Want to make a gazillion dollars? I have The Secret. It’s a foolproof plan.
Just send me $99 to unlock the secret for riches forever.
Okay, don’t do that, because I’m about to give it to you for free.
Ready?
Find something the world gets for free, package an inferior product that is cheap and easy to make using government-subsidized pesticide-laden corn as the main ingredient, and sell it.
Boom! Mic drop. You’re a billionaire!
The free stuff we pay for
Don’t believe me? I have proof:
Water. Just 40 years ago the idea of buying single-use water bottles didn’t exist. Today, thanks to an aggressive and effective campaign by Perrier that started a battle including corporate giants like Pepsi and Coca-Cola, Americans spend $13 billion on bottled water.
“According to water expert Peter Gleick, [bottled water] can cost 1,000 times more per liter than decent tap water. Others have calculated that at about $7.50 per gallon, bottled water costs nearly 2,000 times what tap water does. In 2016, that’s also more than three times the price of gasoline,” stated a report in Priceconomics.
Within a generation we’ve become convinced water, which is practically free for most people in industrialized countries and rural areas of the developing world, should be something we buy, even though many products (like Dasani) are simply tap water prepackaged.
Another example?
“Formula,” aka “artificial milk,” aka an edible-food-like-beverage for babies.
According to a global “Baby Infant Formula Market” 2019 Industry Research Report, the infant artificial milk market is worth over $21 million in the United States alone.
The CEO of Mead Johnson, a company valued at $17 billion, took in about $9 million in 2o16, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Photo Courtesy of Kevin Liang, via Unsplash
The more artificial milk you sell, the more money you make.
The more you derail women from meeting their breastfeeding goals, the more money you make.
The more you publicly shame women from breastfeeding, the more money you make.
Big business wins, nursing moms and moms who want to nurse their babies lose.
Never mind that breast milk is free.
Never mind that breast milk is vastly superior for the health of your infant.
Never mind that breastfeeding is vastly superior for your health as well.
Breastfeeding, not corporate greed, is good for your baby
There are so many reasons to breastfeed. Breastfeeding builds an infant’s immune system, promotes bonding, reduces stress in both mom and baby, and reduces your risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and diabetes, to name just a few benefits.
There are so many reasons not to give a baby artificial milk. Artificial feeding compromises an infant’s immune system, makes them more likely to get allergies and eczema, can cause gastrointestinal problems including constipation and diarrhea (infant-fed poop looks and smells horrible), and increases the risk that a baby will die from SIDS. Infant formula creates so much waste that then goes into the landfill. Plastic in baby bottles contain endocrine disruptors, and if the formula is not organic it will most likely be often contaminated with pesticides and herbicides, as well as with contaminants introduced during the manufacturing process.
And now there’s even more science-forward proof that we’re spending billions on products that make us and our babies less healthy.
Just this October, researchers identified a compound in breast milk that combats the growth of infection-causing bacteria in infants.
The compound is called glycerol monolaurate, or GML, and the amount of GML in human breast milk is more than 200 times higher than in cow’s milk.
Guess what?
Infant formula contains no GML.
Commit to breastfeeding and reap the lifelong health benefits for your and your child.
If you need to get rich quick, there are other ways. Let’s see. Air? Nope. Air is already being marketed in places like this: (Air bars). And despite the intent to make the internet “Free for all,” people have figured out how to make us pay dearly for that. Hmm, dirt? No, that’s for sale at Home Depot already.
But keep thinking.
Your gazillion dollars await!
I love your sarcastic articles!!! The one about home birthing too. 😆
Although I was a L&D nurse for six years and had my four babies in the hospital (I was comfortable there and my nurse-friends were my nurses), I understand very well where you’re coming from. Today, I encourage young moms to consider home birthing.
Lord willing, when my daughter and her husband have children (they’re praying for children since their marriage last August), they hope to do home birthing (they talked about that one even before they got married!)
Yes, there is the chance of unexpected things going awry (for example: unusually large shoulders in a baby making it almost impossible to get the baby out), but, for the most part, they’re rare, thankfully.
I could keep going…