Welcome to Part 8 of the Poverty Story

Ok, Susanna – let’s try this. Maybe you could try and give us a synopsis of the big picture?

I’ll give it a shot.

So far, in this conversation, we’ve established that society sits on top of a network of degenerative systems that are engrained and that actively resist change. These include poverty, environmental destruction, probably the war machine, and others. Each system camouflages itself as “that’s just the way it is” so people become complacent to the toll these systems extract and give up on changing them.

Awesome synopsis – you’re a student of life.

It might be said that these exploitative systems sit on top of society because as in the degenerative cycle they “infiltrate our institutions” and “socialize their activities” to make them broadly accepted.

And what are our strategies to counter these systems?

Well, first off, succeeding against systems like this head-on is a mammoth task, and almost impossible, because they’re so powerful – and they’ve successfully protected themselves for generations.

Sadly true. In fact, historically, when these systems were brought to the brink of change... they slipped away only to come back under a new name, and many times, with even stronger protections in place.

Can you illustrate with an example?

One relevant example is the abolition of slavery, an effort that took centuries, with opposition both peaceful and armed, including the American Civil War. But, within 10 years of so-called “abolition”, the system was back; this time as chain gang labor, sharecropping and indentured servitude, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and much more. At this stage, after this medusa-like transformation, the “system that profits from poverty” was much more complex, covert, and insidious. Which, of course, made it even harder to pinpoint, let alone, counter.

For the original poverty system, which was slavery, the profits were astronomical –– and these profits were barely slowed down by its abolition.

And I get that the commodities that the system consumes for its own profit come from people, whether slaves, chain gangs, sharecroppers, industrial laborers, migrant farm workers, prison labor, and the working poor today.

Yes – basically, people are trapped working for the system without the resources to escape.

This leads to the strategy of “starving the system” by creating alternate pathways through or around the system to redirect resources, or the “commodities” the system consumes, outside its reach.

Yes, just as Mary’s ARKs redirect the commodity of “living land” outside the reach of industrial systems that profit by exploiting the planet.

And just as the Level UP Apps redirect the commodity of low-income workers outside the reach of the system that profits from poverty.

Anything else?

Yes – the barriers to progress inside the system. Each Tactic that Profits from Poverty – such as, “Rent-seeking” creates fair-sounding obstacles that stop poor people from escaping its grasp. In this case, blocking or greatly restricting low-income workers’ access to ownership.

Yes - correct.

Rent-seeking is one of the 5 tactics that profits from poverty – and one that we’ll be covering in-depth in a future segment of our discussion.

Let me guess, these Level UP strategies for housing were developed through reverse-engineering the “system that profits from poverty’s” infiltration and manipulation of the housing rental and home ownership pathways.

Correct – we have to identify the barriers before we create Apps that let people bypass the barriers.

More insights?

Yes – using specific Level UP Apps as tools, people can make progress in these areas: employment – basically equitable income and working conditions, but also in housing, finance, education, healthcare, ownership, cost-of-living, and more.

Ultimately, they can achieve a sustainable life and be free of the perpetual struggle that is the hallmark of the system that profits from poverty.

Yes – that’s it in a nutshell.

These degenerative systems such as poverty have another shared hallmark – and that is “complete consumption of its commodities”. What this means is that the system extracts all value until there is nothing left – and most often leaving no opportunity for the commodity to regenerate.

In everyday parlance – they chew up the commodity and spit out what’s left.

I have a story from my life that illustrates this fully. Will I tell it here or in the next section.

I think here because it sounds relevant to this discussion.

Yes – I agree.

So, relax and put your feet up – this story is a little longer.

You may remember from my previous story in Part 4 that when I first came to the US I worked as an engineer for a conglomerate of cement and concrete companies.

That's where I got my first exposure to U.S. workers and the systems they worked within. The people were amazing. Many of them and certainly their parents had learned their "can-do optimism" in the industrial boom of the 50's and 60's.

By that time, through the 70’s and 80's degenerative systems in the business world were growing in power. I illustrated the system's “resistance to change” in my previous story - but here I will illustrate its “absolute destruction of its commodities”.

Back then, my employer, this Irish conglomerate, was a company “buying machine”, and was already one of the biggest "companies" in Europe. They called this 80’s phenomenon “growth by acquisition”.

