System Change – Beyond corporate profiteers. Encourage ethical economies!
When big, multi-billion-pound profit-making organisations abandon our towns and villages, such as Lloyds Banking Group, which made £4.5 billion net profits in 2024 and is leaving behind 8 million of its non-digital customers, then let’s leave them behind. They make it hard for us to go, but our disinvestment is a powerful weapon when we act in unison. We can choose to be more ethical about how and where we spend our money.
Ethical Consumer offers its own perspective on system change – our list here is based on theirs:
- Shop local – keep more of our local resources in the local area.
- Our local banks could all be run by charitable trusts or mutuals. As part of their set-up, they exist to benefit communities.
- Our national water, energy, railways and banks could be state-owned and run for public benefit.
- Our supermarkets could all be co-ops owned by their members and workers, and supplying ethical produce.
- Renewable energy schemes, especially those owned and run by local community groups, could sell their power directly to local people.
- Our social media could be run by customer-owned co-ops.
- Sports clubs could be owned by supporters’ trusts.
- Non-profit could be the norm, with democratic control and management systems put in place.
In the absence of organisations and governments that act in our interests, we can choose how to use and spend our own limited resources.
I’m sure this would be how things would work best for businesses , services and consumers. Rather than feeding the fat cat wallets and profiteering people of these multi national companies .
Providing what is needed at a price that reflects the product or service provision to maintain quality , safety and the investment required to maintain and improve .
We only have to look at the profiteering that was rife in COVID to know what actually goes on around us by the less scrupulous individuals and companies .
Look at Yorkshire water paying investors and management fat bonuses when they are not even achieving the basic care of the provision of water utilities