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Discussion #21 - Big Business / The 1%

The 1% are NOT evil, sadistic people! It's pretty pointless to demonize something that we all secretly (or not so secretly) want! It's not the people in charge of big business that are the biggest problem, they're just doing their job. It's the way the system is set up. It's not like CEO's & managers are sitting in their corporate towers, constantly conjuring up ways to rip off their workers. They are, however, obsessively concerned about the bottom line (it is their job to be). They will do pretty much anything to further this mission. It is also not necessary to completely overhaul our economies. Capitalism is (for the most part) an extremely good system. It just needs to be tweaked a little, in a few key areas.

The balance of power (influence over government legislation) must be shifted a little towards the low income/wealth end of the spectrum. The rich can do all the philanthropy they want, it won't even make a dent unless this happens. There is nothing illegal about what's going on (usually), it's just that big business (in essence) is making the laws (especially in taxation, mergers, labour, etc.). Large corporations are also gobbling up most of the market share, & then employing people who could have made vastly more in business for themselves.

Fixing this problem may sound simple, but it's actually going to be the second most difficult thing mankind ever attempts to achieve. Second only to saving our environment. The global economy is kind of like a freight train. Once it starts heading down a certain track, it's extremely difficult to change quickly. Also, the underlying driving force is still human greed, & this point will never change.

Many very rich individuals, however, are genuinely trying to make a difference. Warren Buffett (an investor) just announced that he is pledging to give away 99% of his wealth before, or just after he dies (& not to his family). He believes that his family should have enough to be able to do what they want, but not so much that they have to do nothing (very wise)! He also believes that this money (billions) will not change his family's lives virtually at all (they already have quite a bit), but will dramatically alter the lives of others in society. He has also recently been BEGGING the American government to tax him (& others) more, (since his employees are taxed at a much higher rate than he is!). There are many others like Warren, who believe in equality, even though they have succeeded (to the extreme) in this game called capitalism.

Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder/CEO of Facebook) is 37 years old, & has a personal net worth of almost $131 billion (& rising fast). He recently announced his mission to bring affordable internet access to the currently over 3 BILLION PEOPLE (of 7.9 in total) who do not have it. I find this number a little shocking, but it really drives home the fact that 80% of the world's population is either poor, or extremely poor. The up-side of globalization, is that it is capitalizing on this massive potential work force. Their wages/opportunities are rising slowly. The Western world just needs to figure out how to keep theirs from falling as a result.

Kids today (in our neck of the woods) are growing up with an incredible attitude of entitlement, as they are being brought up in an era where equality IS being taught in schools. The problem, is that the global economy is heading in the opposite direction (wealth gap is increasing). It's quite a shock for young people, when they finally hit the real world. However, young people are going to be in the driver's seat pretty soon, & I believe they are going to make this world a much better place.

Investors/shareholders are important & valuable players in our economies, but they are motivated to expect/desire a quick return on their investments. Therefore, companies are motivated to care about the short-term far more than the long-term. This is why the middle class is shrinking in the richer countries. Quick profits are what matter most, & few at the top care enough about the erosion of their biggest customer base, as this affects them later on down the road.

Then, added to this reality, is the fact that we as a species are now going deep into the red zone of global consumption. Natural mechanisms are starting to kick into high gear, desperately trying to reduce the amount of damage we're doing to our environment. While precious few are ready to connect all of these dots yet, there is a very good reason why nature is fighting back. Killer viruses, collapsing condo buildings, raging wildfires, killer heat waves, and droughts. Increasingly powerful storms, causing record-breaking floods and wind damage. These "natural" events are becoming more extreme, because our global consumption is becoming far too extreme.

Every species of animal, insect, & crop on our beautiful planet has natural mechanisms put in place, to protect their environments from catastrophic damage. We like to think that we're above nature, and that we're in total control of what happens around us. We would be incorrect in this assumption. We may be at the top of the food chain, but our species, just like all others, is still very much connected to nature. Even when we're living and working in our concrete towers, and flying around in our private jets.

Whenever I see people viciously arguing & debating things like whether kids should be wearing masks in school, or whether vaccines should be forced on everyone, I realize that the vast majority of us are missing the much bigger picture. We're fighting & bickering with each other over things that could definitely potentially save lives, but they're not going to solve the root problem of what's really going on here. What's really happening is that nature is trying to prevent us from destroying our environment.

