Division of labor, coordination of effort

Good idea to have the declaration topics broken out. I have procedural suggestion. There is a lot of good input and discussion going on in the topic forums. Some direction/organization is needed to make efficient use of all the mental activity. Suggesting a three tier approach to provide guidance in order to get greatest productivity from all interested participants.

Ground Level Activity - generating general topic notions (goals, objectives regarding the topic) through discussion of opinions and ideas presented by all participants. (Lots of input, lots of discussion)(the place for heated debate)

Mountain Top Level Activity - develop broad conceptual statements to express the general topic notions (statements expressing refined goals/objectives of the 99%)(people with topic expertise working with people that have good writing skills)

Stratosphere Level Activity - formulating declaration language from broad conceptual statements (this tier is for the Madisons and Jeffersons of the group)

At each level, the participants should try to arrive at consensus on what should be passed up the line for refinement at the next level. This should be done on a calendar schedule of milestones. For example, a ground level general topic notion (or notions) should be sent up once a week to be refined to broad conceptual statements. A broad conceptual statement (or statements) should be sent up once a month to be developed into declaration language. Feedback should be generated from stratosphere to mountain top and from mountain top to ground level on a similar schedule. An analogy would be the appeals court process. Higher courts return cases to lower courts for re-evaluation, etc.

Moved from forum suggestions to workgroup suggestions.

I'm not sure if this is very helpful, but I have a couple of study group threads going. I'll add more to them, currently researching Australia's proportional representation system. I haven't really tackled the Finland Education system, but it's another thing worth looking into to help deal with our broken education system.

I think part of the problem is there isn't really any focused information threads or case studies yet. I'm finding as I reach out to people in other countries, they've more than willing to give insight to how they deal with some of the problems we have here at home.

I realize I'm voluntarily putting a lot of research and write-ups on my plate, but I think it's worth the time and effort. I think a lot of other countries got a lot of things right in one area or another, and a worldwide sharing of information effort would help not only the Occupy movement in the USA, but people all over the world. I think we'd be lapse in our duties if we didn't try to actively search out and learn from other countries. We could build a UHC from scratch, or we could study up on the best and ask people from those countries.

Questions are:
Who is the best in the world at X area? Legal, environmental, education, election and representation, social services, etc etc etc.
What are they doing that no one else is?
What are the positives and negatives?
What is the history of success and failure with such systems?

Like looking at our current economic situation, there is historical precedent from the 1800s, 1920s, and today that the rich do not create jobs, and just concentrate the wealth. At this point taxing the rich shouldn't even be an argument. It's an historically proven fact that cutting taxes on the wealthiest does not create jobs and the wealth does not trickle down. There are plenty of examples of this: 3 times in the USA, Chile during Pinochet's rule, Philippines, the list is incredibly long and decisive.

Same thing with healthcare. This isn't even a debate. The rest of the industrialized world has universal health care and they do it much, much cheaper and better than us. Even to the point of people getting anywhere from 6 months to 5 years off if they have a baby. It's a myth that we have the best healthcare in the world by almost all metrics and even if we did, what point is there when hospitals dump patients off in the streets when they can't afford it?

I think part of the 99% effort should be looking at mistakes of the past and doing everything we can not to repeat them, so our grandchildren are not where we are now, protesting the same problems and saying "we have 4 historical models of trickle down economics not working in our history ..."

TLDR Version
This should be an effort to find the best systems in the world and emulate them, and share them not only among ourselves in the USA but all over the world. Think about it: an actual knowledge base of what works in the real world and what doesn't. Something countries and individuals could reference complete with mini-history lessons. At this point "tax cuts for the rich doesn't work" should be engraved on a monument somewhere.

Any and all help I could get with this or organization assistance would be most appreciated.

This is one of the sanest message threads in the forum because it focuses on basic functions and organization structure. It's unfortunate that capitalism and materialism has destroyed so many of our indigenous cultures. There is much we could have learned from them about sustainable lifestyles.