Contains truth but does not encompass truth. Who are these corporations that pollute because they are villains from a 90’s kids cartoon? As long as you are willing to pay someone money to hop on a plane and travel somewhere just to see what it looks like but not in a picture, or as long as you will pay someone for cheap holiday or party decorations you plan to throw away, or for furniture you won’t have in 5-10 years- someone will sell it to you.
Corporations supply what you want- and in fairness, often times they create pressure for you to want whatever they sell. We are hooked on their junk, and they have responsibility in that but so do we. If you know crack is bad and you know what crack will do to you but you buy it, and every time someone tries to make it harder to get crack you fight tooth and nail- what do you want? Stop buying junk.
Some may point out flaws in that analogy- most places most drugs like crack ARE illegal and most people would blame drug criminals… but… opioid epidemic…? Legal doctors. Legal drugs no? Alcohol? Tobacco? Ring any bells? And how is the whole “making it illegal” thing going for drugs? Last I checked you could get illegal drugs in any country in the world. Last I checked after billions invested and over 40 years of a “war on drugs” drugs were still winning…. Because it doesn’t really matter if you make the “bad thing” lots of people want illegal as long as lots of people want it and there is enough money involved. Corporations produce things lots of people want. There’s lots of money tied up in all that. So try the analogy again and see how it fits. And what happens when people try to stop it? Is it the “special interests” that stop it? No. They only get so many votes. It’s people who buy in to their crap- and then go vote.
You don’t have to be a genius or believe science to know coal is bad for the environment. The earliest coal miners and every generation since can see and feel the impact of coal first hand. But then, they start passing around proposed laws that would shut those coal mines down and… what happens? The same coal miners who can see or have even experienced what coal inhalation and byproducts do- they vote it down. Good or bad- that’s their way of life. Good or bad, it’s what many know. Good or bad, that’s how they pay their bills no? And it’s the same all over. How many of us work in industries connected directly to the destruction of resources and the environment? Probably most. Retail? Fast food? Technology like big data? Petrol products? Heavy industry? Travel?
It’s a long list so I’ll stop there. So what? Walk out and sweat off working like that? Go open a farm and produce 1/10th or less what the other farms produce? Smaller crops, smaller harvests? Hope people will pay you 10x plus more for every piece of food? Hope your buddy who opened a granary can keep selling bread for $10-20 a loaf so they can keep buying your 10x cost wheat? Most of us aren’t going to drastically reinvent our entire lives and cut off ties from mainstream society and commerce to try to starve these corporations out or force them to change.
Most people balk at giving up plastic bags or disposable flatware or plastic straws. Those things- they do arguably little or no good- do you see a pattern? Little tiny things that are too big to ask most people already, do little tiny good. So big huge improvements generally take big huge efforts- the kind you can’t likely get from people who lose their minds at needing to remember a shopping bag or pay ten cents. And THERE..
There you have a big problem. “I can afford it so why not?” This idea of “offset.” That paying that ten cents for a bag or paying a $500 surcharge for water usage or whatever other “tax” meant to discourage wasteful behavior but allow some choice somehow evens out the scale. The people who will often pollute the most can afford to pollute with whatever silly payment schemes you throw out. How many times have you seen some big company get slapped with some odd million of hundred million dollar fine for some violation or another? The profits usually wash away the loss and then some. Often times if you look, you’ll realize that polluting some major lake will cost a company about what they might spend on a frivolous law suit over IP to squash a competitor or defending a suite against employee complaints etc. it isn’t that it is “chump change,” but more that the amount is manageable. And many times if it isn’t… someone will bail them out anyway.
A lot of people got upset over the airline bailouts. “Too big to fail…” “free money..”
Ok. Have you seen how people were losing their minds during covid? How shipping delays had people on the edge, and even now supply chain issues are pushing people? So when all those airlines close and suddenly you can’t get your packages or various goods and production on goods and films and games etc. slows down and all the prices on anything with any relationship to or with a company or industry relying on air transport spike hugely- what will most people do? Blame the government. Blame the corporations. Demand a fix. A fix like what? At that point the cost and disruption suffered to get back to where things started would take years and be astronomical compared to not letting things get there right? So those are the choices- because we rely on these corporations and if they stop suddenly- as many did during covid- things start to get bad and people start to get angry.
