Greed: The Black Elephant

I truly am saddened to see the world we are currently living in.  Greed and corruption are destroying the Earth.  For generations, we have been dumping our liabilities onto the next generation to deal with.  I totally understand why people are choosing not to have children.  What kind of world are we setting up for our future generations?

Much of the western world was built on capitalism. We assume that we are entitled to as great a share of the world’s resources that our money can buy.  Where did this idea stem from?  European men of property.  Settlers pillaged the native people of the land, enslaved other humans, and their labor became part of the settlers (and their descendants) rights.  I come from a European background and it saddens me to know that I am part of the problem.

If you think this concept only existed hundreds of years ago and we’ve moved on, you’re wrong.  Thanks to globalization, our insatiable quest for more, more, more continues to reach more remote parts of the world.  We continue to exploit others.

And nowadays, we seem fixated on low costs over high quality so the things we buy are being made so poorly that they only only seem to last a limited time until we’re back to the stores to buy another low-quality item.  What a great cycle…

We never seem to have enough.  Man has become a cancer on the Earth and if we do not change our ways, we will not be able to undo what we have done (many can argue that it’s already too late as this year’s Earth’s Overshoot Day is August 22, 2020).  We need to get the dollar signs out of our eyes.  We need to start seeing what is really important.  We must make the hard changes that need to be made.  Now.

How We Broke the World

One of my besties sent me a wonderful NY Times article, How We Broke the World, and it struck a major chord with me and I found myself nodding the whole time.  You may not have a NY Times subscription to be able to read this so I wanted to provide a summary and my take on the piece. This quote pretty much sums it up:

“We created globalized networks because they could make us more efficient and productive and our lives more convenient.  But when you steadily remove their buffers, backup capacities and surge protectors in pursuit of short-term efficiency or just greed, you ensure that these systems are not only less resistant to shocks, but that we spread those shocks everywhere.”

The author used the curious term “black elephant”, attributing it to the London-based investor and environmentalist Adam Sweidan.  I had never heard of this before but the term crosses two already familiar expressions.  One is “black swan” – a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.  The other term is “elephant in the room” – a metaphorical idiom for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but nobody seriously addresses out of fear or embarrassment.

Sweidan’s examples of “black elephants” were environmental and included global warming, ocean acidification, and pollution of water supplies.  To address these issues on the required scale, Sweidan said, would profoundly disrupt current political activity.  So what do we do?  We ignore them.  A black elephant is therefore something that changes everything, but which no-one wants to deal with.  The article talks about 9/11, The Great Recession, COVID-19, and Climate Catastrophes as other black elephant events.

And what’s the cause of these black elephants in the room?  Greed.  Profits.  Short sighted goals.  We are the problem.  We need to admit it.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

I recently read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins who provided his real life stories of a young man who became drawn into international finance and had the role of convincing developing countries (particularly the leaders of these countries) to take out loans that are so huge that their countries will never be able to repay them. These “hit men” do this so as to ensure that these countries become satellites orbiting the American Empire and the “corporatocracy”.  His job was to make these countries compliant, dependent, and endlessly economically exploitable.

The basic gist is that he went to other countries promising the growth of their economy if they contracted engineers and workers from the US to install infrastructures such as electricity and running water.  It looks like a great idea to the government because they are “helping” their people by creating a better economy.  In the long run, the rich get richer (the very few rich of course) and the poor get poorer.  The country becomes indebted to the companies that helped install the infrastructures and are at the United States’ mercy.

Perkins asserts that the economic hit men were potentially only phase one of what could become a three phase attack on the democratic rights and independence of foreign nations.  If convincing the leaders of countries to sign massive loans they could never repay didn’t work, then the jackals (aka CIA) were sent in to kill selected targets and to create mayhem that would ensure the ‘right’ people would be put into power.  If this didn’t work, then US troops were sent in.  He gives instance after instance of where this pattern was applied in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia over a period of about three decades.  It is hard to read this book from anywhere in the first world without feelings of responsibility, disgust and self-loathing.  He reminds us continually that our lavish and unsustainable life style is only possible by the exploitation of large parts of the globe. We’re talking modern day colonialism to exploit resources.

Read the book.  Be disgusted.  Erase your ignorance. 

Planet of The Humans

Michael Moore is at it again and created his latest documentary, Planet of the Humans, which is available for free on YouTube.

The overall takeaway of this film is how corruption and greed are destroying the world we live in.  I agree wholeheartedly with that overall thesis.  But the way this film was laid out was twisted to instead state that renewable energy is tied to corporate power which is corrupt and causing many issues.  As someone who has worked in the energy industry for all of my career, a majority of that in the renewable space, this film left me very angered as the majority of the footage dates to a time when the energy industry looked much different.  Anyone in the power sector knows that there have been so many changes that have evolved at a breakneck pace since 2010.  Rather than turn this whole post into a rant on the film, check out this Forbes review – I agree with much of the information in here.  Are renewable energy companies trying to make money just like any other company out there?  Yes, of course.  Will renewable energy solve our planet’s issues?  No.  We consume WAY too much.  We need to curb our consumption.  That’s the overall point of the film but it was not presented well in my opinion.

The film ends with “There is a way out of this: we humans must accept that infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide.  We must accept that our human presence is already far beyond sustainability, and all that it implies.  We must take control of our environmental movement and our future, from billionaires and their permanent war on planet Earth.  Less must be the new more.  Instead of climate change, we must at long last accept that it’s not the carbon dioxide molecule destroying the planet – it’s us.” 

