You Have the Power: Corporate Elite
The corporate elite have sizeable influence over our daily lives. I take a stab at explaining part of the problem and offering steps we can take to hinder that influence.
Welcome back. This is the second installment of You Have the Power. It is a series that will highlight some of the reasons why so many of us have lost trust in establishment systems. Systems like the government, mainstream media, corporate elites, and even the money itself. Beyond just explaining why I think we've lost trust in these established institutions, the point of these writings is to highlight that there are things we can do as individuals that will help hold these behemoths accountable. It may seem daunting, but real change is only possible if we make different decisions in our own homes.
Hopefully, after reading Part 1 of this series you've pondered the feasibility of cutting your pay-tv service. If you actually went all the way and cancelled the service as a result of that article, even better! That's awesome! For those of you who don't want to cut your pay-tv service, the rest of this series may not be for you. I don't mean any disrespect by that. Each person is their own individual and it isn't my place to judge your commitment to making a difference. We all fight the good fight in different ways. Cutting the cord is hard for some people because they really get value or enjoyment out of the programming they watch. That's a perfectly fair position to take. Just know that there are four parts to this series. Each part proposes actionable steps you can take to fight back at a system that hates you. The steps necessary to fight the "established monsters" get harder as this series goes on. Not easier. Ready to get nuts?
Let's Get Nuts
By now it's probably becoming pretty clear that many of the established mainstream corporations that claim national and international scale are largely in bed with the government. The bigger these companies are, the worse it likely is. Just yesterday Alex Berenson shared some insight into the censorship he's now dealing with. Not from Twitter, which already banned him months ago, but from Comcast! An incredibly powerful telecom company now won't even let his emails through their thoughtcrime filters. Of all of the censorship examples I've shared on this site in the last 12 months or so, this might be the worst. It's a major problem and it's, sadly, not surprising. This is blatant attempted abolition of counter-narrative discussion. To me, it is very indicative that we are in the late stages of the hollowing of our minds. The overlords are losing control, and they can feel it. So the measures to try to stop a mass awakening are getting more drastic.
The Hollowing of Our Minds
I've already talked about my disgust with Silicon Valley and the big tech oligopoly in past articles so I won't rehash that entire idea today. But I will throw some figures your way for you to chew on. It's no secret how most of these "free service" companies make money. If they're not charging you for the service, it's because they're pimping your data or your attention. Facebook is the low hanging fruit here. I could go on and on about how detrimental Facebook has been to individual critical thinking and general mental health trends in young people, but that's not what this article is about. Frankly, since you're here, you probably already get it. But if you need good source material to fully get you there, start with this. Now, getting back on track; how much do you think Facebook generates per user and how do you think that compares to competitors?
This is the five year history of the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Last year, Facebook made $163.86 for the whole year for each North American user. If we simplify this to take potential seasonality out of the equation and divide that figure by 12 we get $13.66 ARPU per month. That means if you're an average user of Facebook, you could literally offer to pay the company $13 per month to stop serving you ads or selling your data and statistically speaking it wouldn't be in the company's interest to take your offer. You have to ask yourself if you think using Facebook and all the nonsense that goes with that platform is worth it. Then internalize that just by having the app on your phone, you're also potentially jeopardizing the privacy of any person in your contact list whether they have a Facebook account or not. You're being harvested. That's the business model. That model was good for $32.6 billion in operating income for Facebook last year. Not revenue. Operating Income. This takes the cost of the revenue into consideration. $32.6 billion is what Facebook made last year after expenses. It's an incomprehensible number and it's still less than Google.
Like Facebook, Google (Alphabet) has a vise grip on the masses through "free" services that the company provides. You're probably using Alphabet's web browser, search engine, streaming video platform, email service, and cloud storage. And unless you're subscribing to YouTubeTV, you're likely not paying for any of these services. Like Facebook, Google is harvesting your data and destroying your privacy. That's how a company can generate $45 billion in operating income after providing services at no nominal cost. Look at how Google and Facebook are just completely dominating the digital advertising space.
This is staggering data. This is GLOBAL digital revenue share. Facebook and Google claim more than half of it just between the two of them. If we throw in Amazon, eMarketer is estimating these three companies claim 58.1% of the world's digital advertising revenue. I want you to really think about what these charts are telling you. These companies are in complete control of the advertising industry because their business models work. We are all being manipulated into doing things. Manipulated into buying things. Manipulated into thinking things. This next part is important; while it's the tech overlords who control the gate to your privacy and your attention, it is also the companies who are buying that access that must be dealt with.
The Hollowing of Our Economy
I'm obviously an opinionated person and I share my thoughts with all of you very openly. We don't have to agree on everything and that's totally fine. What I do try to honestly attempt is to support my claims with trusted third party data. In the event that third party data comes from a place like the BLS, I try to offer better information through real world experience. Inflation metrics would be a good example of this in practice. However, the chart I'm about to show you is from the BLS. That said, I'm still confident that there won't be much disputing it. The manufacturing sector in the US has been decimated by globalization through the outsourcing of jobs.