Biodiversity and agro-biodiversity are incredibly important to all living things on Earth, especially us, and so many people are living almost completely oblivious to how many of our planet's species are disappearing thanks to climate change. This is especially important in the area of our food supply. We rely on very few species of crops and livestock for our global food supply, and if even a few become extinct, we're all in very big trouble. It doesn't seem this way, when you go to the grocery store and see a million products on the shelves, but this is indeed the reality.

Most businesses and governments in this world are obsessed with one thing, economic growth. The big problem, is that with this also comes increased production and consumption as well. Even with a moderate economic growth of 3% per year, this will mean almost triple our global GDP by 2050. This also means that our consumption will almost triple as well. If we think that wearing masks indoors, pumping ourselves full of vaccines, having to evacuate your million dollar ocean-view condo, or having to flee for your life from a wildfire is a harsh way to live, I don't even want to think about what life on Earth will be like with triple the current level of consumption.

This is why sustainability MUST become our new global obsession. And it won't be easy, as the current global obsession is to become wealthier, so that we can consume even more. Let's face it, the vast majority of us in the richer countries absolutely LOVE our high consumption lifestyles, so transplanting this current and historical obsession over to sustainability might be the toughest thing we humans have ever had to do.

Believe it or not, there is some really good news here. Studies have shown that most consumers around the globe are finally starting to care a lot about our environment, and the majority are choosing to support businesses that are going green. It's time for big business to wake up and smell this coffee, and many are. The auto industry for one, knows that sustainability is the future, and is coming out with a vast number of electric vehicles. The American government, now that Biden is in charge, also realizes that climate change is a huge threat to our survival on this planet.

What we all need to do, as individual consumers, is to do everything in our power to support businesses that are genuinely making every effort to go green. We all have an immense amount of power with our buying decisions. Since we're all being affected by the current (and future) issues in our world, we should all flex our green consumer muscles. It may in fact be the only way to get nature to calm down. Even our love of consuming meat is doing damage, as methane, especially from cattle, is 80 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2.

Getting back to our normal lifestyles may (& likely will) actually require a massive change in our priorities. We can revolt against things like wearing masks all we want, but the revolting is not going to solve the root problem. Denying and ignoring what the real problem is, will also not solve anything. We all need to put on our big boy (& girl) pants and address the real issue, and fast.

The IPCC says that our planet is now in a "code red" situation with our climate crisis, and then later in the same report says that we may have 20 years to solve the problem. I personally find the latter very hard to believe, when things are getting this bad right now as we speak. I believe we do have SOME time to stop the damage before it's too late, but not much.

Right now, our only real solutions seem to be vaccinations and masks. We're basically vaccinating our way into staying in our high consumption lifestyles. Nature is not going to give up this easily, and this problem, along with numerous other environmental problems, will continue to get worse if we simply stay the current course. The "every 100 years or so" or "Wuhan lab leak" theories of what's causing this pandemic, are both likely wishful thinking.

There is something extremely disturbing about the current trend of many governments around the world wanting to "force vaccinate" everyone in their countries. With three covid shots already in production, and likely more coming down the pipe soon, this is nothing like the polio virus, where it was one shot and done. This is far more similar to the flu, where it mutates and continues on every year. There are very serious health risks with over-vaccination. It can even cause autoimmune disorders, such as Addison's, Celiac, or Graves disease, MS, arthritis, lupus, diabetes, allergies, asthma, or even cancer. In pets, over-immunization has also been known to cause behavioral changes, resulting in a far more aggressive personality.

I don't think that most people are too concerned about getting a few vaccine shots in their lifetime. What is far more concerning, is the prospect of having to get them on a yearly, bi-yearly, or ongoing fashion. Many veterinarians especially, have witnessed many serious problems with long term over-vaccination of pets and other animals. We humans have not been historically experiencing nearly as much vaccine use as animals, so these long term adverse effects have not been seen nearly as often in humans.

Not until the annual flu shot, has mass routine, ongoing vaccinations in humans really been done. While the flu vaccine was first used in 1930, mainstream (virtually) worldwide annual flu inoculations are fairly recent (basically since 2010). Due to it's antigenic drift, the one-and-done vaccine shot (such as with polio) will likely never work with viruses such as the flu and covid-19. Add to this, the reality that big pharma is one of the largest money-making industries on Earth, and there is a really big incentive to keep people taking vaccines on a very regular basis.

Many are worried about this. It's true that without vaccines, there are some who will not survive these viruses at all, making long term adverse effects irrelevant for them. For others however (especially with the younger generations), these future effects will actually matter a great deal, and may even become life-threatening down the road, as has been the case with some animals.

