It Is Time To Change Our Ways

It is quite obvious we are not taking care of our planet and one of the main reasons for this is greed. As I have said many times before there is nothing wrong with making money, the problem starts when people will do anything to make it. If we look at the 85 richest people in the world we find they have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest. I am not making up this figure, you can find it on Forbes/Investing. The Pope has angered a lot of people with his document about the condition of the world, but the real reason many are angry is they want to continue making money and don’t care about the planet or the people, after all they figure it will be after their lifetime when things really fall apart. They could be wrong about this depending on their age. A new report has found that water is drying up on this planet at an incredible rate. There is no doubt global warming is causing this even though it is being denied by some that global warming even exists.

Doesn’t it make you wonder how with the melting polar caps and the rivers and lakes disappearing, especially in places like Africa where they were already hot before global warming, people and companies can still say global warming is a myth? They have even thought up an answer to confuse people and it is some places are still cold in the winter. This answer is bogus since it doesn’t take into account the entire planet has had a rising temperature for years. The Pope’s message is not about religion so it shouldn’t be classified as such, it is about saving the planet and it wouldn’t matter who put it forth, it would still be as true even if devil himself said it.

If I were making pencils and found out the lead in the pencils was bad for the health of the people using them and kept selling them anyway because I was making a lot of money, should I consider it wrong to sell the pencils? I think most of us would say yes. There have been drugs being sold by companies which were pulled off the market by the government, because not only did they have terrible side effects, but they were ineffective fighting the disease they were designed to combat. They weren’t removed by the company making them. You can’t tell me a drug company didn’t know the drug was not helpful. They conduct many tests before a drug goes to market. This is their own words. I remember when a company was asked why there were different prices for the same drug depending on which country it was sold in. There wasn’t a clear answer, but I also remember Canada being told a certain drug would not be sent there anymore if they continued to sell it to Americans. It was much cheaper in Canada. Apparently the price for the drug was determined by the amount the company felt it could soak the citizens of a particular country for.

Profit at any cost seems to be the new motto for companies, most of which have no regard for us. I was always taught no matter what type of work you did, as long as you made an honest dollar you never had to be ashamed. These companies are never ashamed no matter who they hurt. Take the electrical grid, most of us are on it. Many states have passed laws which prevent the use of solar cells even though a good portion of them have abundant sunlight. Florida is called the sunshine state and yet most of the homes have no solar panels because, according to an LA Times article, “power company executives and regulators have worked successfully to keep most Floridians from using that sunshine to generate their own power.” This is a double whammy for us. First of all if we could supply our own electricity and eventually the panels would be paid off and the energy would be free. The second problem is the grid is too dangerous to remain on. If we are attacked the grid will be one of the first targets and we will have nothing if it is knocked out. We will be back in the Stone Age, only this time there will be nothing to eat or drink for most of us and most people will die. Having separate power sources for each building is very important, far more important than many people realize. Instead of building one aircraft carrier the money should be allocated to get everyone off the grid by creating an advisory agency which could tell people how to not only get off of it, but where to get funding.

There seems to be a sickness among us and it concerns the way many of the richest of us think. They have turned getting richer into a game which has no end. I have to ask this question, how much is enough? If you had a billion dollars wouldn’t that be an incredible amount for most of us? In a democracy we are allowed to accumulate as much money as possible, but is it possible to get that rich without hurting others? Some might say hey, I only made my money from stocks, but if some of the companies were using child labor, or forced labor wouldn’t it be wrong to encourage them by buying their stocks? Yes I know I am looking at this situation from a strictly moral view, but isn’t it important for all people to have the same rights? How would we like it if we were the ones being exploited for the benefit of the rich? I don’t think we would be very happy and yet some of us here are being exploited by lower wages paid by companies that fight tooth and nail to keep them low.

We are in the process of losing cities to rising oceans, sticking pins in other countries to enhance the sale of weapons by the military industrial complex and pricing drugs and food out of the reach of millions of people here and in the rest of the world. We give people food stamps, because it shifts the cost from employers who let the workers go to the middle class. Yes, we pay for the food stamps and social programs, regardless of what you are told. The government has taken the money we contributed to programs like social security and spent it on other things leaving the programs broke and then saying it is our fault for taking such rich benefits.

It is about time the government enforces anti-monopolistic laws and creates stronger ones. A flat tax should be imposed instead of income tax and it should be on everyone and every company. The amount of money an individual is allowed to make should be limited. Let’s say for the sake of argument the limit is 100 million dollars. This should be enough for anyone and would allow money to stay in the economy helping everyone. Global warming must be recognized and efforts made to slow it down or halt it, if not this planet will become another Mars. We have to stop throwing money away by buying weapons which no longer are needed and by not allowing contracts for weapons and other things which are agreed to, to be reopened to charge more money. We need better relations with countries and have to work together to make the world a better place. It is time to ask the question Rodney King asked and that is, “can’t we all get along?”