The blue line is the trend in US manufacturing jobs and the corresponding figures are on the left y-axis. The red line is total nonfarm jobs and the corresponding figures are on the right y-axis. The point is, US manufacturing jobs peaked in 1979. At the time, manufacturing jobs made up about 22% of total nonfarm jobs. Now, about 8.5% of US jobs are in manufacturing.
Not to go all "boomer" here but America used to make real things. Now we make software, advertisements, and fiat currency. Fiat currency that to a large degree has been exported through our massive trade deficit and then used by foreigners to buy US assets like land and equity.
What Can We Realistically Do?
Last week, the recommendation was simple. Cut your pay-tv service. You can probably figure out where this section is going to go this week. It's impossible to singlehandedly reverse globalization. It's not going to happen. But there are steps we can take to address some of it. I'll get to that in moment. The attention economy is the easiest to deal with. Obviously, deleting your Facebook, Google, and Twitter accounts is a tremendous first step. But this time there's so much more to it than that. We as consumers and as Americans need to be deliberate with our actions and our money. We need to vote with our feet and vote with our wallets.
To do that properly, we need to stay aware and stay vigilant when companies do things that don't align with our values. I did this recently when I discovered Teespring and PayPal de-platformed the FLCCC. I immediately ended my business relationship with both of those entities. PayPal was literally the payment processor for my website membership. But there are other ways we can do business. It's worth it to me to take the stand and not support businesses that don't support the people.
And that is what this is all about. The People. You. Me. Your friends. Your family. All of us. Keep a list of companies that you'll support and companies that you won't support. Then reference that list when you're making your spending and consumption decisions. When possible, don't give business to companies that don't align with your values. I'm going to say it again; delete your social media accounts! Trust me, you will be fine. In the context of human history, social media has had a very short existence in our lives. We don't really need it. If you can curate your experience so that the platform isn't harmful, then fine. But that is becoming increasingly more difficult to accomplish on the mainstream services. They have too much control and too much of their policy is influenced by public/private partnership corruption. Get rid of them. It's that simple.
Think about your investment decisions as well. ESG stands for "Environmental, Social, Governance." The trend in ESG investing has some legs to it and while I'm not going tell you what to do with your retirement accounts, you might consider investing in companies that you share values with and divesting companies that do things you disagree with. These big companies thrive on data. They know everything about you and you're only good to them so long as you stay connected and stay compliant. Some of us are no longer compliant. It's time to no longer be connected as well. Abandon anything that jeopardizes your privacy. That's just about all of the popular social media platforms. It's just about anything that connects Wi-Fi to a microphone or a camera. Get rid of those Alexas. Sorry. Smartphones? Maybe. That's a lot harder and I'll admit I'm not there yet either. But eventually I will be. Until I'm living the flip phone life again, I always turn my smart phone off during the evening and I keep it in a separate room as often as I can.
Finally, we need to slow down this globalization movement. When you shop, shop local. Whenever possible, try to effort giving your patronage to locally owned businesses selling locally produced products. Thanksgiving is this week. Like just about every other holiday, Thanksgiving has been completely coopted by the never-ending seasonal consumerism cycle. We have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and even Small Business Saturday. I won't get into the absurdity of having special days designated solely for the purpose of shopping three times in a four day period, but you can probably guess where I come down on it. Make every day that you actually need to buy something Small Business Saturday. In the event that you legitimately need to go to a chain store, make it about necessities and eliminate your impulse purchases.
Alternative Recommendations
I get it, it's difficult and it's honestly scary unwrapping yourself from the tentacles of the corporate elite. But it's not impossible. You just have to decide what is more important to you; convenience or principle. I abandoned "big tech" to the degree that I currently am able back in January. So, I have almost a year of experience existing without Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, LinkedIn, Yahoo, YouTube, or Gmail. There are actually others that I'm probably forgetting. At some point since my "awakening" I also got rid of DropBox, FanDuel, basically digital services that I either didn't use at all or that distracted me from being productive in some capacity. When you get rid of so many services, there are things that you still need to be able to do. Luckily, there are a ton of ways to get similar quality service from companies and open source software that are more respectful of you and your privacy. Here are a list of some of the things that I use as a replacement for previous services.
I'm not going to lie to you. It's not easy doing the things I've mentioned in this article. Even just unwinding a Gmail account from your life is a huge pain in the ass. To be clear, I am by no means saying that everyone should start boycotting every technology company and every chain business. Have fun! Have convenience! There's nothing wrong with enjoying things that make your life easier and better. All I'm saying is you have the power if that relationship is becoming too costly. You are the one who gives value to these businesses. You are the one who can say, “enough.”
You've probably figured out at this point that the power you have is the power to deploy your wealth and time how you see fit. One of the biggest factors in the inequity of the last few decades is the money itself. We will explore the money and what it really is in Part 3. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if you don’t celebrate it, hopefully you’ll enjoy some relaxing time off.
From now until December 24th, you can give the gift of Heretic Speculator this Holiday Season! You can totally give yourself this gift, BTW. Anyone who signs up for an annual will get 20% off the regular $100 price. Yes, $80 for a full year.
To the free readers who will remain free, all I ask is that if you are enjoying the work, please share it with someone else who you think will also enjoy it. It's tremendously helpful and I will be forever grateful.
I use Square in my business and just learned Jack Dorsey owns and now runs it. Yech