I am so rich!

If you are reading this, you are one of the most powerful and influental people alive.

If you keep your food in a refigerator, clothes in your closet, sleep in a bed, and have a roof over your head: you are richer than 75% of the world’s population. If in addition to those necessities, you have the luxury of Internet access, you are in an even more elite percentile: you are literally one of the richest people in the world. If you are reading this at home, it means that you have enough free resources to pay for Internet access, and a computer. If you are reading this at work, it means that you have the luxury of an easy well paying job (in relative terms). You have free time at work, instead of back breaking labor to provide for your basic needs.

If you live in a free market society, then your opinion as a consumer has fantastic weight. All goods that are made are designed to appeal to you. Billions of dollars are spent trying to anticipate your needs and desires. Everyone else gets hand me downs.

If in addition you happen to live in one of the most powerful and influential democracies in the world, then your vote as a citizen is more precious still. It allows you to decide your own fate, and determine the course of your nation’s history. In most cases it allows you to determine the course of the entire world. The United States exerts extreme influence around the world when concerning the desires of it’s citizens and their policies. If you can vote in the United States you are more powerful than virtually every other living thing on this planet.

Your buying patterns influence industry around the world. The impact that industry has on the social and ecological systems we depend on, is decided entirely on the buying habits of the few. The impact on world markets, societies, and ecologies that we have is incredible.

When we decided we liked new cell phones regularly, the value of a mineral known as coltan shot up. This mineral was available in only few places around the world. One of the largest was the Congo. The demands of industy drove the locals to illegal mining that wrecked havoc on the eco-system. The mining brought people to regions of the Congo inhabited by Gorillas, who they began to slaughter.

The reach of our collective decisions affects the entire world, yet we act as if we are powerless. We complain about mercury in our fish, smog in the air, and conditions that created “mad cow disease”, but don’t do anything about it.

We are literally the only ones who can do anything about it.

If you are tired of it, stop accepting less. Stop accepting industries that pollute the water we drink. Stop accepting companies that abuse people half a world away. Stop accepting companies who make money while people die. Stop accepting less.

Our industries only care about next quarters profits. They will keep making the same products using the same ideas, until we decide they aren’t good enough.

I think we can do better, what do you think?