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Want to know what we're up against? And, why we're going to defeat them?

Uploaded by AFPFoundation on Nov 8, 2011

November 4-5th over 2,000 activists came out to the Defending the American Dream Summit to show their support for economic freedom. On the other side, the "occupy" group launched an attack on our own peaceable assembly and expression of free speech. After the 2011 Summit it's more clear than ever which vision for America we should embrace.

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Nonprofits & Activism

This past weekend over 2,000 leading grassroots activists from across the nation joined us for AFP Foundation's 5th annual Defending the American Dream Summit in Washington, D.C.

During our "Tribute to Ronald Reagan" dinner on Friday night, the protesters with Occupy Wall Street stormed the convention center trying to take away our 1st Amendment rights. Click here to see video!

Their violence, vile language, and disrespect for fellow Americans was outrageous. One of our activists who is wheel-chair bound was denied use of the ramp to depart the center. A 78 year old grandmother from Michigan was assaulted and knocked down. The 7 year old child of one of our AFP Foundation activists was cursed and jostled.

Not surprisingly, our 2,000 plus activists stayed calm and peaceful. The next morning, they poured right back into the Washington Convention Center for the second day of the Summit -- receiving training on how to be even more effective grassroots leaders and hearing from the Great One, Mark Levin, and from Andrew Breitbart. The day before, Herman Cain, Governor Mitt Romney, and America's mayor, Rudy Giuliani, laid out their vision for our nation. Click here to see video of the speakers at the Summit!

I, for one, welcome these Occupy Wall Street protesters. Sure, it's uncomfortable when they're shouting vulgarities at children, destroying property, breaking the law, or spewing hatred. But know this, the Occupy Wall Street protesters offer our nation a crystal clear choice between their way of thinking and AFP Foundation and the Tea Party movement. They possess a vehement hatred of free enterprise and capitalism. They openly call for socialism. We know that free enterprise has lifted more Americans out of the muck and mire of poverty and despair than any economic system in world history. They call for violence, break the law, and disrespect fellow Americans. We respect the law and work to peacefully support sound policy for our nation.

Occupy Wall Street is based on anger and envy. They want to use government to tear down fellow Americans to suit their ideological agenda. Their calling card - class warfare and unrestrained envy. At Americans for Prosperity Foundation, we know that Americans are not envious. They desire only an opportunity to go out and earn their version of the American dream.

So, we can be confident in the face of their hatred. Calm in the face of their law breaking and violence, secure in the knowledge that the American people are with us...if we remain bold in espousing our free market principles and determined in our grassroots activism.

Sincerely,

Tim Phillips

P.S. See for yourself the energy and determination of our activists at the 5th annual Defending the American Dream Summit. Click here to see our vision for America compared to the Occupy Wall Street protesters!

Woman dies at Occupy Vancouver site

AP – Sat, Nov 5, 2011

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A woman at the Occupy Vancouver camp died Saturday after being discovered in an "unresponsive" condition, police say. A Canadian protest organizer said it appeared to be due to a drug overdose.

The cause of death has not been determined but there is no evidence to indicate foul play, police said.

The woman in her 20s was found in a tent by another protester. Paramedics took her to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, Vancouver police said in a statement.

Lauren Gill, an organizer at the camp, said the woman apparently died of a drug overdose.

She said the death highlights the need for more addiction services because drugs are such a big issue in the city.

Gill, who is running as an independent in this month's city elections, said that as an outreach worker in mental health and addiction services, she has seen far too many overdose deaths.

On Saturday, tensions seem to be growing at the site, where one television camera operator was knocked to the ground and some protesters began hassling reporters.

Fire Chief John McKearney ordered protesters to remove large tarps and take down tents after emergency personnel had difficulty getting accessing the site Thursday to help someone who suffered a non-fatal drug overdose.

The protesters initially rejected McKearney's concerns about safety, but removed some tarps.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has said he wants the Occupy protesters to leave the site, but hasn't threatened to force them out or set any deadlines.

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"Occupy Wall Street Crowd Blind to Benefits ofCapitalism"

Quote:

"Occupy Wall Street Crowd Blind to Benefits ofCapitalism"

Support Hillsdale College
By Gary Wolfram
William Simon Professor ofEconomics and Public Policy
Hillsdale College


Whenever I watch media coverage of another Occupy Wall Street event I am reminded of an exchange between Jewish protesters in the 1979 Monte Python movie Life of Brian. One of the protesters asks another what the Romans have brought to the area and the conversation goes like this:

Question: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads,the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Answer: Brought peace?
Response: Oh, peace - shut up!

