Pirate's Cove

Well, for Everyone Else

Capitalism may be great for selling ice cream, but it's not great for saving the earth. That's why we need the #GreenNewDeal. Learn more: https://t.co/0Nj9lSuhqG pic.twitter.com/sw04Ta1OOy

— Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) April 18, 2019

From the link

Today the world is facing an unprecedented crisis. If we don’t do something about it, life on earth as we know it will never be the same. But time is running out. We have to act now.

Yes, we have to rescue capitalism.

It’s being held hostage by fossil-fuel industry CEOs and their lobbyists and all their out-of-date ideas—and without our help it (along with the rest of us) will be swallowed up by climate change’s rising seas. Luckily, there’s a proposal out there that just might save capitalism: the Green New Deal. (Bonus: it could also save the planet.)

Um, life always changes. Our lives are much different than our parent’s lives. Think what lives were like in the 1920’s. 1820’s. But, it’s cute that a company which relies on, heck, requires, fossil fuels to move their product in refrigerated trucks around the country is mad at fossil fuels companies.

The screed goes on to wax poetic about the GND, and even says it will save capitalism by….wait, turning it into socialism?

A little more on that last point: as long as corporations make their own rules, capitalism will never ensure justice or economic security for workers, frontline communities, communities of color, or any of the most vulnerable of our neighbors and fellow citizens. The Green New Deal gets it right: we are all in this together.

Is B&J’s not making their own rules in getting milk from methane producing cows and shipping ice cream on fossil fueled trucks? What about the refrigerants used to make and ship the pompous ice cream? Are they using ones that are not considered greenhouse gases? What they’re saying here is that Government should make the rules, which is not capitalism. Those same rules could turn B&J’s into a local ice cream company with no ability to ship nationwide. Oh, and will they whine about their parent company, Unilever, which owns lots and lots of brands, including Lipton, Dove, Breyers (mostly fake ice cream), Hellman’s, and Axe (those are just on the first page), and ships these all over the world, which means lots of fossil fuels?

Admittedly, the scope of change required for us to avoid the worst effects of climate change is unprecedented. But unprecedented does not mean impossible.

It requires a radical transformation of how we see ourselves and how we see our economy.

We’ve risen to the occasion before. Roosevelt’s New Deal worked and set the stage for one of the most miraculous periods of productivity and prosperity the world has ever seen. If we pull together now and get behind the Green New Deal’s big, bold, ambitious, and inclusive vision, we can not only save capitalism from itself, we can save the world—and ourselves.

So, we have to be forced to change ourselves and our economy? Huh. As for getting behind the GND, even co-author Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not demanding a vote on it in the House, and became quite mad when the Senate voted on it.

Anyhow, it seems like capitalism is great for Ben & Jerry’s, they just don’t want it for Everyone Else. I can’t even give up eating B&J’s, because I prefer Blue Bell.