This week in social studies class we started watching a documentary called The Lightbulb Conspiracy. The film basically showed us the history of planned obsolescence and the struggle to end it. The movie showed us how the oldest lightbulb has lasted 100 years, it was produced in Ohio and invented to last. A lightbulb like this, of course, was not profitable because it lasted too long, it was too good. So the companies built a cartel around it, they started producing lightbulbs that don't last as much, so people have to keep buying them again and again.
The video also talked about the printers and nylon stockings. The printers that are designed by engineers with a chip to stop functioning after a certain number of impressions. Or the nylon stockings which were a great invention at first but because of planned obsolescence that started making weaker fibers. We saw all about the ethical debate around this. The film said, " An article that refuses to wear out is a tragedy for business." It also talked about how they wanted to make planned obsolescence a law but at last they opted for making it a cultural thing and "seduce" people with products. Planned obsolescence is something that still exists today in the world and from one part people say it generates work and all that. But on the other hand it makes people slaves of the economic system because they won't ever stop buying things that won't last and paying money for a bad product is kind of unfair.
martes, 29 de abril de 2014
viernes, 4 de abril de 2014
Colombian Monetary System!! :O
In the last post I explained a little bit about how the US banking system works, now it is time to explain how this system works in Colombia and how it assimilates and differs from the US system. After researching a lot I found out that Colombian system is regulated by the Central Bank or the "Banco de la República" which is in charge of the production of cash and controlling how much of it is made.
This bank isn't part of any of the branches of power (legislative, judicial or jurisdictional), the constitution gives this bank the power of being autonomous without being linked to any branch of government." Esta entidad se creó como Banco Central de Colombia mediante la Ley 25 de 1923, definido como una entidad de derecho publico económico de naturaleza única, con autonomía administrativa especial. " This quote shows the law that defines the Central Bank of Colombia autonomous and with unique nature. This is similar to the us that has a federal reserve where the governmenent asks for money to them. I think the money in Colombia is created the same way as in the US so this makes them similar.
Watch the following video it explains the power and how the central bank of colombia works.
This bank isn't part of any of the branches of power (legislative, judicial or jurisdictional), the constitution gives this bank the power of being autonomous without being linked to any branch of government." Esta entidad se creó como Banco Central de Colombia mediante la Ley 25 de 1923, definido como una entidad de derecho publico económico de naturaleza única, con autonomía administrativa especial. " This quote shows the law that defines the Central Bank of Colombia autonomous and with unique nature. This is similar to the us that has a federal reserve where the governmenent asks for money to them. I think the money in Colombia is created the same way as in the US so this makes them similar.
Watch the following video it explains the power and how the central bank of colombia works.
Fractional Reserve Banking System all messed up…
This week in Social Studies class we saw a video called Zeitgeist, it is a documentary that explains the fractional reserve banking system in the US and how it all works. At first we understood little because in the video lots of economic terms are used, that many people don't know. The main conclusion I got from the video is that people will always be in debt because of the capitalist system we all live in and that money is created out of nowhere.
Watch this video it talks about how money is created in this system it will help you to understand what I am talking about in this post and to understand better the documentary that is linked bellow at the end of this post.
The documentary basically explained that the almost all the money that is floating around in the US is mostly digital and that only the 3 percent actually exists. It appears that the US government asks for loans of money to the federal reserve which gives them the money. Then that money goes to a bank, where only 10 percent of the money gets kept as deposit the rest is for loans. Actually the money doesn't exist it gets created by the federal reserve. When the people go to the banks to get loans they have to pay for interest which is money that doesn't even exist. This way the system is based on debts so everyone will always be on debt. By creating money out of the blue inflation starts and everything goes wrong. This shows us how messed up this system is because it only benefits the people that are on the top of the pyramid because they have money, but for the ones of the lower parts of the pyramid prices will keep going up while they won't get more money.
Here is the link so that you can watch the video it is really interesting I recommend it.