Children. Adults are just children- but there’s no one to tell you that you can’t have candy for dinner or eat a whole cake. There’s no one to make you you save for the future or study or brush your teeth.
So we demand cheap goodies- new fashions and redecorating our homes or “upgrading” our furniture and cars and wardrobes to show we’ve matured and/or have achieved more success and stability in life, we take environmentally taxing trips for no pressing reasons beyond want or status or self gratification and we use all manner of wasteful convenience to save us time or work- and we are old enough and intelligent enough to know, or figure out fairly easily, that these things aren’t sustainable. But- we want them. We can afford them. There is no one to stop us. So we eat our candy and get sick and get ants and make a mess of things and then we blame the governments that didn’t force us not to and the corporations that made the product because we chose to use it, often to excess.
And so the corporations pump out more crap because you want it, you buy it, you demand it, you throw fits when you can’t have it.
And yes- they do use marketing and all manner of tricks to make you want or think you need their stuff. They integrate into society so that you can’t keep up financially or socially if you don’t have their stuff. They use marketing and social engineering and blatant lies or falsifications. They prey on your insecurities and your human instincts and your emotions and your politics and your sense of identity or tradition or whatever else they can use to leverage against you. The thing is though- we know their tricks. We know the ways they lie and manipulate. We know they do this and we know how and why it works. Yet… here we are no? If I say you down and told you I wanted to do business with you, but I was going to rip you off- would you do business with me? And after I told you that if you did business with me… am I REALLY the bad guy if I do exactly..
What I said I would and I rip you off- and I tell you exactly HOW I will rip you off?Would you tell everyone you were an idiot and gave away your money? Most people would not. They’d call me a liar and a cheat, a swindler etc. but… where is the lie when you already know I’m going to rip you off and HOW? Yet- the corporations are evil here. It’s in their charters- it’s public record- ITS IN THE LAW for gawds sake. The corporation has a responsibility to the prophet of its share holders and to generate profits. That is their business. Whatever they sell or do- they exist to make money for the people who own the corporation. Nothing they do will EVER- BY LAW- go against the concept of attempting to make money. And we know the tricks they use to get your money. And then… you give them your money because whatever the cost to the world or the people in it- you want what they have and have the money to buy it, and there isn’t some “Uber adult” standing over you to tell you “no.”
So to quote one of my favorite quotes of all time- “you are the asshole in charge of your own destiny.” It just so unfortunately happens that you are trapped on a space terrarium with several billion other assholes and each of their destinies is tied to your choices the same as your destiny is tied to each of theirs. Some guy on the other side of the planet decides it’s time to go nuclear and hardly a single human on earth isn’t having their future drastically altered or cut short. One person decides to drive a Peter built cab over to work everyday and the world doesn’t change- several hundred million decide that a freaking 8+ cylinder 5000+ lb sub 20mpg land yacht of an SUV or truck has a place off a farm or such and is perfect to get around because it’s so darn hard to fit the babies stuff in a car or because a hatchback or wagon isn’t their style and your kids kids may find that their once landlocked home is now beach front property in 100 years.
Each tiny little asshole making tiny little choices is a drop of asshole in an asshole ocean- and all those little assholes combined into a mighty ocean means that if every asshole let’s put just a single drop of shit- you have a mountain of shit.
Think about that- you’re on a plane. A baby craps it’s pants. Some people may not smell it and some may smell it bad- it probably isn’t unlivable. Now 2 babies. Now 3. Now imagine a packed plane- 100+ people and let’s say 30% crap their pants. That plane is going to be horrible ain’t it? Even if they make tiny little poops. That’s a lot of tiny poop to be stuck with on minute 10 of a transatlantic flight isn’t it? But what if they keep making tiny poops? What if before the smell of the last round of poops starts to clear or you get used to it- they all poop again? Every ten minutes or so over 16+ hours in the air. Now- what if you could never get off the plane? What if you would live your whole life on that plane where people keep pooping?
So here we are boys and girls and whoever or whatever else is joining us. You can make whatever you want illegal- but drugs are big business aren’t they? Globally. If you keep buying- someone will keep selling. Blame the pusher man, blame your friends who made you feel pressure or looked like it was so great you had to join in. Blame the cartels. Blame the government. Blame the farmer or the producers in the trap house. But… who’s buying it? When your teeth are falling out and you were told they’d fall out and you saw they started falling out long before they were ruined- and you kept buying- who cost you your teeth?