This is why people all over the world, need to be able to make decisions about the vaccinations entering their body themselves. For governments to take away this freedom is tyranny, especially when you realize how much money will be made from this by the pharmaceutical industry. As of the end of 2020, this global industry is worth $1.27 TRILLION USD (revenue per year). To put this into perspective, the entire global oil & gas industry is worth just under $6 trillion (annual revenue 2021).

There is a lot of financial pressure being put on governments around the world by these massive industries (along with others), to keep economic growth climbing across the globe. It's a very scary thought, that this could be largely what's driving the push for forced ongoing vaccinations. Then when you factor in the root cause of this pandemic, which I believe to be the damage our species is doing to our environment, it's definitely disturbing.

Up until recently, going green and caring about the environment was a nice, cool thing to do, but not viewed as being all that dire a situation. Now, this view is changing. Younger people especially are starting to care dramatically more than we older folks ever did. Largely because they will obviously be kicking around on this planet for much longer. But also because they see the truth more than the older generations do. We older folks are used to all things "green" being downplayed, trivialized, and shoved down the road. Even the green political parties have rarely gotten much serious attention in the past.

Now, in recent years, it's becoming painfully obvious to most, including the IPCC, that things are actually getting quite dire right now. Not just 50 years from now, when many of us will be dead and buried. Twenty years ago, everyone thought that we had plenty of time to deal with these issues. No big deal, just put it off 'till later. This is how the human brain is wired, to care much more about right now, and not much about later on. With big business, it's even worse, with most just concerned about short-term increases in profit.

Well guess what, that whole scene is now changing. The average person on the street now does care greatly about saving our environment, and big businesses which are realizing this are making a killing. Right now as we speak, companies which are marketing to consumers the "going green" message are realizing a 5% increase in sales, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

We're now starting to see the massive competitive advantage that going green is now giving, and this is added to the gigantic reduction in expenses from reducing corporate waste. Companies which seize this opportunity to get a head start in this area, are going to benefit dramatically for many years to come, from this massively enhanced brand image. Companies that wait until later, and become stragglers simply jumping on near the end, will see their brand image suffer in a lasting way.

20 years ago, big business viewed going green as being pricey and unnecessary. Now, it's completely the opposite. Dramatically more profit, almost immediately, combined with reduced expenses for infinite years down the road. We all knew this day would come, we just didn't expect it to come so soon. The IPCC is saying things are much more dire than previously thought. We've been warned over & over, and most have payed very little attention. Maybe now that our very lifestyles, health, and livelihoods are being dramatically affected, it may just be enough to get people to wake up & smell the coffee.

We can all demonize big business if we want, but the truth is they're just giving consumers what we ask for, and will continue to do so. It's up to us, the average person on the street, to change what we're doing, or it's not looking too good for the future of our species.

Same principle applies to governments and political leaders. They can only do, at least in democratic countries, what we the people allow and encourage them to do. It's our political will, every one of us, that is driving the political ships. And therefore we are all to blame if & when they run into trouble. What this means, is that we are all, especially in the richer countries, to blame for what is happening to our planet. And we will all be determining the outcome.

Big corporations definitely do influence the way societies think with their mass marketing, but that is simply how the capitalistic game is played. We may all be a little brainwashed from decades of this, but we still have the ability to see past it. Bottom line, if we choose to destroy our environment, it will simply be what the majority choose to do. The way it seems to many people right now, is that we may be far too short-sighted to solve the climate crisis in time.

We just love our high consumption lifestyles way too much, even the younger generations. The vast majority really do care about solving our environmental problems, but to make dramatic changes to our lifestyles, it's pretty obvious people aren't there yet.

If even the youth in our world, with the most to lose don't really care enough to do much about it, then it's not likely the older folks will either. It may be, that it would take EVERYONE'S house and hometown getting gobbled up by a wildfire or flood, before most people will care enough to take this seriously. Most experts are now believing that it's 50/50 whether the majority of people on Earth are going to start seriously caring in time. I for one will be very interested to see how this turns out, but in the meantime, will be seriously attempting to reduce my consumption as much as possible.

It's definitely true that many large corporations have been pulling off some extremely corrupt shit for decades now, especially in the energy sector. The fossil fuel group of industries have been notoriously stifling green energy since the '50s, but they've been getting away with it because we've been letting them. We can call them scallywags if it makes us feel better, but companies normally just do whatever it takes to increase their bottom line. That's all they really care about. Most will never be saints, but this is basically how the system is set up.

