SINS OF OMMISSION – DEATH TO THE LITTLE MAN

I don’t go to church, except for that rare occasion when I am invited, but mostly not even then. So when I want to get my church fix, I usually watch the pastor/preacher on TV. What I heard, in conjunction to a conversation I had recently, gave way to the thought that prompted this entry. The preacher was saying in his sermon, that we are subject to 2 types of sins; sins committed knowingly and/or actively (sins of commission), and those committed without intent, or through lack of action (sins of omission). My conversation involved the lack of personal accountability, or consideration, for things that we should be more consciously conservative of.

There are a lot of people out there, who I feel are people who consider themselves to be greater than financially challenged (whether they actually are or not is irrelevant for this topic), who seem to have a lack of consideration of the waste they incur, from electricity, to gas, to food, to list the top of my concerns. These are the people who either intentionally don’t care, or through lack of awareness, don’t turn lights off when not in use, have doors open when the heater/air conditioner is running, or have every electronic device they own in the "on" position. There are those who drive five minutes to get to the store, when it would only take fifteen to walk or bike there, for only a few items. There are those who would allow their car to idle for extended periods of time, and insist on driving everywhere, even when it would be acceptable or beneficial to carpool. There are those who would stock their refrigerator and shelves with food, only to have it go past the "use by" date, and then wind up throwing it out. These people are the ones who have gotten my attention for this post.

The reason I am harping about this, is because of our lack of consideration at how we are killing the little guy, not by strangling or shooting them in the head, but even worse, by slowly making their lives more difficult. The little guy will have a need for the basic necessities, just as everyone else does, but for the most part (and probably because they don’t consider themselves to be greater than financially challenged, or because they are more aware or considerate), they usually only get what they need, and use only what they can afford or have to have. I am sure that there are always exceptions to the rule, and there might be some people out there who have more than enough, but are still frugal with what they have (I applaud and appreciate you), but I feel that for the majority, they are wasteful. As it is with the law of capitalism, the greater the demand, the higher the cost (I feel that supply has very little in play as a factor these days). The more that is purchased, whether used or wasted, contributes to the cost of products/services. I think that prices are mostly going to be unfair, but the less that is actually wasted, the less the demand, the lower prices will be. When we waste electricity, and the demand causes a price increase, that increase is passed on not only to the wealthy, but also to the poor. When we waste food, that drives up prices for the poor. When we waste gas, that drives up prices for the poor.

I would urge those who can afford to be wasteful, not to be. I encourage those who are not aware to become so. I implore everyone, to keep in mind that we are all living in this world together, and only together can we make everything work. I think wealthy people have forgotten that it is the little man who does all the dirty work, and provides the largest portion of their profits. I think that they need to keep in mind that without the little guy, there are no rich people.

Perspective - Bologna

I think that as a society, we have allowed ourselves to just 'go with the flow'. The problem with this, is who we have allowed to drive. Between the media, corporations, and government, we have been driven into the forest with no headlights and we are slamming and banging into every tree out there. I use this analogy for a specific reason; first, I wish to exemplify that having someone else drive, is putting our lives in the hands of others; secondly, I wish to signify that without headlights, we are driving without true direction, blindly; thirdly, the banging into trees is to represent our destruction of our planet in our blind mad dash.

I think the best way to look at how outrageous we have allowed our lives to get, is to put things into perspective. I will use the entertainment industry as my first item of focus. We have allowed all the 'red carpet' events to blind us with all the shining diamonds and fancy dresses and the paparazzi flashbulbs, to the point that we actually think it is important, what someone wore to an event. We have been led to believe that our opinion in these events somehow matter. I think that in perspective, the only award the actors and other celebrities need to get is that massive paycheck from all of us to spend our hard earned money to watch their movies. If that is not enough, then I feel sorry that their egos need to be so badly stroked. I appreciate the movies that they make, I appreciate their efforts, and their contributions. If anything, those awards should only be for the people behind the scenes; such as the costume designers, stunt people, and all the extras who made the movie possible.