That’s the behavior of an addict in general isn’t it? As they destroy themselves, their lives, people around them, they keep going back usually don’t they? And they often know it’s bad. They often know it’s destroying them, hurting people. They often see the future slipping away. They often lose all the joy of the thing and have it replaced instead by the relief from withdrawal when they have to be without it. They often fear what life looks like when they stop because they can’t picture what each day is like without that routine anymore. They often realize that getting clean is going to mean losing or cutting lose their social circles. They often think with the “damage done” there isn’t a point to stop now anyway. They often look at how hard it is or seemingly impossible to break free and think that any little step like cutting back is a waste of time.
And really that’s it for a lot- probably most of us. We are addicted to it. We can’t picture a world different or a life different or we can and we don’t know how we’d manage to be happy living that way. What happens when newer better computers come out once a decade instead of once or twice a year? When we don’t have the little highs of “retail therapy” to get us through the day? When we have to plan and discipline to make it each day because we have to do so many chores and can’t rely on the destructive convenience that we are used to? What happens if we are an early adopter and decide to do “right” in a world full of wrong? You become a joke, a weirdo, a crazy person, a hippie dippy.
You don’t need to look far. A lot of you are too young to remember when things like electric cars were a total joke associated with total assholes with limp wrists and a head in the clouds. In some places this is still somewhat true- but it used to be the norm. But even without going back a few decades- look at how people treat vegans and all these other people who are on the extremes of behavioral norms or customs because their ethical views conflict the status quo. And that’s a fear many have- of being that person. Try being a monk- spending your time harming no living thing, learning and contemplating and enjoying simple nature. Being of pure mind and spirit and body, rejecting worldly pleasures- alcohol and sex and gambling and sports/competition and delicious food and luxury and comfort. That’s hard enough- to most not even something they want. Try doing that AND having a dating life and a job and a home and friends and finding a place in modern society. That’s the fear-
Most people know it from school or somewhere else- most know it’s from fiction and movies. Most people- most adults- dislike the “goodie goodie.” They always do the right thing and they always follow their values and they are always so good. They always call out when others do wrong and they follow the rules etc etc. and most of us don’t like those people. Even if we say we don’t like them- those people usually aren’t terribly popular are they? Lots of reasons. Too many to list. Simple and quick- when others are so much “better” it makes us feel bad about our flaws. Flaws we want to change but lack the strength and flaws we don’t want to change but know are wrong. It’s “no fun” and “ruins fun.” Who wants to be the only one drinking or smoking some weed or not eating a healthy sensible meal etc etc? We seek out others with flaws like ours to make our flaws normal, or because they can’t or won’t judge us. The person having the affair or the office smoker or the folks who have the..
.. “unpopular” opinion about there being “too many of the wrong kind of people around” etc- they seek each other out because people who don’t do those things are less likely to tolerate them, and even if they tolerate them- they have the “leverage.” If you cheat on your spouse and Dave cheats on his spouse- Dave can’t fink on you or you’ll find on Dave. People with dirt trust people with dirt and most people have dirt. To have no dirt makes you the odd one out. Has anyone here ever say in a party or had a coworker or whatever- where there is that one “true eco warrior”? Maybe you mention you installed some new drought resistant plants to help cut your water use and they go on about how buying from those commercial nurseries is just as bad as using the water or how those ugly but half decent plants you chose are destroying the local ecology and they bought local drought resistant grasses that look like ass and need trimmed every other day to look less like ass? Something like that?
Almost no one likes that person. Those people often don’t even like each other. So yeah- it’s a tall order with a lot of fear and anxiety to say: “I’m going to be one of the first- before it is cool or socially acceptable, I’m going to take this beyond green washing or the current fad and reject this destructive system and these destructive things that permeate society and/or my social groups…” but… is it the corporations fault that you don’t want to be “that guy” aka “that person” and do what’s right even if it isn’t easy? That’s literally where most of their money is made- has been made for like- 150+ years. Easy. They sell you what is easy and you buy easy because it is easy. All the pollution and suffering linked to “corporations”? That’s the cost of easy.
