Danielle Park, the author of “Juggling Dynamite,” chats with anchor Bridgitte Anderson about her belief that we may be “revisiting the downturn, so look out!” Nothing may be safe, as she describes how gold may even be vulnerable and Canada isn’t as well-positioned as it was in 2008 to take the hit that’s coming. Wise investors concerned about the real direction of the economy will learn something here! Direct link here.
I watched the documentary Food Inc. last week. Although it was pretty familiar material for me, it did remind me that conflicts and crony capitalism are not unique to just the financial sector. All the usual offenders are alive and well in the food business.
For many people, the ideal meal is fast, cheap, and tasty. Food, Inc. examines the costs of putting value and convenience over nutrition and environmental impact.
Our food policies and behaviours are literally killing us physically and financially with exploding health care costs. 1 in 3 children in North America will now get diabetes from the poisonous diet that their parents are feeding them. We might as well be getting our children hooked on cigarettes in kindergarten. Feeding them highly processed, junk food is that dangerous to their long-term health. And the most frustrating part is that this is actually something we, as a society, can fix fairly easily if we just get serious.
We need to reverse course, remove subsidies for junk food and redistribute any incentives toward healthy, sustainable farming. It should be more expensive to buy a Bic Mac than it is to buy organic vegetables. Here we have governments giving tax breaks to the offending companies which is increasing their profits and leaving us the society with even bigger tax bills due to increased medical costs. We taxpayers are paying the bill directly in both ways and getting nothing but pain and suffering for our investment. In a time, where improved efficiencies and reduced expenses are the necessary theme, this area is screaming out for our attention. (As a side note, for a ginormous graphic of the Big Mac Index showing relative purchasing power and how long people have to work to afford a Big Mac in various countries click here.)
The Financial Survival Network radio interview from last week is now available on youtube here.
