Ray’s Random Thoughts 9-24-22

A World on the brink of a possible world war, facing food shortages, dealing with inequity in both financial and social perspectives and a world being divided by political extremes. There are a lot of problems this world is facing and more division over how to deal with the problems and/or to move forward. Adding to the problems we face is the politicization of every issue making it a harder path toward fixing the problems at hand.

Climate Change

The fight over climate change reminds me of the old battle over tobacco and how it is bad for one’s health back in the 60s and 70s. Tobacco companies hiring/paying scientists to say smoking wasn’t all that bad for your health while those scientists and doctors who had good ethics fought to get people informed about the dangers of tobacco use. The same shell game is happening now with climate change. You have the majority of Scientists showing us the truth that things are warming up due to carbon emissions but a group of paid scientists claiming that climate change is either not real or not as bad as reported.

Get only a percentage of people to believe the misinformation on any given subject and you cause enough division to create doubt. Doubt is a tool that is used to sway people and to keep any real political movement from solidifying in the government. Big Energy companies dislike green initiatives because they have to invest in research and development. They prefer to keep things as they are so they don’t have to invest much and rake in higher profits. They adopt the model of lobbying congress and greasing palms which may cost them but far less than it would cost to do the right thing.

Though there is some light shining through, seems more and more energy companies are moving towards renewable energy and green technologies but still it’s far less than needed. Evidence is growing that supports the climate change camp, more ice melting in Greenland and Antarctica, heatwaves across the world and we are heading into a very bad hurricane season it seems. Hopefully, the companies and industries that used to be the most resistant to going greener will start coming on board and moving things towards a brighter and cleaner world to live in.

Like any problem we face as a world, we can not totally rely on the government or expect big businesses to fix it on their own. It is a whole team effort, we all have to pitch in to make a difference. Sacrifices may be needed from all sides to make a difference and those sacrifices will lead to a better world for all. In time we will see technology advance to the point where we will gain far more benefits than the sacrifices we have made.

What kind of Sacrifice will most people have to make? Drinking filtered water from the tap instead of buying bottled water for one. Repurposing some of what we once threw away and recycling when we can not repurpose things. We may have to cut back on joy rides and unnecessary trips to shrink our carbon footprint as well. Change is hard for most people, who want to change how things are when it will create more work for us to do.

Humans inherently seek out the easiest way of doing things, so if they have to change a way of life to one that takes more effort they resist. It takes some work to make a change and requires one to have a motivator to get them to start the process. One would think that clean water, avoiding even higher temperatures during summer along with avoiding more floods and fires would be good motivation for most of us to start to change. Time will tell if humanity will rise up and deal with climate change or if we get stuck debating it till we arrive at a world that cant support life.

Financial Inequality and Inequity

First, let’s look at the difference between Inequality and Inequity, Inequality basically means an uneven distribution of something, and inequity means similar but focuses on the fact that it’s an unjust distribution or that there is some sort of unfair rule or laws preventing the fair distribution of something. Usually, inequality leads to inequity in most cases, and that theme seems to run strong throughout all society.

There are many roadblocks in the way for those of color, those who are immigrants, and those who are near or below the poverty level in the U.S., There also seems to be an unfair advantage for those who have children or who are around college age vs those who have no children and or those nearing retirement and those who has reached retirement age. During the Covid 19 pandemic, there have been many great efforts to lift families with children out of poverty and relieve college students of the debt they incurred from going to college.

Then there is the unfair credit system that seems to disadvantage people of color over others, though it has gotten better through the years there is still a lot to be improved on that front. Unfortunately, our Government does not see the need to help the single, childless, and older people during this time as much as they covet the votes of those they have fought diligently to help. They forget that those they are choosing to ignore or put on the back burner are also voters and the majority of them have been taxpayers for many decades.

Every man, woman, and child deserves a decent place to live, a means to feed themselves and live a meaningful life. The age, color, religion, or sexual preference of a person should never play into if and how much help they receive from any source and nor should it play any role in the quality of life they have. I am glad at least the government is helping those they are, just wish they would remove their blinders and see the rest of the people they are leaving behind.

A Democracy or the Democratic Republic like ours is built on the premise that We the People are the ones in charge and sadly too many times our representatives and senators do not serve us as much or as good as they should. Thanks to Lobbyists and backroom deals the people lose out against big businesses and wealthy organizations. Obviously, there are some changes needed in the capital to deal with such things.

Now with all that said, the great American dream is not dead, it is just far more difficult for many of us to reach nowadays. I believe the U.S. is still one of the greatest nations to live in. But like any great thing, it has its ups and downs and needs improvement from time to time. The loss of the Lower and regular middle class leaves us with just the higher middle class, the wealthy, and the poor/impoverished population. Hopefully, in time we can reestablish a wider-ranged middle class once again and pull the majority of people out of the poverty level of life.

Food Supply Issues

When it comes to food supply there are many factors at play and isn’t a simple thing to address. Since the onset of the pandemic, the supply chain has been under stress and it has been very evident through higher prices and near-empty shelves in grocery stores. Some of the things that are affecting the supply chain are as follows:

• Panic buying / Hoarding (seen during the pandemic)
• Transportation issues (labor disputes and logistics)
• Fuel Prices
• Mega Farming and centralization of farming in countries such as the us
• Ukrainian War
• Political Issues (tariffs, sanctions, etc.)
• Outsourcing of food production to unfriendly or unreliable sources.
• Closing down of local and smaller farms across the country
• OverConsumption ( though not widespread, is still a source of some of the food shortages)
• Weather/fires (flooding, natural disasters, drought, loss of farmable land and safe water, etc.)

Those are just some of the obstacles we are dealing with when it comes to keeping the food supply at a good level. Though now the fuel prices are falling the rest of the issues are still there and need to be addressed. Another issue is food quality which is an important issue that also needs to be addressed. We need a more decentralized farming system, more local farms would relieve some of the stress on the transportation of food and would also keep from exhausting viable farmland since it would not overwork the soil as bad as megafarms do. There is the issue of seasonal crops when it comes to local farms but then that’s when we rely on other sources that are hopefully within our own country. Some things will have to be from global food sources to keep availability year-round.

Conclusion

Even though I am no expert on any of the subjects above, I do have my opinions on them and I am a bit worried over the direction things are going at this point in time. I leave the solutions to these issues to those who are far more qualified than myself. But I will say that it will be solutions that require all of us to be a part of one way or another. Change will not come until we enact change in ourselves and how we do things in this world.

I am a firm believer in the power of humanity when we all join together to face the problems we face. Humanity has survived many natural disasters and many self created situations as well, there is nothing we can’t do if we join together.

Blessings to all