I will say this though, it really does make my blood boil, to think that big business & the 1% are likely behind much of this push to force-vaccinate everyone on the planet, on a regular and ongoing basis. Don't let that word "mandate" soften what is happening here, this is the stuff of dictatorships, pure & simple. It's a slippery slope, and we're currently sliding down it fast on a runaway toboggan. This is an excellent example of how complacency can be an incredibly dangerous thing.

My question for everyone, including those who are fine with "mandating" vaccines, is what freedoms and liberties will we all lose next? Keep in mind, that there are many other vaccines out there, for all kinds of different things, many of which could be potentially forced on us as well. Including the flu shots, which the pharmaceutical industry has been itching to see mandated for years now.

Personally, I wholeheartedly support the premier of my province of Ontario, Canada. Doug Ford is doing an AMAZING job with this pandemic, and his tough stand of maintaining our right to choose what drugs we pump into our body is more than admirable, it's heroic. He has, and is mandating mask-wearing indoors, which most in our province are used to and OK with. And this does seem to be working extremely well, as our covid numbers are unbelievably low, and have been for quite a while now (as of August 2021).

The proof is in the pudding, and right now, Ontario really has the right pudding. If Doug can just stay strong, he's gonna have one happy province on his hands. He is a medium-sized business owner, and maybe this is why he sees the full gravity of the entire situation.

This pandemic, along with attempting to take away our personal freedoms, is also dramatically amplifying the problem of big business gobbling up the market share from small businesses. This is a problem that's been going on for decades now, but covid is turbocharging the situation. Cash-strapped small businesses are going under at a furious rate, and sending their customers over to big chains and corporations.

Big companies merging together at the upper levels, are also further squeezing out the little guy. Then we've also got online shopping being further turbocharged as well, with only a few major players taking even more market share from the vast majority of smaller businesses.

What this is all creating is an even more polarized economy, with the ultra-wealthy getting richer, and the little guy losing out even more. Then, big companies hire the little guy, pay him (or her) peanuts, turn up the productivity expectations (since they're rarely unionized), and create a workforce of virtual slaves. Oh right, and then expect everyone to get vaccinated every 6 months, so that no one ever gets sick.

As much as we all hate wearing masks, they are 75% effective, and this number doesn't go down over time. It's also much easier to quickly see & know for sure whether those around you are also protected or not. The long term health risks are also much less dire and dangerous with indoor mask-wearing, compared to repeated & ongoing vaccinations.

The only major downside with masks, is that the pharmaceutical industry can't make money from them. Remember, this is a $1.27 trillion/year global industry that cannot make ANY money from mask-wearing, not a dime. And they're calling many of the shots when it comes to vaccinations. Big business cares about one thing only, the bottom line, increasing profits, so their major amount of influence in these decisions cannot be denied.

Just to be clear, I am not anti-vaccine. I am, along with many doctors and veterinarians, against the current trend of over-vaccination. This is a sign of the times, and they're being used more & more, in animals and in humans. Most people, now that the third shots are well on their way into people's arms, are now realizing that there is not going to be a fairytale ending to this pandemic. Like the flu, it's probably going to continue mutating indefinitely. This means a lot more vaccinations are coming, increasing the risks and dangers of over-immunization.

People need to decide for themselves if the risks are greater for them with the vaccines, or without. Demonizing the unvaccinated is not going to do us any good as a species. All it will do is get people's backs up, further entrench their views, and divide us even more than we already are. It can be very scary to buck the system, but there are very powerful forces in this world, who are profiting immensely from the ever-increasing use of vaccines. They have their place, but it needs to remain up to us what drugs are pumped into our body.

If you are brave enough, and healthy enough, there are many natural, drug-free ways of boosting our immune system. Of course however, this is not something you will ever hear being promoted by big drug companies. There will always be many die-hard, drug-happy people in this world, who will take whatever drugs they're given (& this trend is increasing rapidly), but many more will start to balk once more & more booster shots start to arrive.

For those of you who are making your choice, either way, stay strong. There are many people in both camps, so there is no one in this world who is alone. A great deal of pressure is being put on those who are choosing not to vaccinate right now, and this pandemic is definitely bringing out the more vicious side of humanity. But the odds are very good things will calm down soon, once more info comes to light.

In the wealthier countries, we are all responsible for the mess we've created on Earth. We're now in a state of global adversity, with far more being affected dramatically than not. This needs to be a wake-up call about what we're doing to our environment. If we ignore it, at least we can't say we weren't warned.

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