You are financing corporate political power

Well, I think there's a lot you can do. I think that there's, once you can establish first, you have to try to establish or you have to try to cultivate, in the population, in the public, the the the feeling or the understanding that they have a right to expect their dollars, their consumer dollars, to buy for them, to purchase for them, to secure for them more than simply the item that they're buying. See, this is the this is the the trick that they've got everyone fooled about. They they have made you think that when you spend your money on this shirt or that jacket or that, handbag, whatever product it is, that whenever you've spent your money on that, then you've got your money's worth. But you haven't.

You haven't at all because, the profit margin for that product, you don't even know what the profit margin is. That product may have been made for pennies overseas. That product may have been made for pennies in a sweatshop. It may have been made for pennies in a factory in Vietnam or in Indonesia or in Bangladesh or where where have you. And the company that's selling you that product is making a huge profit margin.

You understand? So the actual, value of the item that you're buying, is considerably less than what you're paying for. So what are you what else are you getting for your money? That's the question. What else are you getting for your money?

And a better question is, what are they using your money for? What are they, getting out of that excess profit? What are they doing with that? You have to understand, like I've said time and time again, companies, corporations, multinational corporations are political entities, and they have political power, and they have considerable power over the daily lives of the common people. They have considerable power over the economy, and the decisions made, in the economy and how to manage the economy.

And they have considerable power over even legislation and policies that don't even directly have anything to do with them sometimes. They have paid lobbyists, sometimes multiple paid lobbyists and PR firms and so on to get what they want, in Washington DC or in London or in Paris or in Berlin or wherever else. Let's just say for example, you buy something from them and the actual, cost of production for that product, the actual cost of production for the item that you're buying is maybe a third of the actual price. The actual the the cost for producing the item is maybe a third, of what you actually pay that company in order to buy it. You understand?

So the price is marked up, by two thirds. Well, what what are you getting by giving them that money? Because you need to be getting something more than the handbag. You need to be getting something more than the jacket. You need to be getting something more than the shirt.

You know? You need to be getting something more than whatever the product is that you're buying because you're paying considerably more for it than it's worth. So you need to start getting your money's worth. You need to start demanding that you get your money's worth because they're getting your money and they're using it for something. What they're using it for is power.

They're using it to increase their own power, their own economic power, and their own political power, but they're not using that power, for your benefit. They're not using it with your interest in mind. And you have every right to expect just like if you went to a if you went to a, a dinner. Right? A dinner for a political candidate.

We all know about these. Right? That it's, say, $200 a plate. Well, we all know that the the meal isn't worth $200. The meal is maybe worth $15.

Maximum maybe $20.25 dollars. But you're paying 200, to attend that dinner because everybody understands what you're doing is making a political donation. You're making a campaign contribution to that party or to that politician. Well, that's the same thing when you buy a product that's worth, $15 to make, but it costs $200, or it costs $250, or it costs $70, but it's only actually worth 5 or 11 or 12. So there's a markup.

Two thirds of what you are giving to that company is a donation. One third of it is the price of the product. You know, roughly, one third of it is the price of the item that you're buying. So now you need to ask, you need to demand from those companies. I should have a say in what you do with the other two thirds because I know that you're using that two thirds to further your own interests, and then and they're not supporting my interests necessarily.

They may even be counter to my interests and the interest of my community. The interest of the target demographic that you are marketing to. You think that we should just be satisfied with this handbag or this wallet or this necktie or this jacket or this hoodie or this sweatshirt or what have you. We're supposed to be satisfied, and we're not supposed to ask what you do with the rest of the money. So what are you doing with the rest of that money?

I know at least some of what you're doing with the rest of that money is paying for political lobbyists. I know at least some of of what you're doing with that money is influencing politicians, is influencing legislatures, influencing chambers of commerce, influencing local, state, and federal governments. I know that you're using that money to get your way, but we as consumers have a right to expect you to use that power that we're paying for. We have a right to expect that you will use that power, in our interests and in ways that reflect our values. We have a right to expect that.

So you have to, first, you have to try to establish this mindset, this mental change in the public, in the population for people to understand that they have every right to expect that. The same way that if you went to one of those political dinners and you and you spent $200, you know, for a for a hamburger, it is actually just a political donation, a a campaign contribution. The hamburger is not worth 200, and you know it, and they know it, everyone knows it. And it's all agreed that you're paying that much money so that you can have influence with the politician. So that when you call him, he'll answer the phone.

So that he will be answerable to you, so that he will be accountable to you because you funded his campaign, you funded his career, you funded him being able to get into office. So you have every right, for some, quid pro quo. Expect something back. But they've gotten us fooled into thinking, that corporations don't owe us anything. They're overcharging us and they're taking political donations.

They're taking campaign contributions. They're taking charity. That's what it is. They're taking charity. When you overcharge to that extent, that's a that's a donation that you're getting from the consumer because what you're giving them is worth considerably less than that.

So we have a right to expect that we should be able to call you and you answer the phone. You can't call Bill Gates and he'll answer the phone. You can't call Elon Musk and he'll answer the phone. You know? You can't call Larry Fink of BlackRock and expect him to answer the phone.

Why? Why is that okay with anyone? Why should that be fine? If you give a campaign contribution of a significant amount and if you're a regular contributor, a regular donor to a politician, you better believe he'll answer the phone when you call. He'll answer the phone smiling, happy, asking what can I do for you today?

