“Fake” or “imaginary” money used by the world’s banks is making it hard for families to survive, according to the organizers of Victoria’s version of Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Victoria, like its New York City counterpart, aims to bring to light the intrinsic problems with banks lending and reporting money they don’t actually have, said organizer Greg Hill.
“The fiat-issued money – fake money – put forward by the federal reserve bank in the U.S. has caused the hidden tax of inflation to cause the cost of food to skyrocket,” said Hill, a Saanich resident. “We can’t fix the current system using the same line of thinking we used to create it.”
Hill and Esquimalt resident Josh Steffler have organized Occupy Victoria, which happens at the B.C. legislature Saturday (Oct. 15). They hope people will come out to listen to speeches that touch on why fiat money and fractional reserve banking are spreading the gap between the rich and the rest of the population.
Steffler linked the issues to Victoria-area families asking for a mortgage from a bank.
“Now (the banks) have a hold on people’s real assets and they have to pay back the banks with real money, real work,” he said.
“If you or I tried to do that, we’d be indicted for fraud because we’re not allowed to lend money we don’t have.”
Occupy Wall Street started in New York on Sept. 17 and the concept has spread to cities all over the world.
Budd Hall from the University of Victoria’s faculty of human and social development attended the first meeting of the local event’s organizers.
“Ten days ago we had the first meeting here in Victoria,” Hall said. “I’m a student of social movements and I have not seen a social movement spread this quickly, ever.”
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is open to the public.
