How Capitalism became the New Feudalism!
Money makes the world go around!
No! Not True!
Our belief in money makes the world the way it is.
Money doesn’t exist.
Maybe once upon a time it was gold: silver; diamonds and rubies but these days it is an agreement that the numbers on the computer are right!
And what is happening is the same as a great big game of monopoly.
Individuals; groups; companies and some governments have gathered most of the playing board “money” into their hands and the common man is paying the rent with his life.
Often; these people are out of sight; hidden from the eyes of normal people.
50% of the world’s wealth lies in the hands of 1% of people.
85% of the world’s wealth lies in the hands of 10% of the people.
70% of the people in this world only have 3% of the wealth to share amongst themselves.
And even that 3% is not evenly shared!
23% of the worlds population live in poverty!!
828 million people go hungry every day and 330 million of those people are in dire need situations.
9 million people die from hunger every year.
YET!
40% of food produced in the USA each year is never eaten!
In Australia alone with our small population of 26 million people; we waste 7.68 million tonnes of food each year.
The world produces enough food every year to feed all 8 billion people here!
The problem is not the amount of food or money.
The problems are that the rich are not sharing or using the money at their disposal to create genuine answers to poverty and the poor are both dis-empowered by both lack of money and the right information.
On a planet that is already suffering from environmental pressures; commercialism and capitalism require growing economies in order to survive as a way of life.
This is important to understand! In capitalism, economies have to continually grow in order to remain stable.
Infinite growth in a finite world sets up an impossible situation.
Think about the advertising we see on TV every day. Everything is about new, new, new! Every ad is a worm on the hook for the gullible. Everyone in the world of commerce is struggling for a share of a limited market!
In order for the wheels of commerce to keep turning, the “old” devices must become obsolete in a reasonably short time period. Otherwise, the wheels of economy will slow down and we will go into recession or depression. So all that labour and money; which is actually human energy; and goes into the manufacture of goods; is designed to fail so that we can put more energy in and do it all again!
Then you will buy your “new” phone, computer, fridge, car etc.
In the same way we waste food to maintain market prices, we waste raw materials and human energy to keep the wheels of economy turning!
At a time on this planet when we need to conserve energy; we continually waste it!
At the moment, the worlds 2 biggest populations, China [1.5 billion] and India [1.45 billion] have had a marked rise in wealth because of trade and both have new large middle class populations who desire the western “lifestyle”.
This means we need to manufacture more of these things which have built in obsolescence; thus placing more stress on raw resources; creating more pollution and wasting more human energy and raw resources.
The human systems which are in place and into which we humans are born; grab us and carry us without us being able to do much about it.
How many humans feel helpless at being able to change these systems that are being held there by the rich and powerful?
The majority of humans are forced by the very nature of these systems to etch out a survival in this world as it is.
And these systems whether held in place consciously or unconsciously by the powerful and elite have imprisoned us in a reality we have little control of.
We are cogs in a machine which grinds towards a future we have no control over.
And how is that different from being born into the servitude of a lord who was in servitude to the king?
In both scenarios; the majority of people have no control over their destiny.
In the past; the average human was enslaved by the rich in an open; direct and obvious way.
In the present; it is somewhat the same but hidden in a complex; complicated world which is going so fast that most humans are caught in a fight for money and survival.
They have no time to stop and recreate reality!
The word recreation is derived from the word create.
Recreation time is when we chill out; analyse our lives and set a better course for our reality!
Yet recreation now more often means numbing out in front of a TV or mobile device.
We have already entered our “Brave New World”.
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