This – yes.  The narrative of the film to get to this point – no.

Black Lives Matter

Team all of the above up with the inequality that still exists in this world, which is being highlighted yet again, and my anger and frustration with the whole system that we live in continues to boil.

This is not just an issue of black people versus law enforcement.  Note that I am not excusing horrible racist acts of some police members.   I am also not saying law enforcement are above the law.  In my humble opinion, the solution is not to de-fund the police.  Do we really want to live in Gotham City? The large majority of law enforcement members are amazing people who truly care to protect and serve the world we live in.

This is a MUCH deeper issue that involves hundreds of years of suppression.  Racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred.  They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies.

The first step in the right direction is to acknowledge that white Americans built up their wealth hundreds of years ago through exploitation of Native Americans and enslaved labor of Africans.  Once slavery was abolished in 1865 (happy Juneteenth), things did not suddenly become equal for people of color.  You’ve got to be living under a rock to think that’s true.  African Americans have been oppressed for HUNDREDS OF YEARS which has significantly created a larger and larger disparity of wealth among blacks and whites.  The same logic applies to settlers who exploited the native and aboriginal people living there.  Native Americans have encountered inequality and injustice for generations.  Don’t blame the police, blame the YEARS of a wrong and broken system.

And what was the cause of all of this?  What do ya know…. greed. At it again. White people used other people to make money.  It’s as simple as that.  The gap has widened after each generation and racist roots and a lack of empathy have been ingrained over lifetimes.

Educate yourself.  Educate others.  Use your voice and your vote. Don’t be silent.

• Books:
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DeAngelo
  • Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
  • Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
  • How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  • They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery
  • When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla Saad
• Podcasts
  • Planet Money: “1,008. Planet Racism“
  • Journey to Launch: “Ep 158: Black Lives Matter & The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America with Shawn Rochester“
  • ChooseFI: “Ep 216: How To Make FI More Inclusive With Chris Browning“
• Websites
  • Tanja over at Our Next Life wrote a fantastic piece on this subject and how it pertains to the personal finance space that everyone should read.
  • Chrissy over at Eat Sleep Breathe FI put together a great post too which contains a list of additional resources as well.
  • Back in 2019, Rich & Regular wrote a Letter To Middle Class Black America which is definitely worth reading if you haven’t read it yet.
  • Nerd Wallet put together a list of 12 African-American Finance Gurus to Follow.
  • Paychecks & Balances curated The Best African-American Financial Literacy Podcasts and Blogs.
  • And heres a list from Black Wallet of their Top 10 Favorite Financial Literacy Podcasts Hosted by People of Color.

The Wealth Gap

I truly am saddened to see the world we are currently living in.  I’m frustrated to see so much corruption from above and feeling helpless about it.  Politics are greatly influenced by those with money.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  The wealth gap continues to grow.  According to Bloomberg, a person would need to earn an average of $515,371 per year in order to join the 1%.  Compare that to the average annual income for a US taxpayer was $41,740.

In 1962, the wealthiest 1% had net worth’s equal to 125 times that of the average American household.  Jump to 2010 and the net worth’s ballooned to 288 times the net worth of the average household.

Bloomberg also reported that the top 1% of Americans own almost as much as the entire middle class.  As of Q2 2019, the wealth of the top 1% of Americans is about $35 trillion.  The middle class, representing the 50-90% of Americans, holds roughly $36.9 trillion.  Take a minute to digest that.  That is absolutely insane.

The changes to the tax codes over the years have benefited the wealthy more-so than the middle class. So the rich keep on getting richer.

Looking at a world view isn’t any better.  According to the 2019 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, the world’s richest 1% own 44% of the world’s wealth.  Individuals owning over $100,000 in assets makes up less than 11% of the global population but owns 82.8% of global wealth.  Their data also shows that adults with less than $10,000 in wealth make up 56.6% of the worlds population but hold less than 2% of global wealth.  These stats are truly staggering.

It’s too easy to point our fingers at the rich and scream “unfair!”.  But it’s more than that.

What do all of these examples above illustrate?

We’re all greedy.  Greed is a universal human trait.  Greed reflects an ingrained human tendency to hoard during the good times so we won’t suffer if bad times arise.  If we’re going to curb greed, we must first admit that we all possess the greed bug.  Unless we recognize and become aware of this selfish reactionary patter of the human mind, there’s no hope of changing it.  Significant change always starts from within.

We all need to open our eyes and start questioning things more.  Don’t be content with the way things are just because it’s the status quo.  Support people and businesses that align with your values.  Speak out when you hear someone say a racist comment.  Reduce your consumption.  Teach your children about all these underlying issues in the world and demand a better world for them.  It’s time for all of us with ‘more than enough’ to become conscious compassionate consumers who put our future first.

Changes aren’t going to miraculously happen by governments.  It’s us, all of us together, who have to choose to start talking openly about the core cause of the inequality and suffering being generated by greed.  Throwing blame won’t do any good.  Let’s start talking about greed not in accusatory terms, but in healing terms.

This was a very negative (and choppy) post but we need to get the conversation going.  I’m angry and mad and many times feel hopeless.  What else can we do the help be the change we wish to see in this world?

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