Dataviz as defacement: OCCUPY GEORGE

Occupy George presents data about US wealth disparity as a series of data-visualizations that are intended to be overprinted on US dollar bills. The visualizations are available as templates to turned into rubber stamps, or inkjet-printed overtop of US currency that is first lightly affixed to sheets of paper.

(via Beth Pratt)

Occupy George [occupygeorge.com]

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Business • dataviz • economics • Funny • ows

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awjt

Uhhh… shouldn’t these be on $50′s and $100′s to annoy the people it’s intended to annoy?
- rafterman
  
  Agreed, all this will do is piss off panhandlers and strippers.
  - xunker
    
    Or will it mobilize the panhandlers and embolden the strippers?
    
    Actually, there was this dancer I used to know named “Embolden”…
- Moriarty
  
  Drug dealers?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R4OKV3RMTVJTTF6UWHBJ5UVKNM Thomas E
  
  First, the currency is still good with writing on it. Secondly, it’s not intended to annoy. It’s intended to inform average people who sometimes vote against their own self interests for politicians (most Republicans) who support policies favorable to corporations and the very wealthy. Some of these people hear these politicians say they believe in “family values” and say they are against abortion and vote for them for these reasons only. What they don’t realize is that many of these politicians (most Republicans) are pretending to care about abortion and other “values” issues in order to get voters to vote for economic policies that are not favorable to them.
Halloween_Jack

I’m sure that the nation’s strippers will appreciate your attempt at raising their class consciousness.

Naw, I’m just joshin’ ya. They’ll just be happy that you didn’t try to pass off a dollar coin on them, although they won’t be happy if you don’t let the ink from that rubber stamp dry thoroughly first.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=662532869 Heather Cummings

If you read their site, it explains that the point is to educate the 99%, not piss of the 1%.
- awjt
  
  That’s no fun.
Copybass

Yeah, break the law by defacing currency. THAT’s the right way to protest, and won’t get bad publicity for your movement. Nuh uh.
- Tim Drage
  
  Isn’t so won’t.
- Gutierrez
  
  USC 18, 333:
  “Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together,
  or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of
  debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or
  Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be
  reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six
  months, or both.”
  
  The key to the matter here is “with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be
  reissued” the whole point of this exercise is the hope these items will continue to be used as legal tender to spread the message. The damage to the bill is minimal. The note is still recognizable. Machines will still accept it, and people will most likely do so as well. I’ll admit it’s a tad more intrusive than the tiny Where’s George stamps, but I don’t see why you couldn’t reissue this bill from a bank.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Sebastian-Spinczyk/100001312688624 Sebastian Spinczyk
    
    Uhm. So in the US glueing two pennies together is a federal crime?
    That is… peculiar.
    - Gutierrez
      
      Just like looking at your neighbor’s mail is, sure. As far as people caring, like EvilSpirit pointed out, that’s another issue. Laws and statutes like this are mostly enacted to combat people shaving or hollowing coinage, trying to counterfeit bills or notes, or the mass destruction of legal tender. Since our coins are no longer silver or gold, the former is not as much of an issue anymore also.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Sebastian-Spinczyk/100001312688624 Sebastian Spinczyk
        
        OK, the counterfeiting argument makes sense, but still only for coins (and it makes pretty much everyone in America guilty, I guess. I mean, who *hasn’t* put a coin on a railroad track?). But still, the thought of destroying bills being a crime is just so… bizarre. What about Art?
- EvilSpirit
  
  Wait, you actually know someone who gives a shit if currency is defaced??
  Learn something new every day, I guess.
- Mister44
  
  It isn’t a crime to draw/write on money, unless it is an attempt to change it denomination. Though businesses and banks may refuse them.
  
  Isn’t the top 400 something like .0026% of 150million?
- MrSubtle
  
  I suppose it will note as bad an idea as pooping on police areas. You know how much Americanvoterslovethatkind of thing. ;-)
- sleepswithcats
  
  It’s a very effective way to spread an important message about the misappropriation and mishandling of the medium of the missive: money.
aynrandspenismighty

I imagine that the upper 1% don’t dirty their hands with common currency. They have people for that.
rafterman

Question: Is the #occupywallstreet message just getting more diluted/clouded by ”artists” jumping on the bandwagon who’s only interest’s are self promotion?
- millie fink
  
  Is the #occupywallstreet message just getting more diluted/clouded by ”artists” jumping on the bandwagon who’s only interest’s are self promotion?
  
