WTF 5/1/2024

Capitalism defined… 

This is as close to all you need to know about the sneaky ass insidiousness of the economic system that permeates and rules our lives…

“Capitalists believe they can take everything at the table as belonging to them. Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.”

That might be the most perfect definition of what Capitalism truly is and who controls it and who has the power within the system…

And maybe most fittingly it was said by a dyed in the wool gangster who knew a lot about racketeering….

One time crime boss of the infamous Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931… Alphonse Capone.  

Concerning the economics of corporate profits…

A meme (see illustration to the right) recently making the rounds on various social media forums puts up the statement that “Just in case you were confused about why the price of everything keeps going up and mistakenly concluded it was inflation…”

It then puts up a very representative list of various well known corporations that range the gamut from finance and banking, food and household products, Big Oil, to health care  and so on and the those corporations 2023 profits… yep, the profits not the gross revenue but the money made or netted after all expenses whether those costs were for production, advertising and promotion, transportation of goods and/or services, maintenance of buildings and other necessities, employee costs or government fines… and asks the question “What does this have to do with anything?”

And makes the conclusion…

“Corporate profits are driving inflation.”  

I would propose instead… 

That it is the system of capitalism itself and the ingrained greed of its system and its need for an impoverished class in order to sustain itself so the manipulators of the system can gouge we the people on all the various levels of our economic existences which is the real reason why the cost of goods and services is constantly on the rise and that no matter how much money we the people may make from whatever sources we derive our income from it is, and will be, never enough to fully ensure we are a population that is safe, secure and free from want, need, or worry for our personal wellbeing and the wellbeing of our families, friends and neighbors.  

Nestlé S.A.’s double standard…

And while I’m on the topic of corporate greed and profit gouging…

Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate Nestlé S.A. is a corporation that had revenues of $103.98 billion USD in 2023 and from that earned a profit of $12.29 billion USD.

Among the products that provide a significant contribution to their overall revenues and their resultant net profits are their production of baby foods for worldwide distribution and sales.

And herein lies the rub of how sneaky ass Nestles is in extracting a nifty profit from consumers in particular those consumers from what are designated as lower-income countries.

It’s a much assumed reality that adding sugar into the diets for infants is not very helpful to promoting a lifelong diet of healthy food consumption for those babies.  

The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) along with all public health researchers and various experts in the field all consider human breast milk to be the best nutrition source for infants. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives.

And Nestlé is very aware that sugar is bad for infants. To the point that the company says on its parenting website Baby & Me that “It is not recommended to add sugar when preparing food for your baby, nor to offer sweetened drinks…”

And goes on to state that “Breast milk is the ideal and natural food for every infant, and the WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding up to the age of 6 months. Nestlé follows the principles of the WHO Code and therefore does not communicate on products intended for children under 6 months of age.”

However…

The baby-food market has an overall value that is nearly $70 billion.

And Nestlé controls 20% of the baby formula market in the world.

Two of Nestlé’s best-selling baby food brands in low- and middle-income countries are Cerelac instant cereal and Nido powdered milk… which took in more than $2.5 billion in 2022.

Nestlé aggressively advertises these products as essential to children’s healthy development in its main markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

These two baby-food brands marketed by Nestlé in low- and middle-income countries have disturbingly  high levels of added sugar, while the same products are sugar free in its home country, Switzerland… up to 7.3 grams of added sugar per serving.

These are among the findings of an investigation by Swiss nonprofit group Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) which was based on data from the market analysis company Euromonitor.

In very plain language… Nestlé adds more sugar to baby food in poorer countries.

The report declares that “In Thailand, Ethiopia, South Africa, India and Bangladesh, among others, Nestlé added up to 6 grams of sugar per serving of Cerelac. The same brand was sold containing zero sugar in Britain and Germany. Cerelac had on average 4 grams of sugar per serving — or about one sugar cube — in countries in the Global South. Cerelac sold in the Philippines contained the highest amount of added sugar, with 7.3 grams per serving. In several countries, including the Philippines, Nigeria, Senegal, Vietnam and Pakistan, added sugar content was not declared on the packaging.”

And…

“The same trend was detected in Nido products to a lesser degree. An analysis of the brand showed that its products contained an average of 2 grams of added sugar per serving, with Nido items sold in Panama containing the highest, at 5.3 grams per serving.”

What Nestlé does to create a dependency for its products is follows…

The company distributes free formula samples to hospitals and maternity wards. The practice of relying on free formula in maternity wards frequently means the mother loses the ability to make her own milk and must rely upon the use of the available formulas. But, after leaving the hospital, the formula is no longer free, and as noted because the supplementation has interfered with lactation, the family must continue to buy the formula.  

Nestlé also aggressively promotes its products by offering gifts and sponsorship to influence health workers to promote its products.

Among its practices include the use of mass media promotion (e.g. billboards and posters) and sample distributions, dressing up their sale people to appear as if they are so-called “milk nurses” whose primary, and often times sole, purpose is to visit mothers in hospitals and at their homes to praise the company’s formula and its benefits.

In other words much like a pusher of illegal narcotics who gets their mostly young and uninformed clientele hooked on their illegal and addictive substances, Nestlé is utilizing very similar tactics to get families in poorer countries hooked on their products… with the sole purpose of making immense amounts of profits that total in the neighborhood of the billions of dollars.  

The extenuating negative issues that emanate when poor mothers in developing countries switch to formula (which occur mostly due to Nestlé’s dubious business practices) include…

The reality that many economically deprived mothers use less formula for the baby than is required, so that a formula will  last longer. Which in all too many cases results in babies getting poor to very inadequate nutrition from the solutions of formula.

That breast milk has many natural benefits that formulas don’t… such as various nutrients and antibodies that get passed to the baby while hormones are released into the mother’s body. In fact infants that are breast fed become protected, in varying degrees, from a number of illnesses, including diarrhea, bacterial meningitis, gastroenteritis and ear and respiratory infections.

Breast milk contains the right amount of the nutrients essential for brain and nerve development where formulas are not assured of those amounts.

All in addition to the fact that was made earlier in this dialogue that added sugar into the diets for infants is not very helpful to promoting a lifelong diet of healthy food consumption for those babies… that according to WHO “… exposure to sugar early in life can create a life-long preference for sugary products (which is) problematic as (those sugars) can pave the way for obesity and noncommunicable diseases such as cardio-vascular disease – the leading cause of death in the world.”

But just like the pusher man Nestlé doesn’t give a fuck as long as  they make their profits off of an undereducated and oftentimes impoverished population that gets hooked on its sugar laden products.

Another thousand words…