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1. Global corporations continuously pump money out of our community. That's why they are in business. Typically, wages represent only 25% to 35% of revenues and most other necessary supplies & services are purchased from a corporate (often foreign) head office. For every $100 in local sales, over $50 leaves town permanently. How long do you think Kingston can continue to export its wealth before running into a cash crisis? How long do you think the corporations will stick around after we hit the wall?
2. Global corporations create mostly low-paying, retail jobs locally. Part-time work without benefits, student co-op placements and work-for-welfare contracts, all help keep payroll costs low. For older workers, our kids and our grandchildren, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain or sustain a middle class standard of living. As wages spiral downward we rely even more on inexpensive, mass-produced, disposable products. More junk, more often = more waste/pollution, more exploitation and more resource devaluation/depletion. Lower prices aren't the solution ...they are the problem. (In case you haven't noticed, lower prices have lead to even lower wages, less public services, more foreign takeovers and a loss of independent, local opportunities.)
3. A growing percentage of the population is relying on credit to chase the middle-class dream. More borrowing and household debt = higher financing costs = less real purchasing power = a greater need to borrow even more. Another vicious circle, creating insecurity, stress, violence and illness.
4. Global corporations centralize control. Local communities become dependent on non-residents, losing autonomy and control of the economic decisions which determine their future. Accountability for shoddy products or unfair policies and practises moves to distant head offices. Consumers have no direct, local access to responsible decision makers or company principals.
5. The power and resources of global corporations already far exceed those of local governments. Municipalities are re-writing the rules to attract business investments even though the development deals made may actually make things worse for the community. Zoning bylaws and official plans are ignored by over-zealous officials. Corporate tax breaks and uncollected tax arrears make the community poorer as development costs and infrastructure demands increase.
6. The huge economy of scale of the global corporations makes competition extremely difficult. New, innovative, companies are bought up in their infancy. Small, independent competitors are simply out-marketed. Affordable, independent entrepreneurial opportunities disappear and are replaced by corporate franchise opportunities. Licensing and royalty contracts, management and advertising fees ...all drain wealth from host communities, maximize head office profitability and boost market control.
7. Choice and diversity in the local marketplace is reduced by global consolidation. Some retail sectors may maintain niche boutiques longer than others, but eventually all communities begin to look and feel pretty much the same ...the usual corporate chains, huddled in a familiar mall setting, offering an identical selection and price. An insipid, global mono-culture is rapidly displacing all other cultural possibilities in our communities.
8. The advertising of the global corporations is repeated so often that it has a brainwashing effect on consumers. Every TV and radio show spews out their hype, every magazine and newspaper is filled with their flyers and ads. Over time, their psychological bombardment is irresistable. The average consumer can't hide from their ads and can't help being influenced by them. Only the largest global corporations can afford such aggressive marketing campaigns (although consumers really end up paying for them). This further distorts markets and inhibits real competition.
9. Increasingly, global corporations are disconnecting culture from reality. Fantasy and fiction are replacing fact. Public opinion is being monitored and manipulated. Education and information are becoming inaccessible to many. Truth and knowledge are being privatised and controlled. Soon the chains that binds us will be invisible.
10. The global concentration of wealth and power is simply undemocratic. Those who make the rules are unaccountable to anyone. They manipulate money and prosper from the work of others but produce nothing of value themselves. Their greedy schemes and wars are depleting the earth's resources and destroying our natural and social environments. We are quickly approaching a point of no return, the point at which no other examples of alternative societies exist anywhere on earth, and insufficient natural resources remain to sustain human life on this planet.
To end this madness, we must be willing to consume less and pay more to regain local control of our economic future, our communities, our lives. In short, we must stop giving the global corporations our money and start investing in ourselves.
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