  No, it’s not.
  - rafterman
    
    ok, thanks, just wonderin’.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  I don’t look at it that way. I look at it as creative people using their talents to inspire and inform others. The protest music of the 1960s didn’t dilute resistance against the Vietnam war.
  - rafterman
    
    Great point, very true.
Guest

I love this! Talk about going ‘viral’! If you’ve ever watched one of those scenes in a film, where they try to depict some super flu bug being passed from person to person through the exchange of money. Money circulates quickly and anonymously.

And winter is coming, but George won’t care.
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

All this does is make it less likely that one person in the 99% will accept such defaced currency handed to them by another person in the 99%, thereby ensuring they both have no chance in hell of getting to the 1%.
- http://twitter.com/waltisfrozen Greg Saunders
  
  “All this does is make it less likely that one person in the 99% will
  accept such defaced currency handed to them by another person in the
  99%,”
  
  The bill still says “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”. The application of a stamp doesn’t invalidate its use as currency.
- KittyDelAmour
  
  Are you kidding me? If I got one of these as change for a purchase, you couldn’t pay me enough to say, “No, I refuse this dollar bill, because it has something written on it.” A dollar is a dollar, nobody cares what’s on it…the 99% even less so than the 1%, because the 99% just give it to the creditors…
StAlfongzo

This was my first thought as well.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

What about the 157,000,000 or so Americans not represented on this bill?
trefecta

And getting to the 1% is exactly NOT the point:
“Occupy George informs the public of America’s daunting economic disparity one bill at a time.”

I too have a hard time reading anything over 140 characters. Often I decry things by just looking at the cover and issuing a misinformed blanket statement to showcase my ignorance and lack of attention span.

If you think the 1% doesn’t already know about this little disparity, then this is the dollar for you. Unless, of course, you only accept freshly printed, crisp dollar bills, in which case:

“Christ, What an…”
- MrSubtle
  
  Of course that assumes that there’s something inherently wrong about some people being really rich and that the solution to this supposed problem is legalized robbery. Believe it or not there’ are people out here who don’t believe in that kind of nonsense.
Tyler Firth

Thinking about how 157mil are not represented by this illustration makes my brain explode. If they have no share, that means they are automatically in the bottom 150mil; but if they are in the bottom 150, that means they have about half of the share… which gives them something. But that ejects the original bottom 150, leaving them with no share….. I feel like I’m about to have a seizure.
- Tyler Firth
  
  After looking at the way their website describes the graphic, it makes sense now. They are just equating the two groups, not saying they possess all of the wealth amongst themselves. Some of their other bills are clearer and have a lot more impact, too.
- Mister44
  
  Could it be the ones left our are not “wage earners”. That we have ~150,000,000 employed, and the rest are minors, retired, or otherwise not working? I am thinking that is the reason for leaving out 1/2 the nation.
  
  ETA – after more thought I think it just shows the upper 400 have as much as the lower 150,000,000. The other 157,000,000 are just not being compared.
  - Tyler Firth
    
    Yes, this. I forget children exist (college town).
  - eyebeam
    
    No, it’s attempting to show that “The 400 richest people collectively own the same amount of wealth as the 150,000 poorest people own collectively”
    - Mister44
      
      Yeah – I slowly figured that out… I do like their designs. Stuff like this isn’t a bad way to educate people.
    - http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius
      
      No, it’s attempting to show that “The 400 richest people collectively own the same amount of wealth as the 150,000 poorest people own collectively”
      
      Are the 75 million minors in this country be counted as half of the 150 million poorest people?
      - http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
        
        Perhaps it’s easy answers you seek.
millie fink

Anyone know if it’s true that the copper in pennies is worth more than a penny?

If so, is that a good reason to, um, do a lot more than merely deface them, in order to extract the copper and sell it?
- papiermeister
  
  IIRC, pennies today are more zinc than copper. You can see this if you put a new penny in one of those penny-stretcher gizmos that squeeze and impress some image on a penny (+50 cents!) at amusement parks – they look like the copper is all broken and a silver background shows through.
  
