Everything Must Go

My wife and I bought some pot today.

As fun as that sounds, unfortunately I missed an "s" at the end, and we bought pots from the local garden center, even though winter is coming and we put them into the garage for storage until the spring. We bought three large concrete ones, similar to what we have bought earlier in the year to grow our herbs in. This time though, we got three for the price of one, which is great for the individual purchase, but also sad. Because the reason they were 70% off, was because the garden center has gone bankrupt in Finland and is shutting down for good.

This is a pity.

A lot of stores that cater to "extra" activities are shutting down due to the tightening of financial belts. A few years ago at the start of the corona pandemic when people were forced into their homes and couldn't travel on holiday, they started upgrading the spaces they had. Now, as the economy hasn't recovered in Finland that well amongst the middle class, people are again tightening down in home renovation areas, and local businesses of all kinds. Instead, the conglomerates are making ever increasing profits as they absorb even more of the market share.

The globalized economy doesn't encourage small business, because small business can't take advantage of all of the international financing loopholes. For instance, the median salary in Finland and Ireland are around the same €3,500 a month, however Ireland GDP per capita is $98,118, while Finland is $46,983. So, Finns and the Irish earn about the same, but Ireland the country generates twice as much as Finland. Not only that, the GDP in Ireland increased by over 10% between 2021 and 2022. That is incredible.

A lot of conglomerates pay their taxes in Ireland.

They aren't breaking any laws (supposedly), however what is happening is that a corporation will make a billion dollars in one country, pay next to zero tax on their earnings in that country, but pay a lower rate in another country. This means higher profits to share with investors, which in turn pay less tax than others, through loopholes and creative accounting practices.

What this means is that huge amounts of wealth in a country, is being leeched out of the country into other hands. However, while the governments aren't keen to do anything about this for some unknown reason (totally known), they will keep finding ways to extract money from those who they do have access to - the people left behind. Those who don't have the ability or scale to use the same loopholes and creative practices to hide their money from the authorities. The citizens.

This happens through increasing taxes for sure, like in Finland the new consumer tax level is 25.5%. But it also comes through cutting back on rebates, like those for clean energy upgrades, or for electric vehicles. But, tax isn't the only way they reduce the wealth of citizens, because the governments are also largely running on debt models to make ends meet, which means that they are increasing their spending, but taking loans to do so, meaning that the obligation amount keeps climbing, so they borrow more.

Governments aren't very good with money.
Because it isn't theirs they are spending.

but what happens in a country like Finland is that people have less disposable income in their pockets, which means they have less to spend on extras like gardening equipment, local sports centers, massages, hobbies, activities for children, extra-curricular events and anything that might increase opportunity or wellbeing. Essentially, when people don't have enough in their pockets, life gets worse.

In comparison to some countries, Finland is of course doing much better, but the gaps are closing. That isn't anything to be excited about, because it isn't because the other countries are improving, but that Finland is degrading. I suspect that if we were able to get an honest snapshot of all countries, we would find that very few have a true growth economy where wellbeing is increasing. Instead, I think it is more like in Ireland, where wealth is generated that affects the overall averages, but individuals are falling behind. It is the bus full of millionaires on average, until the billionaire steps off and all that is left on the bus are people with nothing to their name.

This problem is only going to get worse as artificial intelligence and automation really makes an impact in the next five to ten years on average jobs, because there will be even less going back into the local economy, and even more being siphoned out into the conglomerates. Massive amounts of wealth will be made, but the average person is not going to receive much economic good from it and be increasingly reliant on forms of handouts. And, those handouts will get tighter and tighter, as the people supported lose more value in the marketplace, as they will have less to offer.

And when we have nothing of value, and can provide nothing of value, we also have nothing to lose. We will all be bankrupt and that is going to be in more ways than just not having money in our pockets. We will be selling ourselves at even less than 70% off.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]