Power In Numbers

The Success Of Any System Is Found In Number. Numbers Create Power. Power Creates Influence. Influence Creates Success.

You Be Aware is dedicated to helping the average consumer find success by joining with others who have the same interests and needs and sharing the influence of large numbers. The reason companies like Home Depot and McDonalds can sell products at lower prices is the power of large numbers. If your local hardware store wants to sell hammers, they will likely put in an order for a few dozen hammers. Home Depot will order thousands of hammers, and can therefore get a better price allowing them to sell the same hammer at a lower price.

As a consumer, if you have a problem with a given product or service, and you complain to the company, you often get a corporate "runaround" because you are just one of hundreds or thousands of customers. If however an attorney or a consumer advocate calls the same company and indicates that thousands of consumers are prepared to file complaints, the company usually is more amenable to helping its customers. This is power in numbers and is the approach that YBA takes with its members. When you combine your voice with thousands of others who share the same issues it creates influence (leverage). YBA is simply a mechanism for connecting individuals who share a common need or cause.

Our members enjoy the benefit of greatly reduced cost compared to an individual acting alone and the leverage that comes from hundreds or thousands of others coming together. For instance, if you retained an attorney to deal with a legal issue your cost can easily run into the thousands of dollars. If however, you combine your request with many others who share the same issue, the attorney will gladly reduce your cost to a fraction of what you would pay to retain him individually. Why? Because of the power of numbers! The attorney will make more money for his "time" by representing a group, and yet each member of the group will pay only a fraction of the cost. This is a true win-win situation and has the added benefit of "leverage" for the attorney in dealing with that particular company. There is usually a "critical mass" needed to deal with any given issue, and YBA will provide the structure and mechanism of assembling the appropriate groups and connecting them with the correct attorney or consumer advocate.

Today, 70% of the U.S. economy is devoted to consumption, representing the largest percentage in the world. Consumption is so important now that it has become the means for global social order to be maintained and rule over individuals. Thomas Friedman has said with confidence, “No two countries with MacDonald’s go to war with one other.”

Individual Consumers have freedom of choice, but are denied "true freedom" in their purchases because of the advertising paid for by companies whose interests are not their own. Wants and needs are often confused in this process resulting in purchasing that is regularly unsatisfactory. Recent speculative bubbles followed by their collapse testify to the excesses created when predatory marketing finds the opportune economic environment. Bubbles like the 1999 NASDAQ and 2005 Housing collapse and crashes (2000 - 2003 NASDAQ, 2007 to present - Housing) provide evidence of the inefficient consumer systems that are based on isolation, separation, and competition.

Modern technologies (like the Internet) have created new opportunities to constructively connect consumers to gain the power of numbers. Consumers may freely combine forces with others to multiply their influence and become a force for change. We are now free to combine our efforts in social networks that transcend location and space. This collaboration of like-minded individuals follows a new social logic that values human relationships and connects us rather than isolating our individual needs and efforts. Especially in regard to large cost, high margin items such is real estate, automobiles, boats, etc. the consumer should not act alone. There is much to be gained from the power of association, and little or no risk for the individual. The stage has been set for a massive reordering of the current consumer paradigm. YBA is on the cutting edge of this opportunity to tap into the Power of Numbers!

Imagine going to your bank to renegotiate your $200,000 mortgage. The issues are cloudy at best, and the bank does its best to maximize its profits (at your expense!). If you gain any advantage at all it is usually minimal and only obtained by threats of leaving and going to a competitor. Now imagine someone representing you in that same bank who presents the leverage of many customers who have average loans of $200,000. That now represents millions of dollars of leverage. Do you suppose the bank will listen more carefully and perhaps do more to retain that business? You bet they will. YBA works to create that leverage for our customers.

Continue: Our Beginning (2005)