Whilst the increase of energy prices is awful for many families across the UK and the world, it shouldn’t surprise us that the price of energy is rising, in fact we should be expecting this. Energy companies aren’t philanthropists, it’s their job, their role to make a profit. Their role isn’t to give us good deals on energy or to ensure that we all keep warm and have enough electricity. They exist for one reason and one reason alone: to make money. Of course, when our lives are so dependent on this energy it affects us hugely, as does the rise in the price of food, the price in rent or mortgages and every other tax hike currently coming our way. But none of it should surprise any of us for if we truly understand the system we live in, then we can see this is exactly how it should be performing. In fact, we should be expecting this, it should be common knowledge and easily understood when we identify that we all live within a system based purely on profit by any means.
Most of us benefit from this system every day. The clothes we wear and products we purchase have pretty much all been built to the detriment of others globally. Our trainers, our phones, all the products that fill our houses have undoubtably been produced in sweatshops in countries like Bangladesh where according to ‘The World Counts’ https://www.theworldcounts.com/ some slaves, yep, slaves are earning a whopping 3 cents an hour, some between the ages of 5 and 14 to make our trainers, phones and products. This for many is easy to deal with because it is out of sight.
The point is this current system works for the few while the majority suffer globally from high energy prices in the UK to the incredibly small wages in Bangladesh and further afield. If we are not happy, and there’s no way that we should be about the price of energy, we should also not be happy about the rate of pay for those in sweatshops across the globe making our clothes, our phones, our TVs and so on. Where the system is concerned, we are truly in this together, and the only way to lower the price of energy is to create an egalitarian system that works for the many. We can’t say that we are unhappy with the price of energy and yet happily benefit from the slavery of others because then we are only contributing and reinforcing the very system that is pushing up the prices of our energy that we are so angry about. The two are inextricably linked and to ignore this is to either show a complete lack of understanding or to live in a fantasy world that simply doesn’t exist. We either have a system that is solely based on profit that benefits the few or a system that works for everyone.
This is by no means something that can be changed overnight. There has been extensive effort to put a system like this in place by those who hugely benefit from it, but if you are really interested in changing the system, and let’s not forget this isn’t nature, it can be changed. The first thing we must do is educate ourselves, because the system has only come into play because of a lack of education about the very system. It is in the interests of the few that you remain uneducated about the system that they benefit from so well.
Recommended books:
Monoculture — F.A. Michaels
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780986853807/Monoculture-Story-Changing-Everything-Michaels-0986853801/plp
Propaganda — Edward Bernays
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/edward-bernays/propaganda/9780970312594
No Logo and the Shock Doctrine — Naomi Klein
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/naomi-klein/no-logo/9780007340774
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/naomi-klein/shock-doctrine/9780312427993
Captive State and The Age of Consent — George Monbiot
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/george-monbiot/captive-state/9781509852062
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/george-monbiot/age-of-consent/9780007150434
How the world works — Noam Chomsky
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/noam-chomsky/how-the-world-works/9780241145388
The Establishment — Owen Jones
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/owen-jones/establishment/9781846147197
Doughnut Economics — Kate Raworth
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/kate-raworth/doughnut-economics/9781847941398