I remember that they had around 60 U.S. construction industry companies like quarries, concrete companies, and paving companies in their portfolio by the time I arrived.

It's worth mentioning how I got this job. These were the Ronald Regan years and most of the world including the US and Ireland was in a deep recession. I remember that everybody in my class eventually emigrated, but finding work in a deep recession was no easy achievement.

My strategy was to write letters to Irish businessmen all over the world. I know that in my final year, I wrote 100 such letters requesting a starting position.

This was the era that was pre-word processors, and pre-Internet, so each letter was typed on a typewriter, and each contact was resourced from professors, telephone books, professional organizations, and companies around Dublin.

In the letter, I told the potential employer that I would come out top of my class - which was an exaggeration based on my previous form. But this too worked out and was remarkably almost true.

As a result, after several more steps, I was offered three jobs, one in Borneo, one in the North Sea, and one in the US through the CEO of the American division of this Irish Conglomerate. The U.S. job had a stipulation. “If you can get yourself a work visa, we will give you a start.”

Through a little research, I found that the Irish Enterprise Board had just opened a new program for departing graduates - that would provide basic job training and help arrange work visas. Their position and hopes were that this young Irish talent pool would someday return and help build the Irish economy. Many did.

I took the training, got the visa, and organized my flight to Denver - where I arrived on 5th of September 1985, wearing a wool overcoat - like an immigrant arriving in New York off of a 1905 steamer. The difference was that this particular day was 100° in the shade - and my American colleague who picked me up was wearing flip-flops, cutoff jeans, and a torn t-shirt. He was having a fun cultural experience too.

So getting back on track, after my first two years of travel and consulting on concrete mixes and plant efficiency, I got the call to report to the Atlanta HQ, to begin my training for upper management.

In my work over the previous two years, I had not been asleep at the wheel. I understood the business model. The term “growth by acquisition” was a pseudonym for “rape and pillage”. My employer purchased companies, broke them up, and sold off their assets to maximize profits - but in the process killed the company. They eliminated the jobs, sold the plant, and if possible, captured the retirement funds.

In effect, this is the same basic mindset that underlies stealing people, like during slavery, or, today, stealing the fruits of their labor, or any of the many ways the system exploits ecosystems for profit. Once the value has been extracted, there’s nothing left but barren earth. And when that happens, the only thing that the system knows how to do is move elsewhere and do the same thing all over again. It’s another version of “killing the golden geese”.

By the time I got to Atlanta, the company was up to 80+ wholly-owned U.S. subsidiaries. Many of these were on the chopping block.

My job was to research potential acquisitions by identifying companies of a certain size, with family ownership that had possible conflict between siblings. This was often a tool to get in the door and made them more susceptible to selling out.

To make a long story short, I didn’t last long in that world. By that time, I was friends and close with many of the families whose jobs they were eliminating without seemingly a care. And I had a feeling for the value of the communities that each of these plants supported. I didn’t want any part in their destruction – I felt sick even thinking about it.

As a next step, the HQ wanted me to do an MBA, which they would partly pay for. I balked because the other MBAs I saw around me seemed seriously desensitized. They were drinking the Kool-aid.

I left the company within a week of being offered a general manager position – which was also just a couple of weeks before I was scheduled to receive my Green Card. You, my wife-to-be, and I drove west together with our two kittens into a world of new adventures.

Of course, I’ve never regretted those decisions. A few years later, I found out through my friends in Ireland, that the senior executives from my day were in serious hot water for tax evasion.

Fast-forward 25 years, and I’m visiting a colleague just south of Seattle. He had his business in an upscale strip mall, which housed maybe 15 businesses, some industrial, some corporate.

On my way out - and near the entrance of the building, I saw the door of another office, and on it was the name and logo of my previous employer. I went in and found that this was the western HQ of a once “prestigious” company – and they themselves were now on the chopping block - victims of the same system they'd once perpetuated. Sadly, far too many of the fine, family-owned, multigenerational, truly American Enterprises no longer exist due to the "profit-at-any-price" mindset that was so prevalent.

Wow – such an education in the ways of degenerative systems.

Yes indeed – This ends Part 8.
Let’s break here and begin again in Part 9.