The news and media is inundated with celebrity relationships, new products, 3D technology, stories about celebrities in jail, coverage of non-issues, commercials telling you what you need and how to look- this all creates a vacuum that sucks in the absent minded. In this day and age, if you don't keep focused you can easily lose your grip on what's going on around you. They show you Brad and Angelina a million times, in the same vein as the creators of Friends had shown you Ross and Rachel- the instant connection, the emotions, the pain, the anguish, the love. People buy into this so far that they don't even pay attention to their own lives, they wait to see what kind of ring there is, where they live together, how many kids they've got, what they're wearing, where they're going, who they're buddying with. After so long it's like you're living inside the lives of others. This society is based on the look and appearance, it grounds this into the heads of the absent minded so that they look no further than how much money it costs and what will it do for the persona- if it doesn't cover those two areas, it's lumped in with the evening news and the paper as essentially useless to existence after celebrity gossip. This dulls us out, makes us numb to what's really going on as the consumer black hole keeps sucking us further and further into oblivion.
Here are some facts that some people, including myself, find disturbing:
- An average of 450,000 people a year have serious complications (or die) from coronary heart disease
- Canada has 1,154 McDonalds restaurants (#3 in the world behind the U.S and Japan)
- 70 L of beer per person is consumed each year
- 119 L of soft drink is consumed each year per person (#3 on the global list)
- 14.3% of Canadians are considered obese and at risk of diabetes, heart disease, gall bladder disease and some cancers.
- 2.1 physicians for every 1,000 people ranking at #58 worldwide behind such places as Cuba, Belarus, Russia, Israel, Armenia, Germany and about 50 others (although our actual healthcare is much better we are still severely short on doctors as well as Registered Nurses).
- Almost 2,000 cigarettes per person are smoked each year
- Merchandise exports, as of 2005, only at 6.79%; everything is imported, nothing seems to be made in Canada anymore, it's all outsourced to undeveloped areas where companies can overwork and underpay 'employees' who are more like slaves.
- 3rd worst country for cell phone rates, averaging $500 a year while in comparison Dutch users average about $131 a year. A complete plan is on average $67.50 a month, while India and Hong Kong pay $12.90 and $13.50 respectively.
- In the 12 months up to March 2011, consumer prices rose 3.3% and energy prices rose 12.8%; prices of foods from stores rose 3.7% and fresh vegetables rose a whopping 18.6%, the latter being blamed on bad weather in Mexico and the Southern U.S for reducing supply. All the while, McDonalds burgers just get cheaper and cheaper.
- There is also a predicted rise in food of another 5-7% over the next year.
We are governed by prices, where things come from. We outsource our business, we let companies from other countries swallow our businesses whole and barely wipe their chin on the way out. Even the cheap prices at WalMart come at the expense of a family on the other side of the world, crammed into a workroom with another 100 people making tennis shoes so some North American mom can afford to buy 3 pairs for $20. Our food prices and supply are dictated by weather and conditions elsewhere, meanwhile they spray it all down with stuff we'll never even know about- all the while we wait with our mouths open like poor, hungry dogs that just came in out of the rain. We are a consumer society, a consumer economy, a consumer machine. Where does it stop? Better yet, where do we start pushing back and demanding more accountability and more change? When do we say enough is enough, we want healthy food to cost less than toxic garbage from McDonalds? When do we put human value over profits and quarterly revenues?
When...