In regards to putting movies themselves into perspective, I am sure that most of us are aware of our innate need to have things now, and not only now, but it has to be the fastest, best, and most expensive. We have lost our patience, and therefore have allowed theaters to charge us rediculously large amounts of money, just to see the movie. In perspective, if we had a little patience, we could wait a couple of weeks or in some cases, months, to see the same movie in the dollar or discount theater. To further put it in perspective, the dollar theater is like a dvd player on crack. You spend a buck to rent a DVD from the Redbox, when you could spend the same money at the discount theater and have a better experience from watching it on the big screen, and have great sound. I admit, it is not as fancy as the regular theaters, however, IN PERSPECTIVE, it is one of the more sound choices we can make.

The one thing that really got me fired up, and upset, and wanting to talk about putting things into perspective is Bologna. I consider myself a frugal shopper, and am usually checking the prices on products I purchase, one of those being meat, as I am a meatatarian. I cannot believe that I can buy a decent cut of beef, for as little as $3lb., or chicken for as little as $.65lb., or pork for as little as $1.29lb, but I have to pay upwards of $3lb for bologna, the meat 'by-product' that is made with all the scraps, and has all the nutritional value cooked out of it, and then artificially added back in?!!!!! Are you serious?!!!! I am paying premium prices for the leftovers?!!! Would you go to a restaurant and order the leftovers off of someone else's plate and pay full price for it? How is it that we have allowed companies to get to the point that they would have the audacity to charge us that much for something of lesser quality than whole meats?

There are so many other specific items that I believe we can all take a closer look at with perspective. I am only giving you a couple of things to think about to help get your brain started. I think that it is time that we all take our blinders off, and start looking at things in perspective, from the purchases we make, to the foods that we eat, to the lifestyles that we live, to the beliefs we follow, to the people we claim to be. I think that we have lost our perspective, and have allowed ourselves to be dwarfed by everything on this planet, except for God. I hope that we all wake up before it is too late, to grab the wheel and turn the lights on.

Corporate Chess

I have had many conversations regarding the role of Corporations in the decline of the prosperity of America. I have had some who are so dead-set on preserving the Corporate Ideology, that it sometimes seems they would die for their beliefs. I can only hope that what I say will at least open their eyes to the growing American problem that is Capitalism (unchecked). I believe that Capitalism is a great idea in America, as long as there is morality to the program. It is when morals leave the arena that people begin to get hurt. I believe that, as in chess, the entry level employees, and lower to middle management, are the pawns. Cheap, plentiful, and extremely expendable; very limited in ability and freedom. Upper management, such as district and regional managers, are the rooks, knights and bishops. They have much more room to move, have greater abilities and freedoms. They are usually the soldiers used to eliminate the pawns. Then, there are the CEO’s, the Board, and Corporate Executives; these are the queens of the game. They have the ability to move around and do almost anything they want. And of course the King represents the corporation itself. All of the players, running about trying to save the corporations, while the pawns are on the front lines, getting slaughtered.

Only when the business of Capitalism is not played as a game of chess, by corporations, will businesses really be in their full potential. I can remember when the motto for most of the companies I worked for was “hire and retain top talent”. Nowadays, it’s “the cheaper they work, the bigger the bottom line….for the top”. I can’t remember the last time, in the past ten years (with the exception of my current employer), that management actually asked the opinion of those on the front line; on how to make the job safer for the employees, or how to make a better work environment that created satisfied employees, or what the needs of the employees were, or what they saw that could improve business. I can’t remember the last time, anyone, other than management received bonuses because the company was doing exceptionally well. I can’t remember the last time that the employees were treated to a company picnic, or party, or even given a card on their birthdays. And yet, the top execs, are still pulling in fat bonuses, paid for with the sweat, tears and blood of the pawns.

I think that when corporations return to their senses, and find out from the people who make things work, what really does work, instead of making decisions from their secure offices and making others suffer the consequences of their decisions; when the corporations return to their senses and realize that the people who are here spending their hard earned money, are the same people who they are putting out of work, and basically taking the money from their customers; when the corporations return to their senses and realize that creating an out of work, desperate, criminally bound society is actually going to hurt their bottom line; that this country will begin to return to the stable, ideal place for all Americans, and will return to being the envy of other countries. As long as we continue to put the American customer out of work, by shipping jobs overseas; as long as we continue to overwork and underpay the very backbone of every corporation; as long as we ignore that being wealthy is good, and being ridiculously wealthy is, well, ridiculous, then we will continue to move on this sideways path, that will eventually be too long to support and will snap. I admit that corporations are not the only problem right now, but in my opinion, they are the biggest.