Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [189]
3. Remove your money from money-center/investment banks; "starve the beast" of fees, interest and the use of your money. Place your money in credit unions or small local banks which actually recycle the money into your own community. Transfer your 401K accounts out of money-center broker/dealer accounts, and place your IRA funds in your own control.
Stop paying interest to the rentier-financial Elites; pay off credit cards, auto loans and even mortgages if at all possible. Make exiting debt-serfdom a goal. Pay cash or pay off your credit cards each month. Stop generating huge fees via "churning" debt (refinancing, etc.) unless you eliminate debt in the process.
4. Grow some food yourself, no matter how modest the amount. The mass media/marketing complex would have you believe this is trivial and thus "it makes no sense in dollars and cents." It also "makes no sense in dollars and sense" to have a local dairy when a corporate agribusiness dairy hundreds of miles away can supply hormone-laden milk for a "cheaper price." As I noted above, control and experiential capital have a value that cannot be measured by financial metrics.
It is not "trivial" to grow a single bean plant in a single pot on the balcony of an urban apartment or rooftop; it is vitally important because it is within your control and the experiential knowledge gained cannot be replaced by any commodity.
5. Only buy food with real ingredients and little added salt, sugar or fat. Corn flakes and shredded wheat are examples of corporate food products which contain grain and almost no added salt or fat. Better yet, buy bulk rolled oats and stop paying global corporations to package bulk grain in their brand. Avoid packaged food with copious amounts of salt, fat and sugar. The easiest way to take control of your diet, cuisine and health is to stop buying packaged food and fast food entirely and only eat real food except for an occasional guilty pleasure. One fast food meal a month--how does that sound? You will certainly enjoy every bite if it is limited.
6. Consume less of everything. The marketing politics of experience is that more is always better. The exact opposite is true; less is always better. The big house is just more work to clean, more costly to heat, etc. Bigger portions means more weight added to the consumer and thus lower health/higher risks of chronic illness, etc.
7. Start valuing control. As I have described above, control is an under-appreciated asset. The reason to own something is that you then take control of it. If it is not productive then get rid of it, otherwise it ends up controlling you. Nobody makes us buy or eat specific things; taking control means breaking free of the mass-media/marketing mindset of impulsive, distracted, stimulation-driven, excuse-dependent permanent adolescence.
This is why it is critical to own your own means of production: your own tools, knowledge and network of exchange.
8. Start valuing experiential capital. The most bizarre aspect of the consumerist politics of experience is the way it replaces experience of real life with the act of shopping and buying. Want to express your love for someone? Buy them a gift. Want to become more fit? Buy an exercise machine or shop for a gym membership. This bizarre substitution of highly profitable simulacrum for reality is so pervasive that it has become difficult to experience anything beyond this shallow consumerist imprisonment.
This is why I invested so much of your time earlier in this book on understanding the politics of experience and how it is shaped and manufactured to benefit the State and Plutocracy at our expense.
9. Seek an experiential understanding of well-being. Once again--how can we claim to understand well-being when we haven't experienced it? The simulacrum of well-being is "sold" at stupendous profits: magic pills of one sort or another, bogus "prestige" items--the list is endless.
Ask any experienced physician for the "magic formula" and the answer will be simple:
A.