I sometimes used to wonder about how Britain used to have so much influence over the world. Such a small insignificant island in the scale of the the great, often unexplored land masses and seas of our beautiful planet.
Many books and papers could explain the reasoning of our dominance over the world over a few hundred years however I'm going to ignorantly say that it was mainly down to three reasons:-
1. Exploration- we got there first
2. Diplomacy- we seem to have been the slightly fairer of the European nations*
3. Trade- after we had got there we traded.
*All of the above sweep the many atrocities and moral wrongs under the carpet. It's my belief that the further back in time that you travel the less liberal society was. Let's face it, a few hundred years ago you or I would have had to look forward to a lifetime of little of no health care, high infant mortality rates, a diet bread and salted meat, I could go on. What I'm saying is that life was a lot cheaper, although we can't excuse our murky past. I digress.
Anyway, the secret to our success seems to have been predominantly trade. Whether we were trading opium to the Chinese or spices with India.
This lays the foundation of today's rant, why is it that the traders control us?
Personally I've always aspired to be creative or productive. It's always nice to look back and say 'I did that'. 'That' can of course be many things. A service, something physical, written, or emotionally productive in some way to society. A contribution. Surely this is something that we should all aspire to? Whether you are the Engineer, the nurse, the programmer, the cleaner, the writer, the artist, the bin man.... I could go on. A functioning cog in a great machine, is there any nobler purpose than helping fellow people?
The trader to which I refer is a generic term to which I use against the non contributory industries in our society which have evolved from the simple sale transactions of yesteryear. I'll refrain from mentioning any of these industries however a few crimes:-
-The dark industries behind the constant increase in the price of a place to live. That's right, a place to live. Not assets or bond but a roof and a bed. The average house costs a quarter of it's value to rebuild however certain people and industries make money from artificially making money from these prices going up- we certainly don't!
-The traders behind the commodities markets. A safe bet after the drops in shares. The only problem is that the commodities upon which these people are now making gains are our food. Yep, apparently 200 million people in Africa dropped into starvation and poverty last year because some suits were making a quick buck.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-how-goldman-gambled-on-starvation-2016088.html
-Anyone who makes money without being able to say that they contribute to society in some way, what legacy has Warren Buffet left? Who has he helped?
We're all ruled by the financial industries, I think that we all know that but what can we do? Can we continue to contribute and to benefit our society content that one day these people will wake up and say 'what have I don with my life?'. Can we 1. explore these financial districts using 2. the diplomacy of management speak whilst 3. spreading our proletarian diseases in the hope of some form of retro genecide!
I joke (well.. not really)