  Which brings up this question: these penny-stretching definitely take that currency out of circulation. Isn’t that technically illegal? I love those things and do them whenever I see one! Such a scofflaw!
  - mccrum
    
    Because their intent is not to defraud someone. You are removing it from circulation but intent is the big word here not actually shown. Thankfully the US Mint dealt with it in the 80′s.
    http://www.parkpennies.com/pressed-penny/penny-pressing-legal.htm
    
    Pennies are more zinc than copper but the price of zinc has also driven the penny up to be worth more than a cent. However, melting down pennies is definitely illegal. But, since a penny is more than a one-time use, we’re not really loosing a lot on their manufacture.
    http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pennycost.asp
  - Mister44
    
    What is REALLY cool is you can use some science and remove the zinc, leaving the copper. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1225172/make_a_hollow_penny/
- KittyDelAmour
  
  http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1285/does-it-make-sense-to-keep-minting-pennies
  - millie fink
    
    Thanks K, should’ve known Cecil was on it (13 years ago!).
Navin_Johnson

So many “concerns” hmmm………
Cowicide

Concern trolls aside, sounds like a great idea to me to help keep this movement within the public’s consciousness. And, it’ll only spread through grassroots efforts which is a nice bonus.

I guess what we might see happen is the Koch brothers put out alternative dollar bills in the hundreds of millions with their own message… Oh wait, they already do that through the media and rightwing radio….
Robin goodfellow

Is there a way to get stamps of these? They recommend downloading the designs and then printing on the bills with a color printer but I think the ink would get expensive.
- millie fink
  
  Is there a way to get stamps of these? They recommend downloading the designs and then printing on the bills with a color printer but I think the ink would get expensive.
  
  Do you really spend that many bills?
  - Robin goodfellow
    
    Actually I was thinking of breaking a few twenties and then paying for some stuff all in ones to increase circulation if I’m doing this rather than just doing it to a dollar or 2 in my wallet.
http://mooseyard.com/Jens Jens Alfke

This is chartjunk. They’re comparing two subsets of the population to each other, leaving out a doubtless-very-large middle, but representing visually that the two parts add up a a whole. So the immediate reading is that the wealthiest 400 people own half the wealth, which is an absurd exaggeration.

Sure, it’s a worthwhile message, but couldn’t they have gotten it across with out borderline-lying to people? I don’t think the ends justify the means.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/42THFKXIPMJHQBIH6OPI4RVIDY Thebes

Another good reason to Pay in Cash whenever possible.

Not only can you keep your money from the corporate banks schemes, you can use it to spread the 99%’s message of Democracy.

If not NOW, then WHEN?
We may never have a better chance to stand up to the corrupt mutlinational corporations that have taken over our very way of life.
CLamb

The statistics given are too vague to determine if they are accurate or not. Some better defined ones can be found at http://inequality.org/ . The data there places 35.6% of private wealth in the hands of the top 1% of households. Of course, this completely ignores the progressive legislation of the 20th century which places a large part of the wealth of the USA in the government hands supposedly for the benefit of the average person.
apoorcitizen

Isn’t it strange that the votes could be found to bail out AIG, Goldman-Sachs and the like but none for the 99% who are America.
sboy031

Why I don’t care -> http://i55.tinypic.com/veb4om.png
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Two wrongs doesn’t make a good excuse not to care.
  - sboy031
    
    Perhaps I should clarify -> I don’t care about “Occupy Wall Street”, not poverty. I think it is absolutely despicable how a large mass of people are so completely unconcerned about their neighbor that they would place their comfort above others. But in an economic climate where the richest individuals in american society are also by far the most prolific philanthropists, why should I care about the groanings of an economic class that contributes so little to the world stage. Average american wage earns are consumers, so from outside of america there is very little concern for the plight of the “already wealthy, but not quite as wealthy as they’d like” individuals. Increase the average Americans contribution to the world economy (and not solely as consumers) and citizens on the world stage may be more sympathetic of this plight. But as it stands it is the “haves” complaining to the “have mores” and the have not’s probably don’t care just like me. -> you may be the 99% but the 98% wants you to take your tent home.