Social Equity summit in downtown Detroit

[Hypestyles]

apparently, this was planned well ahead of the Occupy ___________ that started taking place.. It's a social advocacy summit scheduled for November 8 - 11, 2011, Downtown Detroit--

http://www.equitysummit2011.org/

from the website-
Equity Summit 2011 is the fourth national PolicyLink Summit, bringing together the nation’s equity movement—your fellow advocates, activists, policymakers, foundation officials, and equity leaders—to advance a truly inclusive policy agenda. Join us in Detroit to share in a vision for more sustainable and equitable development with access to jobs, transportation, education, health, and housing for all.

[noggin]

Should it not be called the "the redistribution and theft of wealth summit"?

[casscorridor]

Should it not be called the "the redistribution and theft of wealth summit"?

Theft of wealth by who? By the 1% at the expense of the 99% ?

[Scottathew]

Theft of wealth by who? By the 1% at the expense of the 99% ?

it's not 1% vs. 99%.

It's folks that do work vs. the folks that intentionally ride the system so they don't have to.

[DetBill]

With all respect, I dont believe a large amount of the 99% intentionally "ride"the system. Many of them have been driven down by the 1% who outsourced their jobs so they could become even wealthier. but then again this is America, where many are encouraged to behave that way.. There are manipulators on both sides of this situation.

[Scottathew]

With all respect, I dont believe a large amount of the 99% intentionally "ride"the system. Many of them have been driven down by the 1% who outsourced their jobs so they could become even wealthier. but then again this is America, where many are encouraged to behave that way.. There are manipulators on both sides of this situation.

Not at all what I was trying to say. Just pointing out that there are some people that will intentionally ride the system.

Then there's a group of people who don't try hard enough to get off the system.

Then there's a group of people who genuinely need the system.

There's a lot of grey area and it would be very unfair to say all welfare recipients are lazy and ride the system.

I believe we need a fair tax system, but I'm also very much in favor of strict limits on welfare.

I just don't buy that the 1% are trying to keep us down. Yes, a lot of jobs have been outsourced. This is because of a few reasons:

1) Labor in America is expensive
2) Labor in other areas is drastically underpriced, and there's a large supply of people that would die to work for those low wages because even the low wages would help lift them out of true poverty [[which is different than American "poverty")
3) Less restrictions on companies [[our workplaces, thanks to our unions, are very safe)

We'll be battling this labor pricing issue for a long time, because folks in poor places [[actually poor) would jump at the chance to work for a fraction of what an American worker would work for.

[kryptonite]

True 48091. I don't buy it either. The 1%, if they exist, create millions of jobs through businesses that they own and corporations that they run.

Plus the 99% seem to forget that if we sh*t can US corporations that many charities and institutions would go belly-up due to huge corporate sponsorships. Many charities would not exist without corporate dollars to keep them in business. Same with symphonies, museums, art institutes, etc.

I know some small business owners. They employ people and put up with non stop BS from customers, suppliers, government regulation, insurance companies, lawyers, etc. Few if any of them are 'millionaires'. They keep long hours, are victims of crime and threats, etc.

Greed comes from all populations - the very wealthy, the very poor and everyone in between.

[noggin]

This should be your keynote speaker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW56Z...layer_embedded

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Should it not be called the "the redistribution and theft of wealth summit"?

No need for a summit on that, its been happening for decades now - redistributing to the top 1%. We are at the highest level of income inequality since the 1920's, and we all know how well that worked out back then. It amazes me how the greedy at the top think that destroying the middle class is sound policy.

In any case, before condemning this as a group of slackers I suggest you take a look at the brochure in the link, especially note the sponsors.