How to do politics every day
Democracy is disappointing and elections are the time when we feel more powerless. It’s hard to believe that democracy really exists, that our vote has any value or that the candidate we choose will work for what we believe. The feeling is that all candidates are the same, embracing their false ideologies to cling to power, enriching themselves with the best wages and irresistible corruption.
It must be a dream job, with no goals to achieve, no boss and no accounts to lend. With so little responsibility, they can spend the day on the podium, discoursing just to remind the population of how irrelevant they are, and among their melodramatic pauses, drink the mineral water brought by a waiter who receives R$ 6,000 a month.
Power is a necessary evil and should not be granted to anyone who desires it.
The good news is that a better way of doing politics has already been invented. A real and direct democracy, in which every citizen, whether poor or even illiterate, can make use of his small power of influence in regional and even national decisions. This democratic marvel that everyone has heard of and that they use every day without realizing it, is called shopping.
Consumerism moves the modern society, the height of economic power and ecological disgrace, and the main democratic tool that exists. From the wafer you buy to devour in fattening afternoons to the car model you choose to put in the garage, every product is an option, usually an intuitive math that involves taste, aesthetics, and cost, but that is not just an issue of taste or price. This is because, when you buy, you are putting your trust in a product and, more than that, you are investing in its manufacturer.
That’s why they invented that “Made in” sticker, an attempt to make consumers aware that buying these products, we are generating jobs in the country. But indirectly this sticker says much more, since you are buying a product made in Brazil, for exemple, you also have the “certainty” that it was made in a democratic environment and paid for just wages or, at least, that it’s not a terrible bondage as it is in China. Brazil is not a model of good labor conditions, but there are far worse examples.
That is also why companies are betting on ecological stamps and humanitarian causes, bringing values that go beyond the product itself. By simply buying a pen, you can also be planting trees, recycling rubbish or offering education and leisure options for needy children.
It does not look like a political power as big as the elections, but the truth is that consumption is a much greater power. After all, if you are what you eat, a nation is what it produces and imports. We can not know if a politician will fulfill his campaign promises, but there is no doubt that eating fewer processed hamburgers, we are helping to lower obesity rates in the country, which lowers health costs.
Consumption is not only a way to encourage companies engaged in noble causes, but is also to determine their own engagement as an individual, materialized in the shopping cart. No one needs to be a vegetarian, for example, but not eating meat every day, offer remains, prices drop, and incentives for new pastures, decrease. This is the most effective way to reduce the advance of pastures that destroy the Amazon rainforest year after year.
You may find taxes abusive and fight for a lean state, but society depends on taxes to maintain essential services, and companies play a very important role in that. By failing to buy products and services from companies that do not pay their taxes, we can force them to contribute what they owe. In the worst case, we are encouraging those who act according to the law, to continue in the market. Compare the list of major debtors and the biggest profits, it is quite enlightening.
Buy from those who invests in their employees, whether funding university courses or even essential literacy, qualifying professionals who would normally be replaced without the company having to spend a penny.
Small businesses and small manufacturers generate more jobs than large industries and retailers. They also charge more for this, of course. But whenever possible, it’s worth investing in local businesses, bringing regional development and reducing the need for transportation of products, which in turn, reduces the greenhouse effect, congestion, the price of diesel … is a cycle that benefits a lot small people, not large entrepreneurs and investors. The name of this is income distribution, and all because you bought from the local bookstore and not from that online network that offers excellent discounts and free shipping (who ever).
It’s possible to value companies that pay good wages and boycott otherwise, as to invest in sustainable economy, agriculture without pesticides, healthy food, equal wages for men and women … Through conscious consumption, it’s possible to build the nation we want.
I started with the meat.
