My answer to this question literally popped into my head without any thought this week! I felt that the answer needed to be one that includes all of humanity and not just one country or continent. What humanity is sorely lacking these days is any kind of equality or fair distribution of money and opportunity. Our free market Capitalist systems have brought us a long way in the last few hundred years, but have they had their time?!
Today in almost if not every country in the world, we are seeing certain companies dominate the entire commercial scene. The larger these companies get, the easier it is becoming for them to manipulate, control, advertise, and totally divert the money from people of all levels of society into their coffers. We seem almost powerless to choose other options, due to social compliance, brain washing (advertising) and aggressive competition to wipe out anyone who challenges them. The motto of most of the biggest companies in the world is that they want everything for themselves, and nothing to be left for others, not even a scrap. This mentality is even seen in countries like China and Russia who not so long ago were the leaders in socialism and even communism.
Today, no country is exempt from the increasing trend of large companies 'cleaning up' and taking over marketplaces that have previously been diverse and producing high quality products and services for generations. People don't often fix things in our disposable world, we just buy new things instead. To give a few examples, not long ago people would call a 'Mini Cab' to get home. Now we call Uber. People only ever used to go to the butchers to buy their meat, now most people go to large supermarkets. Children used to go to to toy shop to buy the latest games, now they are buying Online or with Toys R Us mega store. Farmers markets used to be the mainstay of the weekly shop, and now huge supermarkets have cornered the whole food buying market. The list goes on, and the trend is clear. Whilst this might not seem overly problematic, it is in fact one of the greatest problems facing humanity that we have ever witnessed.
Let us consider the impact of these companies. When we buy from a large company in our own town, where does the money go? The simple answer is that every Pound, Dollar, Euro, & Yen we spend with these companies goes straight out of the community, out of the city, and usually out of the country that is was taken from. Virtually nothing is ever given back to the community where it came from. The largest companies hoard money and redirect it to into very few and highly selected places. Worse still, the vast majority of money is kept in offshore bank accounts, hidden away not to be touched. This is all in the name of competition and survival. The bigger a company gets, the more money it needs to put away in case of problems down the line. The figures are quite alarming really! Last year the Fortune 500 Companies Hold a Record $2.4 Trillion Offshore. This is mainly done to avoid tax, but it also has the side effect of removing vast amounts of money from circulation.
data and image source
The net effect of this trend is that a huge percentage of the money in every town and city in the world is being siphoned off to far away bank accounts never to be seen again. Nothing comes back to the community except for a minimal salary. The larger the company, the more pressure is on them to cut corners and take advantage of their power. On top of that, they are the most inefficient mechanisms of distributing and producing things as they are all centralized, with 1000's of miles of transport systems to get their products out to the whole world. They are not only a social disaster, they are an environmental one too!
We have to acknowledge this problem on a social and local level, so that we can start to make different choices. When we spend money, we give our consent and power to others. When we buy products from mega-corporations, we are causing further disharmony and inequality for all. The levels of inequality today are at epidemic levels. The 1% is actually the 0.001%, and its getting worse. As big companies swallow and buy out bigger ones, we are fast becoming a one company world! This is very dangerous and yet very few people are really talking about it, or doing much to change it.
"When we spend money, we give our consent and power to others."
In reality, less than 50 mega-corporations control our lives. They control our politicians. They control our government. They use their immense profits to buy influence. They buy off our politicians with campaign contributions and bribes. They buy off officials at all levels of Federal, State, and local government. They pay for tax laws that benefit them. They write the laws and regulations governing their industries. They collude to further enrich themselves at the expense of the citizens. You are living in a corporate fascist state. If you can’t see that, you must be dependent upon the good graces of these mega-corporations.
10 Corporations that now own nearly all the others!
SOURCE
This is one of those problems that only WE can solve. The solution is SO SIMPLE, that there is really no reason to ignore it. The solution, and answer to this week's Question Of The Week is to BUY LOCAL! That's it, its so simple! When we start spending money in our small local shops, we will start to turn this problem around. We can squash the giants of oppressive commerce in a blink of an eye, just buy not spending our money with them. We have been led to believe that they are superior, but they have fooled us. The products from most mega corporations are in fact inferior, and in almost in every way. The local shop is almost a relic, and yet the local shop is actually the cornerstone of a healthy and prosperous society.
"We can squash the giants of oppressive commerce in a blink of an eye,
just buy not spending our money with them."
Not only that, but when we do buy certain things locally, we get many other great benefits! Consider our food for example. I don't think there is a better example of a product that has been stripped of any humane levels of quality. When you choose to buy food locally, from a farmers market or similar, here are some extra benefits that you get:
1. Fresher food is available at your local market.
2. Local produce is better for you. e.g Local food is GMO-free.
3. Locally grown food tastes better.
4. Buying local helps the local economy.
5. Buying local helps support your neighbors.
6. You know where your food comes from if you buy it at the market.
7. Local food supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife.
8. Local food preserves genetic diversity.
9. It can help you save money.
10. Local food is about the future. By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow, and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, and abundant food.
The list goes on, but I think you get the idea! This is such an important topic.. because we can ALL do something about this! Everyone one of us spends our money every day, and VERY few of us stop to consider the impacts of that. I hope this post can inspire you, as it has me, to buy local, support our local community and bring some of the power and wealth back to our communities. It doesn't mean we have to buy EVERYTHING from local shops, but what if we bought some or more things from our local shops. At least that would tip the balance back in the our favor. The lesson here is that if we don't do it, no one else can!