My aha today is how to take the passion from the Occupy Movement and turn it into actions that will make a difference.
My aha is this - I can accuse and complain. Good thing to do as it points out what we have known but not spoken about. But the best action to take is to get free from their control. To break their power by making their business no longer viable. We can do that by reducing their incomes by no more than 15%, for such an attack on the bottom line takes them into bankrupcty.
This is all you need to do - reduce the profits consistently by abut 15%. Conversely we get free of their grip and we re-allocate money to the rest of us in the 99%.
Food is a good place to start. Robin and I have shifted about 90% of our buying to the local producers and to local distributors. If 20% of Islanders did that, we would start to hurt the Big Food system. Conversely we would be pouring money into the local food system. This would be about $60 million on PEI. Not a lot for a few big potato farmers but a fortune for the tiny veggie and small meat producer.
Take charge of your health. By eating real food - my regular readers know what I am talking about - we don't need the drugs. If you eat right - real food that is available only from real growers who will be small and local - you will be will not need the drugs and avoid the side effects and the costs. What might the effect be? The world market for Statin Drugs that lower cholesterol is $29 billion. All for a drug that we don't need and that is based on bogus science. How many people have heart disease on PEI? How many take statin drugs? What are the side effects? What are the costs? I have a friend who is paying $500 a month for these drugs.
Again eating right supports our local food producers and cuts our costs.
Heating - Insulate your home and heat with local wood. Heating oil is one of our largest costs - about $2,500 a year. Nearly all this money goes off Island to Big Oil. We are utterly dependent on them. But a local wood/biomass system would keep the money here and is viable. What if 30% of us did this? We spend $200 million in total on heating oil. So again a $60 million dollar injection into the local economy.
I am just playing here but do you see how if we acted in concert, the Early Adopters could start to decouple us from the grip of the 1%. We could be more free and we could hurt them where it really hurts - in their wallet.
We don't ALL have to do this - that will not happen. But if 20- 30% of us did, this would be enough to make the change. Then the rest will follow.
If we can take a lot of our food and energy back, we will have driven a wedge into the 1%.