The point is that the Roman institutions brought a good deal to the area that was being overlooked by the protesters. The Wall Street protesters, in their hatred of capitalism, overlook things including the fact that over the last 100 years capitalism has reduced poverty more and increased life expectancy more than in the 100,000 years prior.

Every semester I ask my students: "What would you rather be? King of England in 1263 or you?" Turns out, students would rather be themselves. Theyenjoy using their iPhone, indoor plumbing, central heating, refrigerators and electric lighting. All of these things are available to the averageperson in America today and none of them were available to the aristocracy when the West operated under the feudal system.

How is it that for thousands of years mankind made very little progress in increasing the standard of living and yet today half of the goods and services you use in the next week did not exist when I was born? It wasn't that there was some change in the DNA such that we got smarter. The Greeks knew how to make a steam engine 3,000 years ago and never made one. The difference is in how we organize our economic system. The advent of market capitalism inthe mid 18th century made all of the difference.

We need not just rely on historical data. Look at cross-section evidence. I try another experiment with my students. I tell them they are about to be born and they can choose whatever country in the world they would like to be born in.The only caveat is they will be the poorest person in that country. Every student picks a country that is primarily organized in a market capitalist system. No one picks a centrally planned state. No one says, "I want to be the poorest person in North Korea, Cuba, or Zimbabwe," countries which are at the bottom of the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.

What does it mean to be poor in our capitalist society that the Occupy Wall Street crowd so hates? Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation has several studies of those classified as poor by the U.S. Census Bureau. He found that 80 percent of poor persons in the United States in 2010 had air conditioning, nearly three quarters of them had acar or truck, nearly two-thirds had satellite or cable television, half had a personal computer and more than two-thirds had at least two rooms per person.

Contrast this with what it means to be poor in Mumbai, India, a country that is moving rapidly towards market capitalism but was burdened for decades with a socialist system. A recent story in The Economist described Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai, where for many families half of the family members must sleep on their sides in order for the entire family to squeeze into its living space.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has shown a lack of understanding of how the market capitalist system works. They appear to think that the cell phones they use, food they eat, hotels they stay in, cars they drive, gasoline that powers the cars they drive and all the myriad goods and services they consume every day would be there under a different system, perhaps in more abundance.

But there is no evidence this could be or ever has been the case. The reason is that only market capitalism solves the two major problems that face any economy-how to provide an incentive to innovate and how to solve theproblem of decentralized information. The reason there is so much innovation in a market system compared to socialism or other forms of centralplanning is that profit provides the incentive for innovators to take the risk needed to come up with new products.

My mother neveronce complained that we did not have access to the latest Soviet washing machine. We never desired a new Soviet car. The socialist system relies onwhat Adam Smith referred to as the benevolent butcher and while there will undoubtedly be benevolent butchers out there, clearly a system thatprovides monetary rewards for innovators is much more dynamic and successful. The profit that the Occupy Wall Street protesters decry is the reasonthe world has access to clean water and anti-viral drugs.

The other major problem that must be solved by any economic system is how to dealwith the fact that information is so decentralized. There is no way for a central planner to know how many hot dogs 300 million Americans are going towant at every moment in time. A central planner cannot know the relative value of resources in the production of various goods and services. Marketcapitalism solves that problem through the price system. If there are too few hot dogs, the price of hot dogs will rise and more hot dogs will beproduced. If too many hot dogs are produced, the price of hot dogs will fall and fewer will be produced.

Market capitalism is the keyto the wealth of the masses. As Ludwig von Mises wrote in his 1920 book, Socialism, only market capitalism can make the poor wealthy. Nobel LaureateFriedrich Hayek in his famous 1945 paper, The Use of Knowledge in Society, showed that only the price system in capitalism can create the spontaneousorder that ensures that goods will be allocated in a way that ensures consumers determine the use of resources. The Occupy Wall Street movement wouldmake best use of its time and energy in protesting the encroachment of the centrally planned state that led to the disaster of the Soviet Union,fascist Germany, and dictatorial North Korea.

This article was originally posted at the MediaResearch Center's Business and Media Institute blog.

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