By Will Rhame, Literacy & Education Author and Expert Out Loud
In today’s society being heard as an individual is almost impossible. But, more disheartening than that is trying to make change. We live in an oligarchy not a democracy and as such the only people who make change regarding issues that affect our lives is “Big Business”. That’s right they own the politicians, the press, and any other system that might have influence over us, the masses. There is so much evidence supporting this that it’s scary. What is the motivating factor for big business to run our world? MONEY, Money, money. The only people they are responsible for are their shareholders. But, I can document so many terrible things that big business has done to create profits, including instigating war that it makes my skin crawl.
What are we, the “99 per-centers” to do? We can’t use our politicians to fight back; we can’t use sit-ins or large scale protests. History has shown those actions do not work. We can’t get government to stop the pollution crisis, even though we all know that oil and gas reserves, as an example, are on the decline. Proctor and Gamble continue to make most of our detergents, soaps and disinfectants with dangerous synthetic chemicals and toxic herbicides that we buy every day. The beef and chicken industries continue to inject our meat with dangerous hormones and other synthetic growth enhancers. Yet we just sit by and continue to purchase these items. Why? Is it habit or emotional triggers from advertising? Or are we lazy and dumb? Personally, I don’t think Americans are either lazy or dumb. I think we have been taken advantage of through psychologically pumped media. Oh, did I say who owns media?
Is everything about money in the United States? Personally, I would have to say yes. I know that I am guilty of never being satisfied with what I have. In the past I always wanted more. But, if I wanted to try and change; try and help our environment; try and be heard by big business; how could I ever do anything that would get their attention?
There is a way! It is the only way I know of, and it is the most powerful way of all. It is simply “purchasing power”. If I start making intelligent decisions regarding what I buy and I start buying things that don’t hurt the environment or myself, and convince my friends to do the same. Then we have ultimate power of big business. When we stop buying chemically filled products big business will have no choice but to either change or go out of business. And going out of business is not an option for big business; they will have no choice but to change their bad business practices.
We are the power and always have been. It’s time we come together and start using our purchasing power to better the world we live in before it’s too late.