But you can't do that with these, CEOs and these owners of corporations even though you're giving them donations and contributions every day of your life. So I think it's about time, that we start to hold them accountable. I'm not saying that you have to lower your prices. I'm not saying that. Keep your prices as high as you like.

But we understand the people have to start to understand that that markup constitutes a political campaign donation. We are funding your political lobbying. We are funding your political power. We're funding your economic power. We're financing that.

So you owe us, and you owe us more than a handbag. You owe us more, than a hoodie. You owe us more than this little, you know, sweatshirt or or what have you. Just like when you spend $200 for a plate at a campaign, dinner, a political dinner, you know and the politician knows and everyone knows that you're not paying for the hamburger. You're paying for the influence.

But we need to understand that that's what we're paying for, and we should start to expect to have that influence that we're paying for. Otherwise, they're just gonna have the influence that you're paying for for them. You're funding their power and expecting nothing back from them. That needs to change. I think it's time for that to change because you should actually have power.

You're paying to have influence over a major corporation whether you know it or not. They've just fooled you into thinking that you're not buying influence or that you're not paying for them to have influence, but you are. Because why on earth would you spend that much money for one of their products when the actual cost of that product is a fraction of it? It's a donation. You're giving charity to these corporations, but expecting nothing in return.

So once you can, establish in the minds of the public that they have every right to expect accountability from, multinational corporations, from these huge companies, that they have a right to expect that their brand loyalty and their consumer dollars and their consumer spending, they have every right to expect that that should earn them and that should buy for them, that should purchase for them some influence with what that company does. And I'm talking about what that company does in the society, what that company does in terms of how it uses its political influence. That political influence should be employed to serve the interests of the people who are funding it, which is you and I. We're funding their political influence, but they're only using that political influence for their own ends and for their own interests. What's more prestigious?

To have a luxury brand item that you can walk around and show your friends that you can afford it and you have that item. You you you bought it and you're carrying it around and showing it off to everyone. What's more prestigious? That or actually having power and being from the movers and shakers, being someone of influence, who when you call the CEO of that company, he answers the phone and says, how are you today? What can I do for you?

Because you have every right to have that power. So there's many things that you could do. And once you establish this mentality in the population, in the public, then, yes, there's many things you can do. And they're all steps in the right direction, Insha'Allah. It's all steps in the right direction.

And don't think that any step is useless just because that one step doesn't get you to the finish line. It's a one step at a time. And once you have that mindset in the population, once you have that mentality in the culture, then it opens all sorts of possibilities and all sorts of people can come up with different tactics and techniques and strategies. I mean, for example, why couldn't you ask? Why couldn't you demand, say, The United States or in The UK or Europe or wherever else?

Why can't you demand if you can demand, honesty in advertising, if you can demand, honesty in labeling in terms of ingredients and so forth, if you can demand all of those things, why can't you demand that, companies should disclose their profit margin? Why don't we have a right to know that? But they're afraid because they're gouging us in terms of the price. And if we actually know how much more money we're giving them than, is the value of the product that they're selling us, then they'll know that we'll expect something from that. We'll expect that money to buy something for us more than the product, that it should buy for us some kind of influence and some kind of a say, in the decisions that that company makes with its power.

So they don't wanna disclose that, but there's no reason at all that I can think of why they shouldn't be forced to disclose their profit margin. Tell me this is the price, and this is what it cost us to make it. You do the math. This is the the the profit margin. Is it 10%?

Is it 15%? Is it 50%? Is it 75%? Is it 200%? How much more money are you making off of this item than it cost you to make it?

Because that all all of that money that's in that profit margin, that's money that we are using to fund you to have power. So every dollar on top of a reasonable profit margin, a reasonable profit margin, everything above that should buy us influence. I mean, you could arrange you could look at the the demographics. Say you say you start a website, for example. Start a website to organize and educate consumers.

Start a membership where you can get people to sign up for it, understanding what the purpose of this is, to motivate them to sign up for this, and they'll sign it up and when they sign up, they have to fill out a survey that will compile data about each member that you can then correlate with the demographic data that is used by different companies in different sectors to identify their target demographic. So that then you could potentially organize, you know, you could separate out, you could create small groupings within the total pool of consumers that you have in your database. You could have groupings that these this group of people from our consumer database fits the target demographic of such and such company or such and such sector, And then you can mobilize those people in some form of activism for whatever it is that you want that company to use its power for. What sort of legislation you would like that company or that or the companies in that sector to use their power for? What you want them to use their lobbyists for.

We want your support for this or that legislation, for this or that policy. We want you to back that. We want you to use your lobbyists to back that policy. And everyone who is involved in the activism, everyone who's involved in the organizing, to appeal to that company will be taken from, directly from their core demographic group, their target consumer group. So you organize people along the same lines, upon which those companies do their targeted marketing.

So that you can say you can't dismiss us. This isn't just a a haphazard, random, disorganized sort of campaign. These are your customers. This is your target demographic, and they're asking something of you, and they have every right to ask something of you because they're your loyal customers. They have brand loyalty, and now they're expecting something back for that.

They're expecting some kind of reciprocation on the part of your company, to represent their interest and to use your power and your influence in ways that, adhere to the values of your target demographic consumer group. Why can't you do that? There are so many things that you could do, but the first thing that you have to do is just get this into the mind of the public that you have every right to expect that. That you have every right to expect that corporations should be held accountable and should be responsive, and that they should, use their power in the society to represent your interests, and they should exercise the, power that they have in society in ways that reflect the values of their consumers.