Let me get this out of the way- am I “better than you”? I don’t think I am. When it comes to the corporate teet I’m better than some and worse than others- I am not a huge consumer and I don’t do fads and Amazon and fashion. I keep things long term and care for my things and buy second hand or make things myself. But- I do but things. I do sometimes travel. I do eat out and I do buy mass produced goods etc etc. I’ve also made a small fortune working for and with giant corporations whom embody the core of what is driving all this destruction. So I don’t think I’m “better,” I’m a sell out. We all sell out, how much of ourselves we sell and what the price is just differs- and then there are simply those who can be realistic and admit it and those who refuse to admit it. So I’m just a realist in that sense. I know my part in all of this.
But the kick in the juicy bits comes when you realize I don’t actually have to care. I’ll be dead before the even the most ambitious predictions of global catastrophe strike and even if they hit early I am far along enough in life that I can likely be one of those people who can just walk away and go somewhere that is still nice until the clock runs out for me. I really don’t have to care what the world will look like in 50 years or maybe even 10 or 20. Knowing this I don’t go out of my way to be part of any problems and I do what I can to avoid causing problems or help fix them- but it really isn’t MY problem. If I had the answers, if people like me had the answers, we wouldn’t be here would we? Or I suppose we had the answers but it’s more the fortitude to act on them. Sorry about that. Can’t put the eggs back in the shell though.
So don’t think I’m standing on my moral high horse passing judgment. This is just what I’ve seen over many years and through countless hours immersed in history. Each generation borrows from the future to pay themselves today. For a payment of trinkets and silly things we borrow a thousand times that from the future and then leave it to the next generation to pay the debt. And then the next generation does the same and that debt doesn’t ever go down- it just grows bigger and bigger. Each generation dies before the whole thing comes final due so far, but one day eventually it will be due in full and some generation- maybe the ones being born now or maybe one already born- is going to have to shoulder that entire debt and pay for what we all took. I tell you this because it is too late to turn to the people at the end of their life and demand they pay it back. Not enough time. The world is in the hands of the next and it’s on them. Is that fair? No. But…
Will it be fair if you don’t pay it back and instead pass it to the next ones with the internet due? Many of you may know about the 1960’s. The hippies, the flower children. They wanted to end the corporate and government waste and they really kicked off the modern idea of saving the environment. They were a driving force with the activism of that time in the sentiments that got Nixon to create the EPA in the 1970’s. What happened to them? Those are many of the boomers who destroyed things so badly and took so wantonly. In the 90’s Gen X had this zeitgeist of anti corporate anti establishment rebellion. Rejecting conformity and corporate culture and consumerism for a minimalism. Grunge and all that- rage against the machine etc etc. and… where did that go as Gen X aged into their golden years? Aren’t so many of these destructive machines helmed by and upheld by those Gen Xers?
It wasn’t just them. Go back way further- go back to even the time of men like Teddy Rosevelt and to the creation of national parks and all these different things that show us that yes- the environment has been in danger and we’ve known it for a long time. The worse things get the more people finally realize they MUST make changes or face dire consequences from all that accumulated debt. But it’s almost always half measures. Almost always trying to do the minimum to maybe slow the advance under the guise of faith that someone will come along and figure out a magic fix. That hasn’t happened yet has it?
So- you can’t lean on corporations to come up with a magic fix either. If they could make better products that meet the scale of demand and cost less and do more and are “truly green” and “sustainable” as the population and quality of life globally scale up… why wouldn’t they unless they were just evil…? Spoiler- it isn’t that easy. Usually something has to give. Often times that means YOU doing with less. Paying more to get less. Making things last longer and having less ability to have whatever you want whenever you want. It means waiting for things and doing without things and changing your habits and your ideas if fun and success and attractiveness and such.
A secret is that there really aren’t any “corporations.” Like- Sony isn’t actually a living breathing thing. It isn’t a monolithic entity doing what is best for Sony. Sony, Microsoft, Jaguar, Amazon- they’re lots of people. Most really don’t care that much about Sony or whatever. If they got a better offer or were fed up enough they’d leave. If the company went bankrupt they’d likely find another job. They probably don’t stay up at night wishing for the best for the company.. except when that is best for them. That’s the thing right? These people go to work to make money. You don’t need to pay a CEO over a million dollars a year or even a quarter million if they really wanted to be there or to work for that company do you? People work as interns unpaid all the time just so they can work for a company or industry they love or want to work for don’t they?
