The 99%

Elias woke to a perfectly silent apartment, his penthouse a bubble of soundproof glass high above the city. He didn't hear the hum of the maintenance staff cleaning the vents on the floor below, or the quiet shuffle of the security guard who had watched over the lobby all night. He walked from his bedroom, past the sleek, minimalist kitchen where a chef had already prepared a perfectly balanced breakfast, and stepped onto the rooftop.

The morning air was crisp, but Elias felt nothing of it. His focus was on the sleek, black helicopter waiting for him. The pilot, a former military veteran named …, nodded a silent greeting from the cockpit. His face could not be seen through the heavy, thick glass and the large helmet that he wore. Elias didn't know his name. Neither did he know the name of the man who had just finished polishing the helicopter's windshield, making sure every surface was spotless for a man who would never touch it.

From the air, the city sprawled out below, a vast network of buildings, roads, and people. Elias saw it as a grid of assets and markets, not a tapestry of lives. When the helicopter landed on his office building's private helipad, a woman named… was waiting with a briefcase. She wore a dark veil that covered her face and she had been up since 4 AM, reviewing his agenda, making sure every detail of his day was perfectly scheduled. She had arranged for the coffee waiting on his desk, brewed by a barista who had gotten up even earlier - Made from coffee brought the day before via one of his private jets from the Colombian coffee farm he had purchased a few months before. He only drank coffee from a few trees that experts had qualified to be of the highest quality. - The woman took care of everything. She had even approved the mail that the mailroom clerk, a single father, had sorted an hour ago.

Inside the building, Elias moved through a world built for him and by others. He walked on floors polished by unseen hands. He rode in an elevator maintained by an anonymous technician. He passed security guards who knew his face but were trained to be invisible. He greeted no one, his mind already on the quarterly reports and market fluctuations. The final, poignant irony was this: the grand, towering empire that was his entire identity was not built by him alone. It was a scaffold of invisible, unacknowledged lives. He was the sun at the center, but the sun is only a sun because countless other bodies orbit and sustain it. And he never saw them or cared to provide them a single ray of sunshine or warmth.

=========================

This story illustrates a profound and troubling disconnect. A billionaire’s life, from the helicopter pilot to the mailroom clerk, is made possible by the labor of millions. Yet, for many, this fundamental interdependence is forgotten.

Billionaires do not understand that without the masses, those billions of individuals that make up the ecosystem of humanity - the buying, the eating, the working, the traveling, the farming, the cleaning, the recycling, etc. - there would never have been billionaires. How is it possible that they can so easily segregate themselves from everyone else with a simple, “I am better than you”?

This perception of self-sufficiency is a dangerous illusion, and it's one that society, the "99%," has the collective power to change. The acts and behaviors that can help close this gap are not about tearing down individuals, but about restructuring the systems that allow for such profound detachment. These are the actions that remind the powerful of their place within the human ecosystem and re-establish a more grounded reality.

Here are some of the ways we, the 99%, can collectively do to make them become aware and that we must do now!

DEFIANCE

An act of defiance from the 99% would involve a large-scale, coordinated withdrawal of the two things that are absolutely essential for the elite to function: labor and consumption.

This is not a single action but a focused collective action that, in theory, would bring the entire economic and social system to a halt.

1. The Grand 1 Day Strike: A Withdrawal of Labor

The most powerful act of defiance would be a massive, coordinated general strike. Imagine if every individual who works in a factory, drives a truck, codes a program, cleans an office, or works in a call center simply decided to stop. Just for one day.

• The billionaire's businesses would grind to a halt. Their algorithms and intellectual property would be worthless without people to run the servers and develop the new code.

• The entire supply chain would collapse. Nothing would be manufactured, shipped, or sold. The private jets would be grounded, and the financial markets would become meaningless as there would be no goods or services to trade.

• The food would stop being farmed, delivered, and stocked on shelves. The wealthy, with all their resources, would still be dependent on the physical labor of others for their most basic needs.

In this scenario, the elite's power would immediately dissolve, proving that their wealth is not an inherent possession but a ledger entry based on the productivity of the masses.

2. The Consumer's Ultimatum: A Boycott of Consumption

In parallel with a strike, an act of defiance could involve a total and deliberate boycott of the products and services offered by these powerful entities.

• What if a significant portion of the population decided to stop using a major social media platform, a specific type of car, or a particular brand of clothing all at once?

• Their stock prices would plummet to zero, their revenue streams would dry up overnight, and their entire business model, built on the premise of a massive, captive audience of consumers, would cease to exist.

This would be the ultimate consumer's ultimatum, demonstrating that the very foundation of corporate power - the demand for its products - is entirely a choice made by the masses.

3. The Withdrawal of Social Consent

This is a more subtle but equally powerful act of defiance. It involves a collective decision to withdraw the belief and trust that underpins the current system.

• This could manifest as a shift away from traditional banking and fiat currencies toward local economies and alternative forms of exchange.

• It would be a large-scale return to local communities, self-sufficiency, and mutual aid networks, making the global supply chains and digital empires of the elite irrelevant.

Ultimately, these acts of defiance would force a recognition that power is not a fixed asset but a dynamic relationship. The existence of the elite depends on the daily, unflinching agreement of the vast majority to participate in a system where their labor and consumption are the fuel. A complete withdrawal of that participation would, in the most profound way, make them "nothing without us.

Thanks for Reading. Abrazos.

Diego Rojas