Profit Does Not Equal Progress

Before I start just let me say that I am not a liberal tree loving communist. Many people reading this would think that someone harking on about profit is usually someone who doesn't like Capitalism.

I want to start by saying that in a world obsessed with social media as well as the acquisition of material possessions and wealth it can be difficult to shake the mindset of how profit can be a bad thing. I understand that change can be difficult to accept and deal with. No one likes change especially when its forced upon us. Imagine how difficult it is for people who live with a draconian and stone age mindset trying to live in a multicultural non-binary world. It's the same for people who have been mislead with the idea that having a lot of money is a good thing.

The issue with capitalism is that the company is supposed to pay the taxes owed as part of the process. In a capitalist society , the Government's treasury is supported by corporations and businesses paying the taxes generated by their operations to help support the economy. However, the tax laws in many capitalist societies tend to be a little "loose" and allow businesses and corporations the chances to make profit and pay less tax by manipulating legal loopholes. Of course many politicians around the world, who would never openly admit to this, support giving big businesses tax cuts to ensure their business is kept in the country and not moved to another country with looser tax laws. But that aside I want to talk about how this mentality of more more more is a bad thing, and help you change your thought process in a way that you'll be able to see the woods for the trees.

You don't have to go far to see how the current system is broken, in fact the recent US Election showed how Donald Trump opposed Universal Health Care in favour of privatised Health Care. When you stop to think about it that picture is wrong no matter what, if you are unlucky enough not to have health insurance you could end up paying thousands of dollars in medical bills. In the UK we have the NHS, a universal health care system which is funded by the UK Treasury. However, I didn't come here to compare US and UK health care, I'm only using US Health care as an example. When you look at the rate at which we are using the Earth's finite resources such as oil, gas and coal, as well as turning the rainforests of Borneo into Palm Oil plantations we can see that in order to make more money we as a people like to exploit eveything around us. We can also see this in the exploitation of people from sweatshops in the far east to those who are being trafficked into the sex trade. We can also see it on the street with the rise in the drug trade. We can however take a look at less extreme scenarios for why the accumulation of wealth and profit is bad, take a look at the numbers of homeless people worldwide, or the number of working families in the UK who rely on foodbanks in order to survive.

Across the world we have many people who live on welfare; for some it's a choice, they choose not to have a job and live off the state. For others it's a situation they have found themselves in because they can't afford to work due to the need for childcare which is expensive and would use up most of the funds they would've generated by working a minimum wage job.

What I would like to do is stop bashing the system and just show you what the world can achieve when we stop restricting ourselves with the pursuit of more money. If we're not chasing money we can start to see the infinite possibilities open to us. Let's start simple, employment. When money is out of the equation companies suddenly have an infinite budget for recruitment. If we have an infinite recruitment budget then we can cut down on unemployment. Of course this comes with the question "If there's no money then what are we working for?" which is a good question. The answer is we work for simple we work for each other and the betterment of society and the environment. We as a people have dumped an insane amount of waste in the world's oceans, and the reason we don't clean it up? No profit in it. If people just worked for the sake of society rather than for personal gain we'd be in a better place. If we take a look at crime; crime is about the accumulation if two things, money and power. Most criminals are only in it for money, thieves etc. For some it's about having power over others, sex crimes for example. There are those where it's about both, organised crime. If we remove money from the equation, most crime will die away overnight. If people have no monetary gain from selling drugs or stealing cars then there is no reason for them to continue. The power side of the crime coin is difficult to fix, but with more police officers on the streets thanks to the massive increase in the budget for local constabularies, organised crime can become a thing of the past.

Think about it! A world with no money. A world where we are not exposed to aggressive adverts for charities wanting money, a world where we have the ability to help the less fortunate because it's the right thing to do instead of because we have the money. Imagine a world where everyone drives an electric car instead of a gas guzzler. Imagine a fleet of solar powered electric boats cleaning the seas of all the waste we discarded. Imagine a world where doctors and scientists have an infinite budget in which to develop cures and better treatment for cancer patients. Imagine if we scaled back the devastation we've caused as a species by tearing down concrete monuments to vanity and rebuilding them into Eco-friendly habitats for an enlightened people. We could build hydroponic gardens to replace the farmlands we've carved out of the landscape. Combine hydroponic gardens with sustainable fishing we could live a healthier lifestyle. Did you know that 96% of mammalian life on this planet are humans and the livestock they keep as food? If you don't believe me when I say we have had a massive impact on the planet I recommend watching the David Attenborough documentary on Netflix. Spoiler alert, if we don't change our ways of thinking and living, there won't be a world to save within the next 100 years as we'll have lost too much biodiversity. But we can't save the world if we can't save ourselves. In order to save ourselves we need to change our mindsets, move away from the mentality of being as rich as we possibly can and having all the things money can buy, spoiler alert you don't take any of it with you when you die, and we need to live a life free that is harmonious with the planet.

Ultimately it's up to you the readers to decide whether you think I am some crackpot communist or if my words have merit. We only have one life, we only have one planet. We as a species are on the cusp of evolution, if we change the way our way of thinking we can ensure our evolution has a positive result. If we continue on our current trend of chasing dollars/pounds/yen/yuan/euros or whatever currency you have then our evolution is likely to be a negative one given we won't a have a planet capable of supporting human life. Just remember nature won't miss us if we're gone, but we will miss nature when it's gone.

Let's mover towards a brighter tomorrow, and thank you for your time