I’ve loved many people and not one of them ever had to pay me 7 figures to stay with them- and no one needs that much money to survive- so….. do the math. Most people work for money. Any “mission” or satisfaction or whatever else is generally secondary unless they work for peanuts or would work for peanuts in the same job. As the man once said: “love don’t cost a thing.” This is ESPECIALLY true of corporate work in general. Who’s “calling” is to process reports all day- and if that’s your “calling” I’m sure you could do it somewhere besides a global human rights criminal no? Unless assisting human rights crime IS your joy or calling anyway. It’s money. Where else can a sociopath make that sort of money and get those perks and be able to be an almost unabashed sociopath besides a corporate board room? Next to lawyer- Closest you come is maybe to wear a badge to work- but the pay tends to be less.
So these workers- even the CEO generally- are there largely for the self interest. Salary, bonuses, promotions, access to information for making more money or gaining more power etc. so when we say some “corporation” like Amazon or whoever did XYZ or is doing XYZ- no. There really probably are people in that corporation disgusted by it, or fighting internally against it etc- but it’s individuals doing it. Usually because it benefits them. A corporation- at its “best” is a symbiotic thing- ideally in the corporate view what is good for the worker os good for the company and vice versa.
Company makes a big pay out for the quarter and YOU make a big payout. Company os secure and seems like it can keep making money for a decade and so are you.
Those things don’t always agree- but this is where it is still about the people not the company.
Shit rolls down hill. The share holders quite often don’t care what a company even does- they want money. Profit. They invest and the company pays them money. They want what they invested and then profit yeah? Whatever makes money for the company tends to make them money. Whatever saves money for the company tends to save them money. So if they think they can run things fine and cut salaries 10% and fire 10,000 people- and get away with it with the public- they say do it. Now- what does that have to do with the people in the company? Well- the CEO is a worker. The CIO, all the C’s and VP’s and directors- all workers too. So if the VP gets a bonus for cutting $5 million in costs this quarter- anyone with half a brain can look at a tight budget and say that those cuts mostly need to come from personal. Business management 101- your most controllable expense is people- labor. No one necessarily even needs to say it’s firing time to figure that out when you see the numbers.
So the VP is incentivized by a bonus in this case. But what if they are willing to forfeit the bonus? Well… it’s often made clear or implicit in such cases that there is a decision that sees your career continue and one that does not. It’s called being a “team player” or “company man.” But let’s take it up a notch. Your ceo or president who answers to the board- they get paid a lot generally. The position isn’t easy to get for most people especially at bigger names. So- the board wants these cuts and you serve at their pleasure. Going to piss them off and risk your job, your money? And you take a stand and what? They fire you and get someone who will do it anyway probably. Same results but someone else gets the office and the money. And in business and politics people tend to rationalize their trash natures as the lesser evil. See- you may do these things and sell out your morals but you “look out for the employees” “where you can” or this or that- and well- if you weren’t in that
office- some REAL sadist could be right? I mean- what’s worse, living under Mussolini or Stalin right? At least the trains are on time with the other guy? I’m not saying that seriously- that’s the sort of thinking though. That however bad one may be, someone else would be worse, so the lesser bad guy perches themselves as the good guy because in the valley of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
And this is how that works. It isn’t the “corporation” doing this or that- it’s each self motivated person. The person laying the concrete for the project that is going to destroy the wetlands or whatever didn’t come up with the plan, they won’t make a million dollars, they’re just some worker trying to do a job and feed their family and maybe save to retire and have some vacations and some nice things and a home right? But we can say the same about the person who contracted the company to do the work, who designed the project, who did the legal paperwork, all the way up to the CEO- each…
.. is just a person who is trying to make enough money to live their life and enjoy it. Some make more than others, but “I didn’t think this thing up..” well… the guards at camps or soldiers committing war crimes didn’t start the war or think up the operation either did they? They probably don’t want to be their either do they? If they could get paid and live and be somewhere else doing whatever they choose wouldn’t they? You think that just because someone makes big money or has power if they could have that and not do their job that many or most wouldn’t quit? Regardless of wether you’re the top executive or the guy with the hammer- you made a decision that day to go and collect your check doing this thing. The size of your check, your “culpability,” all that- like I said earlier- we all sell out- you choose how much and for what. You draw the line where you draw it, but like our airplane example- if you shit your pants does it really matter? “He shit his pants more than me though!”
