Hi there. My name is Avil Beckford, and I am the founder of The One Problem Podcast. You know, there are tons of problems in the world, but we will not get overwhelmed. We're going to tackle them one problem at a time. As is usually the case, most of my guests, I have some prior relationship with them, and that's the case this time around. I've known Carla for a couple of years now. So Carla Leon is the President and CEO of Just like Family Home Care. Over to you, Carla.
Carla Leon
Thank you for having me. This is exciting. As soon as you asked me, what's the one problem? Right away, I couldn't help myself. I jumped to capitalism. Go big, right? And so lots of people think that capitalism is good, or they think it's bad or ugly. And really what I like to start with is, what was it designed for?
It was really meant to transfer value between people, so everyone could do better. Unfortunately, the challenge is that's not necessarily how it's used. I've actually spoken to one entrepreneur who said to me, capitalism is the legal way for me to take money from other people. So it becomes this whole moral and ethical dilemma.
But why is that happening? So for capitalism, when I try to come up with solutions, I start with a problem. It's called falling in love with the problem and fully understanding the problem. So we have the best solution for that. With capitalism, I really did some research about why people think it's so bad. And why is it so bad? Well, it's pretty easy. The one percent. We have the great divide, the inequality. And I think with Covid-19 everyone has seen that the great divide is getting even bigger.
Carla Leon
There used to be a middle class. I don't think there are too many arguments right now that the middle class is being eroded. So the great divide is not only big, but getting bigger. Then there's the other side of it, power and control. And so basically, people are using capitalism to keep power and to gain power. And really when I've talked to people about what changes people on the moral and ethical dilemmas of using capitalism inappropriately. People are changing for two reasons.
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They change because of age, and they change because of money. So again, it's rooted in this quantifiable part of capitalism. So power and control are another big problem. Another problem in capitalism is basically the lack of compassion and understanding between people. It basically creates that divide. And people don't understand each other. It dehumanizes us. Think about the last time you've seen a Mercedes Benz pulled over by a cop. Kind of makes you smile, right? You're kind of happy that the person in the Merck got pulled over, right? And then the person was actually having seizures on the ground, and everyone was literally walking around them and just letting them have a seizure.
We had to call 911. We got them water. And we did those things, but everyone dehumanized them. So it doesn't matter what side you are on this, it's still hurting you. This lack of compassion and understanding creates fear. The fear of the single mother to put food on the table. And yet on the other side, the fear of losing what they have. And this is all isolation. So the economic abuse of women and just this isolation. So capitalism has a huge ripple effect.
Carla Leon
And so when I think about all these secondary issues, what is the root cause of this problem? Is it the duality of capitalism? It's the fact that it's based on quantifying, it's based on numbers, it's based on what we're valuing as money and not people. So when you really get into the root cause of capitalism as a problem, you flip these problems into, here we go, the solution. So the great divide. Why is there so much duality in this? Why is it a win-lose situation? Couldn't we actually create a win-win situation? At Just Like Family, that's how we're thinking about it. We're thinking, how do you have living wages for our caregivers?
The One Problem With Carla Leon
How are we ensuring that our clients have a win-win between everyone within the ecosystem? So does capitalism have to be a win-lose? Could there be a win-win? What about co-ops? What about community ownership? And what does it look like to think differently there? Power and control. So a lot of this is tied up in language within finance and capitalism. Basically, there's all this language that is shutting people out. I actually just bought Just Like Family and became the CEO and President of it. I had to learn everything about corporate finance in order to do this.
And there was all this language that was pretty simple, that had all these barriers to it and that was actually going to be my problem at one point. So when you break this down, you make it a win-win instead of the duality. Well, now you have conversations. If it's a win-win, you have more compassion and understanding for everyone. It gets rid of fear on both sides. It gets rid of the isolation and all those secondary problems. So if a root problem is the duality of capitalism, the root solution is actually valuing something different, creating the win-win.
Carla Leon
So capitalism as a problem actually becomes capitalism as a solution. As long as we're valuing people first. Back to you.
Avil Beckford
Thank you so much. It's always gratifying to bring on people because you never know how they will tackle a problem and the solution they come up with. So this is just a way for us to learn from each other. So thank you so much, Carla.
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