Watch this video it talks about how money is created in this system it will help you to understand what I am talking about in this post and to understand better the documentary that is linked bellow at the end of this post.
The documentary basically explained that the almost all the money that is floating around in the US is mostly digital and that only the 3 percent actually exists. It appears that the US government asks for loans of money to the federal reserve which gives them the money. Then that money goes to a bank, where only 10 percent of the money gets kept as deposit the rest is for loans. Actually the money doesn't exist it gets created by the federal reserve. When the people go to the banks to get loans they have to pay for interest which is money that doesn't even exist. This way the system is based on debts so everyone will always be on debt. By creating money out of the blue inflation starts and everything goes wrong. This shows us how messed up this system is because it only benefits the people that are on the top of the pyramid because they have money, but for the ones of the lower parts of the pyramid prices will keep going up while they won't get more money.
Here is the link so that you can watch the video it is really interesting I recommend it.
martes, 1 de abril de 2014
Egyptian Detainees Misery.
In a former post I talked about Egypt's political situation and about how kids were arrested unfairly. I found a very interesting article in aljazeera.com (a online news website) about this very same situation. The article I found didn't talk about kids in specific. It did talk about how was life for Egyptian detainees. I learned from the article that Egypt's police tortures physically and emotionally the captives by beating them up or humiliating them.
The article described the case of a 22 year old young man who was tortured and RAPED inside a police station in Egypt. It appears that the Egyptian government (which should take care and make sure that the rights of the people are protected) doesn't have a word to say about this. Even the media in Egypt is ignoring this huge issue. The victim was tortured with knives and electrocuted and then raped after denying he was related to the "Muslim Brotherhood." The article also describes how an activist is asking for help to the civil rights organization. I believe this is something really huge to ignore. It is the duty of the human rights organizations to intervene it is clear that Egypt isn't a save environment to live in. The government let all that mess happen and it is out of control and in my opinion for other countries and entities to intervene.
Click HERE for a link to the article I just described, there, you can watch a short video and learn a little bit more about this theme.
PHOTOCREDITS: http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2014/04/egyptian-detainees-tortured-raped-201441165823978172.html
Food, Money & Power Related?
Last week we saw a documentary about how food industry is managed in the US. I was very surprised to find out how corrupted this industry is. The movie we saw talked about Monsanto a company that patented the genetic code of some seeds and how this company has taken over the food system. It is of common knowledge that some plants reproduce by polinization which arrives to them by air, or other animals can serve as vectors to transport pollen. Monsanto makes every farmer pay for their seeds (the patented ones) and the farmers who want to grow their own plants still can get pollen from a patented plant so therefore Monsanto owns every crop.
We can se how this part of the industry relates to money, power and politics. In the movie we can see many examples of farmers who tried going against Monsanto, but they end up loosing because of lawyer fees or Monsanto finds a sneaky way to win. We find the winning of the court cases by Monsanto very influenced by all the money and millions of assets this company has. This is really messed up, to the level that Monsanto made it illegal for people to ask what is in their own food. This issue related to everyone constantly and food is something every human needs to keep living so this has to be addressed soon. I watched a long documentary about this theme. If you want to know a little bit more about this theme watch this video that talks about corruption and capitalism in Monsanto company and how it uses its power to manipulate the government and the farmers.
We can se how this part of the industry relates to money, power and politics. In the movie we can see many examples of farmers who tried going against Monsanto, but they end up loosing because of lawyer fees or Monsanto finds a sneaky way to win. We find the winning of the court cases by Monsanto very influenced by all the money and millions of assets this company has. This is really messed up, to the level that Monsanto made it illegal for people to ask what is in their own food. This issue related to everyone constantly and food is something every human needs to keep living so this has to be addressed soon. I watched a long documentary about this theme. If you want to know a little bit more about this theme watch this video that talks about corruption and capitalism in Monsanto company and how it uses its power to manipulate the government and the farmers.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)