“Hers smells worse!” Well… ok. But… you still shit your pants. If you have shit on your hands I don’t really care if it is only “a little”- I don’t want you making my sandwich right? If I had to choose I’d take the person with less on their hands- but I’m not going to say that they are a paragon of virtue because they have less shit on their sandwich making hands.
So it’s self interest. That propels this whole thing. The “corporation” is individuals mostly acting for their own self interest and consumers are people mostly acting in their self interest. The people in the corporation- they don’t really need to care what happens 50 years down the line do they? If you build a site as CEO and get under cost and time and make a hundred million and become a legend who everyone wants to work for them and can choose any job almost…. If you know that site will probably have a critical failure in 50 years and that may bankrupt the company… if it isn’t your company… you care because why? Beyond some sense of ethics- why do you care? And how many people have a hundred million plus dollar principles in a real world where people murder each other for less than $50?
So that’s a big part of the deal isn’t it? The people running these corporations often don’t care much for the long term. They don’t care much what problems others need to deal with after they are done and gone and have their money and can’t be touched by anything that goes poorly. If the company isn’t doing well in 50 years there may be 3,10,20+ CEO’s and thousands or more executives and workers to put blame on because they were at the wheel and you were gone- so is that even your fault? But when the next CEO does that- the debt left by the first is still there and instead of fixing it even if it costs this CEO- this CEO does the same. So the next CEO has the ticking time bombs left by the last two. On it goes until one day all those problems left to fester and piled with new ones- they break. And whoever os the CEO at that moment has no choice but to fix them. Take responsibility. Take blame and deal with the hardships and bad feelings that come from that.
That’s messed up right? That’s wrong isn’t it? Well…. Some may have noticed… THATS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE ALL DOING. That’s the same thing as you and me and every other self motivated individual being little consumers and acting in our self interest and trying to make money and own our dream home and nice things and travel and eat well and send kids to nice schools and give them nice things and etc etc. and we are leaving a time bomb for the future and someday some one will have to face that. And if you read that CEO bit and would think or say “I wouldn’t do that. Not even for a hundred million. My principles are worth more. Even if it meant being fired and not making the money I’d fix what was wrong. Even if it was hard. I’d do it…” well… then do it. Fix this. Stop buying shit. The thing is- those CEO types that do these things for a hundred million.. at least their price was one hundred million or ten million or whatever. If you say you wouldn’t do wrong like that for a hundred mill…
.. but then you sell out the future generations and the environment and resources for what…? A newer phone? A trip to France? A freaking piñata at your kids parties over the years…? I mean lord. If someone robbed my house and killed me- I’d at least want to know they took all my expensive stuff. I’d hate to find out they did it just to steal my TV or something. Like- for starters, if someone said “gimme the TV or die..” or “I’m going to kill you for your TV…” you can have the TV- I’d even drive you to the nearest store and you can pick whatever TV you want. I’ll pay for it, and delivery if you like- if it means you don’t kill me. But like- to die for JUST the TV? Come on man. There is waaay more money in the house. The TV? It’s not even a very nice TV and it is like 5 years old. So when someone says they sold me out or sold humanity out for some odd million dollars- that isn’t noble and I don’t condone it- but I can understand that more than selling out me or humanity
for some freaking wireless earbuds or some bland and forgettable SUV or EV or whatever that will be old news in a few years anyway. Like- if you’re going around murdering people so you can sell their shoes at the swap meet I’m thinking like that seems less about the money and more about being awful. If you’re going to kidnap and ransom some rich persons kid for a quarter million you’re still trash- but that at least is very obviously about the money.
So it’s better to do neither really, but at the point you’re in the dumpster playing around already- the price of your soul kinda tells me where you value the people you’re stealing from at. There are few morals without a price, but if the price is some trinkets then I would doubt a persons morals were ever very strong. Wave a few million in front of some random faces and ask them to do wrong and I won’t condone the wrong but at least they held out for more than a coffee maker.
