls but cannot participate in them. Hence, they have no voting rights when it comes to community matters and setting the direction our platform takes. Although their membership is free, they are encouraged to make donations to advance and support our community. But as it is true with all social movements, just sitting on the sidelines is not sufficient to make an impactful change. Rather we hope these individuals will eventually change their subscriptions and become VIP Members. This will allow them to fully participate in and support our cause.
The hard truth is that without their eventual direct financial support, this site will not have the financial wherewithal to counter the lobbying by the 1%. Hence, the platform will not be successful at stopping economic inequality and improving the quality of all our lives.
Our lobbying efforts will focus on changing tax laws in the US to put funds into the hands of the 99% by reallocating what now traditionally goes into the coffers of the 1%. Together, we have the capacity to meet and even surpass the lobbying revenue of the 1% to assure the federal government works in our favor. (See the eighth ABOUT section below titled, “ABOUT OUR NUMBERS” to understand how we can generate this revenue).
The original movement was a worldwide phenomenon with occupations and protests spreading to 82 different countries. Individuals from the original movement can help lead the way and we welcome individuals new to the concept of reducing trends in economic inequality. Those from other countries can help us in the US as we get started. Eventually we plan to have subsidiaries of Today’s 99% Inc. in other countries so they too can enjoy lower economic inequality where they live.
We created this website because the political process is broken and we need to take matters into our own hands. Regardless of your political ideology, those of us in the 99% must work together to stop economic inequality and the related problems imposed on us by the 1%. Together we will improve the quality of our lives and the wellbeing of generations to come.
Doctors Shameem Heetun and Robert Lipkowitz have worked together since 2015 on projects designed to eliminate economic inequality.
Dr. Heetun has bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Accounting, a Master of Business Administration, and a Doctor of Business Administration in Strategic Management. A Fulbright Scholar, she is passionate about stopping economic inequality as she has lived and studied on four continents and experienced, firsthand, its corrosive impact on individuals and society.
Dr. Lipkowitz is a Doctor of Pharmacy with over forty years of experience in medical care. He invented the first operational quantum entangled switch with high-level personnel in the federal intelligence community. This switch is the revolutionary precursor to today’s quantum computer revolution. With a background in small business planning and expertise in economic inequality, his current focus is on how economic inequality, artificial intelligence, quantum computers, and the looming technological singularity will shape our future.
The huge discrepancy in US economic inequality continues to increase, as indicated by the Gini coefficient, a measure of economic inequality. This increase is toxic to both individuals and society. Just a small increase in this coefficient makes a huge difference in the amount of inequality created.
The Gini Coefficient in 2011, at the time of the Occupy Wall Street movement, was 0.475. Since then, it has dramatically increased to 0.484 in 2022 and is the highest it has been in 50 years according to the US Census Bureau.
We will accomplished our goal of reducing the Gini Coefficient by minimizing the 1%’s ability to buy legislation in Washington, stopping various projects they control, and implementing our own future specialty projects to prevent them from placing profits before societal good.
Around 10,000 B.C., societies began to farm the land. With its onset farming enabled families to collect wealth and pass it on. With this wealth accumulation came great power that was not equally distributed among the masses and the 99% receiving the worst part of societal dysfunction that ensued from this economic inequality.
The current system promotes competition and innovation at this level of disparity, but after that (where are we now), it is pointless greed that serves no one but the 1%.
Today it is the 1% and even more importantly the 0.1%, or the ‘kingmakers,” who silently reap the rewards of nearly all financial transactions and create economic inequality. They include oil moguls, military contractors, corporate owners and CEOs, those who inherited great wealth, and other high-profile individuals.
The following is a list of societal elements that show the negative impact of economic equality upon us as is found in the research literature:
Decreased life expectancy
Decreased literacy levels or an inability to use what has been learned properly
Increased pace and effects of climate change
Increased infant mortality
Increased crime rates, particularly homicides
Increased recidivism rates in prisons
Increased teenage birth cases
Decreased level of trust
Increased obesity (and related diseases)
Increased mental illnesses
Increased alcoholism, drug usage, and addiction
Decreased focus on social welfare and work mobility
Increased monetary incentives in national politics and, therefore, policies
Increased pollution
Deceased women rights
Increased racism
Increased food insecurity
Increased individual loneliness and depression
Increased child abuse cases.
Increased economic instability and inflation
Most people can see from this list how economic inequality has affected their lives and that of others. They understand that by stopping economic inequality the quality of their lives would be greatly improved.
