Money, Power, and Work

I feel like most of the human-related problems (and really, what isn't human-related anymore?) today are caused by issues stemming from money, power, or work. People have an inherent desire for money and power, and many have a innate disdain for work.

So many of the issues I'm encountering in my reading are either explicitly or implicitly caused, directly or indirectly, by - you guessed it - the never-ending quest for money, power, and less, or at least easier, work.

For instance...

• Joel Salatin's frequent attacks by government officials, threatening to shut him down for "noncompliance." These people like wielding their government-given POWER. I distinctly remember some of the more transparent officials Salatin spoke to admitted that they wouldn't be in this line of soul-crushing business if it wasn't for the big ol' paycheck - MONEY.
• The fact that people like the ones mentioned above try to squash the little guys, and look the other way at the big producers that churn out pesticide-ridden vegetables, e. coli-contaminated meat, and milk full of blood and puss - these guys are scared of the powers above them that decide whether they have a job or not - MONEY. Also, guess what? Size matters. It's a lot harder to monitor huge industrial companies than to scrutinize small farms - so they don't. Too much WORK.
• The continuation of ignorance towards people's food sources. Ignorance is bliss. Maybe it's too much WORK to seek out higher quality, more nutritious, local foods. It also could be a lot of WORK to prepare your own meal from fresh, whole ingrediants - a hell of a lot easier to slip a TV dinner out of the plastic packaging and slip it into the microwave. Faster, too, and we're impatient. It's the American way.
• Environmental and social degradation. It's easier to let things go to shit than maintain them. Isn't that called entropy, the natural tendency of the world to gravitate towards a state of chaos and disorder? It takes WORK to keep things healthy and happy. Same goes for humans. No wonder we're all fat and depressed.
• More and more farmers opting out of the small, local systems and moving up towards industrial-sized production. That classic mindset: bigger is better. The allure of more MONEY. More land, more production also means more POWER over more people who depend on you.
• Anyone who own or operates industrial agricultural farms, factory farms, processing and packaging plants, fast food empires, anything that has to do with corn monocultures... MONEY and POWER at the cost of environmental, wildlife, economic, social, and personal health.
• People who buy into the whole "industial-organic" complex. Often these are the people who buy into the "organic is elitist" thing. Being one of the so-called elite gives the illusion of having POWER over those less.. what? Fortunate? Conscious?

I have a tendency to become overwhelmingly pessimistic and critical of humanity. The above observations most likely reek of that sentiment. Moments like this, I have a very low level of tolerance, respect, and hope for humanity. For this, I apologize. I have a frequent urge to say that humans are a repulsive race who in the end will only lead to their own, and everything else in the physical world's demise. I would say, we never should have evolved. I'd even offer to give up my sentient brain to go back and live as some creature before the time of homo sapiens.

But I won't say that here. I'll just stick to, we humans can really suck.