Corporations supply what you want- and in fairness, often times they create pressure for you to want whatever they sell. We are hooked on their junk, and they have responsibility in that but so do we. If you know crack is bad and you know what crack will do to you but you buy it, and every time someone tries to make it harder to get crack you fight tooth and nail- what do you want? Stop buying junk.
Most people balk at giving up plastic bags or disposable flatware or plastic straws. Those things- they do arguably little or no good- do you see a pattern? Little tiny things that are too big to ask most people already, do little tiny good. So big huge improvements generally take big huge efforts- the kind you can’t likely get from people who lose their minds at needing to remember a shopping bag or pay ten cents. And THERE..
Ok. Have you seen how people were losing their minds during covid? How shipping delays had people on the edge, and even now supply chain issues are pushing people? So when all those airlines close and suddenly you can’t get your packages or various goods and production on goods and films and games etc. slows down and all the prices on anything with any relationship to or with a company or industry relying on air transport spike hugely- what will most people do? Blame the government. Blame the corporations. Demand a fix. A fix like what? At that point the cost and disruption suffered to get back to where things started would take years and be astronomical compared to not letting things get there right? So those are the choices- because we rely on these corporations and if they stop suddenly- as many did during covid- things start to get bad and people start to get angry.
So we demand cheap goodies- new fashions and redecorating our homes or “upgrading” our furniture and cars and wardrobes to show we’ve matured and/or have achieved more success and stability in life, we take environmentally taxing trips for no pressing reasons beyond want or status or self gratification and we use all manner of wasteful convenience to save us time or work- and we are old enough and intelligent enough to know, or figure out fairly easily, that these things aren’t sustainable. But- we want them. We can afford them. There is no one to stop us. So we eat our candy and get sick and get ants and make a mess of things and then we blame the governments that didn’t force us not to and the corporations that made the product because we chose to use it, often to excess.
And yes- they do use marketing and all manner of tricks to make you want or think you need their stuff. They integrate into society so that you can’t keep up financially or socially if you don’t have their stuff. They use marketing and social engineering and blatant lies or falsifications. They prey on your insecurities and your human instincts and your emotions and your politics and your sense of identity or tradition or whatever else they can use to leverage against you. The thing is though- we know their tricks. We know the ways they lie and manipulate. We know they do this and we know how and why it works. Yet… here we are no? If I say you down and told you I wanted to do business with you, but I was going to rip you off- would you do business with me? And after I told you that if you did business with me… am I REALLY the bad guy if I do exactly..
Think about that- you’re on a plane. A baby craps it’s pants. Some people may not smell it and some may smell it bad- it probably isn’t unlivable. Now 2 babies. Now 3. Now imagine a packed plane- 100+ people and let’s say 30% crap their pants. That plane is going to be horrible ain’t it? Even if they make tiny little poops. That’s a lot of tiny poop to be stuck with on minute 10 of a transatlantic flight isn’t it? But what if they keep making tiny poops? What if before the smell of the last round of poops starts to clear or you get used to it- they all poop again? Every ten minutes or so over 16+ hours in the air. Now- what if you could never get off the plane? What if you would live your whole life on that plane where people keep pooping?
Company makes a big pay out for the quarter and YOU make a big payout. Company os secure and seems like it can keep making money for a decade and so are you.
Those things don’t always agree- but this is where it is still about the people not the company.
And this is how that works. It isn’t the “corporation” doing this or that- it’s each self motivated person. The person laying the concrete for the project that is going to destroy the wetlands or whatever didn’t come up with the plan, they won’t make a million dollars, they’re just some worker trying to do a job and feed their family and maybe save to retire and have some vacations and some nice things and a home right? But we can say the same about the person who contracted the company to do the work, who designed the project, who did the legal paperwork, all the way up to the CEO- each…
So it’s better to do neither really, but at the point you’re in the dumpster playing around already- the price of your soul kinda tells me where you value the people you’re stealing from at. There are few morals without a price, but if the price is some trinkets then I would doubt a persons morals were ever very strong. Wave a few million in front of some random faces and ask them to do wrong and I won’t condone the wrong but at least they held out for more than a coffee maker.