So the piece went from this idea to some drawings and plans and like digital mock-ups with photos
and stuff and I realized pretty quickly that I wanted to make this really big and I wanted
it to go across the whole country and that I didn't have the money to do that.
So after seeking out some funding and hitting some dead ends I tried Kickstarter which is
like a crowdfunding site.
So I told people about the project and they could pledge their support and over 434 people
put money forward to make the project happen.
It was an amazing outpouring of support of all these people that not only liked the project
but were willing to pay to see it go across the country and start these conversations
all over the place.
So once I had the money I started working with the sign shop in Cleveland I had a residence
here in Cleveland.
The people in the sign shop and like people at the city were all kind of chipping in to
help make it happen.
So then we took it to different parks and city centers and marketplaces in Cleveland and
talked to different people who were interacting with the signs and got their perspectives.
Look because it always has worked in this country free enterprise and capitalism is what
built this country.
It's when politicians interfere with the process that's when it fails.
And how is it in your life like how is it how is it works for you?
It's been great I've had a good career I'm retired now living a good life.
Great anything else you want to say?
I wish our politicians would get their fingers out of everything that's it all right.
I personally am not feeling a terrible brunt I mean we're both retired we both have a fairly
decent income and if it were just me caring about me I suppose we would go on our merry
way and not be concerned.
But I think if you look around you and see where our society is heading fewer and fewer
people are aggregating more and more wealth at the top of the pyramid.
Certainly these wars as a member of Veterans for Peace you know that was kind of my first
introduction as to how the war economy has a stranglehold on this country.
We have now been in the longest period of armed conflict in the history of our country
11 years.
It's never been the case ever before.
I chose to vote no that capitalism works for me I'm employed by the federal government
at the Department of Veterans Affairs which is the most effective socialized medicine
system known to man.
Our veterans live longer and healthier lives because they are exempted from the capitalist
market for healthcare and that makes me incredibly proud so I don't think that capitalism makes
me or the people that I hang out with every day who are mostly veterans any healthier
or better.
Because I think that there's capitalism underlines almost anything and most people are motivated
by capitalism whether it's pursuing their own personal interests business interests
economic interests because capitalism is basically that motivation to achieve the results that
you set forth to.
Unrestrained capitalism is making a wreck out of the world.
What we need is the kind of cities and the kind of countries where people count and where
farmers count and we're taking care of the news counts and that's not happening the way
our system is set up now it's got to change.
Next the sign goes around Boston and we're going to take it to some locations in the
city and outside the city and record some responses of people there and then I'll go
on to some other cities the next stop is Hartford and then later on the summer it'll go to the
West Coast Santa Fe in Los Angeles it's booked out for the for the next year.
A couple really nice things have happened in July as I was like you know in the middle
of working on this I decided to catch up on the news and caught democracy now and they
had this economist Richard Wolff.
Again it's our history for 50 years it has been unacceptable politically in the United
States to ask what is basically a straightforward question.
We have a particular economic system it's called capitalism.
We have every right as a society to ask of that system is it working is it working for
us do the benefits in the course balance themselves out in a way that says we want to keep the
system or that says we want to change the system or that says we ought to look for an
alternative system we've been afraid to ask that question we've been afraid to have
public debates that's the legacy of the Cold War we can't afford anymore to not do that.
We have to do as the questioner says raise the question as it is put in a very powerful
slogan in Germany by a new party that now gets 12% of the national vote here's their
slogan it's in Germany can Germany do better than capitalism and their answer is yes and
that has forced the conversation about this system its limits its strengths and weaknesses
that's long overdue in the United States and one of the results of this crisis and
now of this governmental paralysis is to give a strong impetus to asking those questions
and that doesn't mean accepting the alternatives of the past the old efforts of going beyond
capitalism had strength but they also had horrible weaknesses we will learn from that
as human beings always have and we can forge a country out of an opening of the debate
about this economic system and I want to be part of that and I think the American people
are ready and interested in doing it as well.
And when I saw that I was like man that is exactly what I'm hoping to do with the sign
it was like you know if I ever had doubts like he was like talking right to me through
the TV the other nice thing was like you know this I started this in July of 2011 and just
a few months later all the Occupy encampments popped up and it was great to see that this
conversation was happening and these discussions were actually being started.