But the plight of the 99% is about to get far worse due to the rise of Artificial Intelligence combining with quantum computers to create the coming technological singularity, the hypothetical point when the processing power of super computers will be uncontrolled and irreversible. It is the wealthy individuals who want to create inappropriate Artificial Intelligent systems to create even more wealth for themselves while ignoring the dangers these systems will cause. They will put profits before social good and widen the ever growing economic inequality gap. In 2011, the year the original Occupy Wall Street movement was launched, this was not a problem, but now it is.
Our platform stands in contrast to the original 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. We applaud this critically important work. Although it was not successful it did make a large swath of the public aware of the dangers of economic inequality and for this, we are thankful as it set the foundation for our platform. But it did not meet its goal of stopping economic inequality because it did not have leadership, a plan, or significant financial backing. Today’s 99% eliminates these deficiencies.
We use a website with a monthly membership fee of $15 for our VIP Members and a monthly subscription at no charge for our Free Members. Unlike other revolutions, we are not asking our members to lay down their lives for the cause, to rally in the rain, block the functioning of government agencies, or harass executives whose companies support the 1%. Instead, we believe many people will see the value of this $15 monthly fee for what they will receive in return; a greatly improved quality of life. We will build our membership through advertisements, social media, and word of mouth.
For the sake of transparency our members must use their real and legal name when registering on our website. Members can then create a unique name which may or may not be the same as their real and legal name. This unique name is their screen name in that it is what a member will use to interact with other members on the website.
After paying for website operations we will use the balance of our revenue to lobby Congress to enact laws that are favorable to the 99% and will put funds into the hands of the 99% by reallocating what would traditionally go to the 1%. This will reduce the widening gap between those of us in the 99% and the wealthiest individuals in our country, and the consequences of inequality. How we proceed at times will be informed with information and feedback from our members.
To counter the 1%’s congressional lobbying efforts in Washington, we will hire our own firm to lobby on behalf of the 99%. After paying for our site’s operational fees, and once we have sufficient funds available from subscriptions and donations, we will focus our revenue in this direction.
TODAY’S 99%, Inc. will work to reduce financial differences among Americans by putting monies directly into the hands of the 99% at the expense of the 1%. We believe the best way to change the economic inequality we are currently experiencing is through the tax structure. Although there are other ways to increase the wealth of the 99%, such as raising the minimum wage, we will focus our attention initially on taxes. This we maintain is where we will receive great utility from the money we spend on lobbying.
How the numbers potentially look.
The 2020 US Census states a national population of 331.4 million in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Subtracting the 1% of wealthiest Americans and the 7% who do not use the Internet we have a potential audience of 305.1 million people.
After subtracting 73.1 million persons under the age of 18, who are ineligible to enroll on our website, Today’s 99% has a potential remaining audience of 232.1 million individuals.
While the original Occupy Wall Street movement had limited resources, it was supported by a large swath of Americans. According to an October, 2011, article in The Atlantic by Matthew Cooper, a nationwide poll found 59% of the US adult population agreed or mostly agreed with the protesters. It stated,“A new survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the self-styled Occupy Wall Street protests that not only have disrupted life in Lower Manhattan but also in Washington and cities and towns across the U.S. and in other nations. Some 59 percent of adults either completely agree or mostly agree with the protesters, while 31 percent mostly disagree or completely disagree; 10 percent of those surveyed didn’t know or refused to answer.”
Although it is risky to assume the findings of a poll this old are still valid, we believe it may shed light on what may potentially be true today. That said, we leave it to the reader to determine what a similar percentage, 59%, would look like if this figure were still accurate today given our current political situation and the dramatic increase in economic inequality since 2011. If our website reached 59% of American adults, that is of the potential remaining audience of 232.1 million individuals mentioned above, through advertisements, social media, and word-of-mouth, we would have a target audience of 137 million people who may be interested in our project. While we are cautious in generating these numbers, we believe they show the scope of our potential.
Our goal is to annually raise $4 billion through website subscriptions to counter the $3.7 billion spent on all lobbying in Washington in 2021 of which the majority was spent by the 1%. To secure this revenue, we will need 22 million individuals paying $15/month (these are our VIP Subscription Members), or approximately 16% of the 137 million people, our target audience, who we believe will agree with our goals. Although this is just a theoretical model, it does showcase the project’s potential. We believe this potential is reasonable and doable.
Today’s 99% Inc. is a for-profit company advocating on behalf of the 99%. It is our hope to eventually turn aspects the operation of the company over to the 99% community so that the company becomes for all intents and purposes, “their company.” It will then be a company more for the people and by the people.
Copyright Today’s 99% INC. 2023 | Terms of Service
