Why No One Cares Any More

It puzzles me that some, if not most people, see things like the Wiki-Leaks scandal unfold in front of their eyes and not care about it. It is quite blatantly a huge injustice, where peoples rights count for nothing and are being conspired against by some powerful people, who have strong interests hiding what ever else is to be uncovered by the future release of the remaining secret communications Wiki-Leaks has obtained.

This man is releasing facts and truths. Yet has been held without bail for a crime he probably didn’t commit. All funding to their perfectly legal website has been frozen and all of his personal accounts have been frozen. This is a blatant attempt to silence someone who is exposing truth. This is not OK. This is far from OK. But yet most people do not care.

Just like most people didn’t not care enough to do anything about the worlds banks getting trillions of dollars for destroying the worlds economies, illegally I might add. Why don’t we care any more? People don’t care when they see students rioting in the streets over trebling the tuition fees. No one cares about them or what they have to say.

The reason people don’t care enough to fight for what is right anymore are 2 fold. First: Information.

We are the information generation. The internet has caused such a mammoth change to human behaviour, so much more that we realise. We now have a world of information instantly available to us at any time. This may give us more knowledge, but we are sacrificing a very real part of ourselves in the process. The real problem about the information generation is that there is simply too much to process. We constantly go from one story to the next, one video to the next, pictures, songs and news all consumed within seconds of each other. There is no time to pause for thought or even process the information we are taking in. This is why nobody cares about anything any more, perhaps other than getting our feed of new information. It has become an addiction. Most of us never even stop to consider what it is we actually care about.

No one is telling us that we should care. In fact, no one is telling us anything, except for advertisers. All of this information is not a free as you think. It is all funded by advertising. So all this time we spend furiously consuming information, we are also being called upon by businesses to consume their products. So we consume and carry on, ignorant to the fact that the very human part of us that got us this far is dead.

The Second: Numbers

This is the part we have got very, very wrong. We have convinced ourselves that due to the ever-growing number of people in this world, we are too small and insignificant to make a difference. No. It is not true that as numbers increase we become any less important. You being alive, coherent and intelligent, with the ability to communicate with other people is perhaps the single biggest and most beautiful thing that has ever happened in the universe. You have evolved from atoms for Christ sake!

You may be correct in thinking that one voice in 6 billion is not enough to make a difference. But there are 6 billion voices and you are part of that. If you disagree with the actions of your government, it is your duty to do something about that. You individually have no more power than anyone else, but you are not alone. If we all sit at home on our leather sofas, thinking to ourselves that we are individually too insignificant to cause a change, then you will be defeated. But together we have to power to do anything, to change anything to what we want. We have been convinced, whether consciously or unconsciously, by our society to believe that we have no power, but the truth is we have it all, together. The actions of one man did not form this empire, it was the actions of every man.

Bernie Sanders Speaks out in Senate

Honest, open and fair discussion. Not something you would usually expect to see in the United States Senate. But some things are becoming more and more obvious and more and more obscene as time goes on. Someone is going to have to break the mould and be extraordinary if there is any hope for us.

The fact of the matter is that over recent years, the richest people have been getting richer, whilst the poorer and middle classes have been getting poorer. That is fact. It is also a fat that in America, the top 1% of earners, now earn 23% of all earnings, more than the entire bottom 50% of people. That is not a society prospering.

Yet even with a $14 Trillion national debt, politicians still propose a $1 trillion tax cut for the richest 0.3% of Americans. The same Americans that fund the very politicians into office that have the power to make these decisions. Americans are prisoners to the rich. Where is the protest? Where is the riots on the street? Where are the calls for politicians to be held accountable for their corrupt actions? There is no speak of freedom in the United States of America.

Except for maybe one man. Sen Bernie Sanders gave the speech of his life to the senate recently. How can anyone watch this and not want to do anything about it.

But what really puzzles me is that this sort of thing is starting to become more common, and the internet has let the reach of this voice of reason expand to more people than ever. But no positive changes are being made. Things are only getting worse. How are we letting people just accepting the fact that banks did lose the money from our current accounts and that we have to pay the price? Why are people accepting the fact the the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer? It is not because they are working harder. It is because their greed is allowing them only the abuse the power of wealth to gain more wealth. And that wealth can only come from us.

What We Have Become…

This. This is what we have become. Fighting each other over bargain products, but not over our own rights. It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you. We are a victim of circumstance. You are the way you are because the people who really run our countries have made you this way. They don’t want you to question the reality they have built. Where all you are good for is consuming their products.

The time of calls of conspiracy theory have passed. The facts are there for all of us to see. There is no crime in protesting the the way banks, businesses and politicians have corrupted the social economic system of our society. Our crime is sitting back and letting them take the power from us more and more. They have succeeded in making us powerless, by convincing us that we are.

But you still have the power. We have the power of numbers. These people and business and banks are nothing without us. The only successful way forward is for us to unite against the real criminals of our society. Change is coming, embrace it or be prepared to succumb to the stamped of people who will.

To Be Young

Poor Products Causing Savings Gap?

By Elena Price

Recent studies suggest that there is a £300 Billion savings gap in the UK at the moment. What this really means is that, according to the report by insurance company Aviva, people in the UK currently have savings amounting to £300 Billion less than the 70% of their salaries recommended to retire on. But what is the reason behind this sudden lack of savings?

The recession has left a lot of people out of pocket, but it hasn’t cost us anything personally, that is excluding the billions if taxes of course. Interest rates have plummeted to near nothing on savings accounts in recent times, but that still indeed does not cost us. So what do the public blame for saving less?

Most consumers blame confusing and inflexible financial products and not consumer apathy. Some 87% of respondents cited this as either the only or a contributory reason behind their lack of savings, despite almost 60% admitting they are worried about their finances. The study also shows that the amount of people saving for s specific item or goal has declined from 26% to only 14% over the past 2 years.

But it is not just poor financial products that are loosing us money. It’s consumer products too. How often do you have to dig into your savings when you didn’t plan to? Our computers, laptops, mobile phones, televisions, mp3 players, stereos and even household electronics break or become obsolete so quickly nower days that we are always having to dig into our savings to update them. But they shouldn’t.

These products are designed to break with time. Companies and banks want you to buy new things, so they can have more of your money. It makes little business sense to build a product that will last forever, when they can building one that will last 18months, making sure you need to make a new purchase rather than keep your money for yourself. It is unfortunatly how our broken system works and must continue to function. Here is a new video from the makers of the “Story of Stuff” we featured last year.

We need a new system. Period.