The Externality Scam: How the American System Turns Disaster Into Profit and Blames You for Surviving It

They drowned in Texas. They choked in LA. You were told it’s just the weather. Meanwhile, Medicare is being gutted and you’re expected to smile through it. This isn’t climate. It’s design. In this explosive episode of PrecisionCycle, Enrique exposes the billion-dollar scam known as “externalities”—the polite, academic term for the abuse corporations, insurers, and governments dump on everyday people while gaslighting them into silence. From wildfires to flood zones, from insurance denials to false promises of Medicare, this is disaster capitalism in its rawest form. Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed meets real-life trauma, and PrecisionCycle gives you the language to fight back. elevate.epo

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Precision Cycle by Elevate EPO am Enrique. Today we're gonna be talking about externalities as they exist in our society and within the context of events going on in the world today, predominantly here in the United States over the 4th of July weekend. thank you to everyone who's joining me today. First, and foremost, I wanna make sure that I start by saying that my heart goes out to everyone in Texas affected by the floods that have, unfortunately ravaged that state 95 people confirmed, dead, with 27 of those being, girls or staff members at an all girl, summer camp called Camp Mystic. What we're seeing in Texas is devastating and reminds us of the power of Mother Nature and just how little control we have over it. It's not unlike the fires that we saw in Los Angeles early in the year when both Altadena and Pacific Palisades, caught fire there seems to be a growing consensus and all of the evidence seems to lead to the fact that it was, negligence Regulators and the power companies themselves that may have implicated, themselves in these fires. And then that itself leading to a profound loss of life and property throughout areas of Los Angeles. when we start to examine Events The usual route is to look at it from a climate change perspective and get lost in that argument with someone who isn't a believer of climate change or may have opposing views. That's not necessarily where I want to go today. Where I'm really focused on are the externalities that are created, Normal people like you and I, common citizens and residents of these areas are made to bear the brunt of a lot of these, negative outcomes. If we look at the word externalities and what that means, that's a word that exists in economics. Externalities are unintended consequences of economic activities. That affect third parties that are not directly involved in the transaction. the classic case for an externality is, a paper mill dumps toxic waste into a river and then the people downstream end up consuming that toxic waste That is an externality. There are positive externalities. that we see in society, this includes education vaccinations a part of the residual effects of r and d research and development units of pharma and other technological outcomes. Obviously, the technology that you're watching me on right now is an externality of a lot of other investments that have yielded mass communication, and cheap access to technology. Negative externalities, however, are, like the aforementioned pollution, a company dumps pollution into the ocean. We all have to suffer for that. Traffic congestion is an externality of the automotive industry and political policies that promote the usage of vehicles. Secondhand smoke was a big one in the eighties and the nineties before here in California, for instance. We got rid of it. That was an externality of the tobacco industry and wasn't something that a person who didn't smoke was intended to receive, but they did. Ultimately, that led to policy changes that got banned in public areas. That is how. Governments and the people usually respond to externalities by implementing the power of government to ensure that everyday citizens who don't have any skin in that game are the ones not affected. another one we can point to drunk driving and DUIs and driving under the influence of pharmaceuticals. These are all externalities that exist as a product of a market creating demand, and then selling that demand to people. as we re-pivot To both Texas and to California. We start to see how a lot of these externalities become normalized. There's, reports now that were six, seven months past, the fires here in California insurance companies are now being called to task over moving slowly on some of these claims and not being transparent with their, with what's going on and frankly are just conducting. And what usual stereotypical insurance company behavior is, which is to not pay out people who pay their premiums on time and trust the system. And to drag their feet so that people can have less money on payouts or the company itself, be less likely suffer any of those externalities if we take an externality put that into the realm of psychology, it's very simple, gaslighting. And that is a product of disaster capitalism. And that is the language of the oppressor in many ways. The externality scam that exists is the very foundational tool for which. This narcissism nation has given, the power to essentially have dominion over us. When we look at that from a broader perspective, the idea that we have no power in any of these systems, this is where that classic control element comes into place, that you hear from people who are seeking eating disorder treatment, or that are at. Recovery programs, because every time that I've sat down with someone in one of these situations, the one common theme that seems to always come up is, I do this as a means to control my life. And that's the thing we're gonna talk about today on Precision Cycle, the externality, scam, gaslighting, disaster, capitalism, and the language of oppression The narcissistic tool for which control is sold to us, but never really provided. Thank you for joining me today. I hope that you guys had a great 4th of July weekend. My name is Enrique. This is Precision Cycle brought to you by Elevate Dot epo. Let's open it up. And so if we see the floods in Texas, we see the fires in la, we see how Medicare itself is being cutted by, the recent spending bill that was passed in Congress. all of that is positioned as fiscal responsibility when it comes to Medicare, for instance. but they're symptoms of a system that profits from confusion. teaches you to blame yourself when things go wrong, right? Why did you get in that car accident? Why did you buy that house so close to that burn site? Why did you decide to stay after your neighbor's houses got burnt down and you're living in a toxic waste dump? These are the things that. Oftentimes are placed back on citizens as just, that's just part of the deal that you have to live with because this is the price of freedom. If we're here in Los Angeles, you open your door, you open your window, and you look outside, you look east. a giant blanket of gray ash, is not unique to Los Angeles because we are home of smog and having all the vehicles and that volume on the streets is something we have to live with here but this particular blanket of smog. That we seeing now in July, that's more indicative of some of the residual effects of the burn scar from earlier this year. There is literally a pocket of gray smoke sitting on top of people in Pasadena. And people running up and down the street like nothing's happening. People going back to work, sending kids to school, to summer programs, all these types activities. All the while walking through smog that you could cut with a knife, and these are the externalities, right? That. Exists from everyone. Just turning a blind eye to the fact that, yeah, we had some pretty major fires, but what are we gonna do? They are what they are and we have to live with it. That is the reality of Los Angeles in 2025, along with all the other elements that are currently playing themselves out on the streets. But if we look at that from a Texas perspective and what they're gonna have to. Focus on and work with in the next few months. And the president has gone out to declare it a disaster zone and has promised FEMA money, that Congress has cut out of the spending bill. So that's gonna be an interesting, discussion. When we get to it, we see how. the immediate response for the Texas flood story was concern for the victims, of course, but then political debate whether who was to blame for all this, whether or not Noah was properly giving out. notices and notifying people, and then videos of other people close by, members of the community, members of the local, government. encouraging people to come down to some of these lake areas and river areas. even though there was a considerable amount of rain in the forecast. those are the things that are initiated to of hide the actual factor, which is that people, both in the fires and with these floods, lost their lives. People lost their property from things that could have easily been prevented, people could have easily checked on faulty equipment that they knew was not properly working up in the hills. companies could have done a lot of things, but rather they decided to shift that externality onto residents, people that didn't necessarily have any skin in the game, because that's a lot easier when you're just trying to make the immediate. buck When you're just trying to get people to come to an event, make it look like you're gonna put on a big party in a show so that, you can attract vendors and people to spend money and engage in marketing, These are then classified as those classic externalities, and that is the academic alibi for harm infliction of those powers. To endure the suffering, but to explain it away in their language. we sit here in the language of left and right and talk about how oftentimes there's no one to blame because you can't put the blame on anyone. But there is blame to be made because 27 girls and staff that die at a campsite, is a product of extreme. Negligence extreme incompetence of people who absolutely have zero interest in, safety of people and just want to continue to bill as normal and make as much money as normal And when things happen, when the shit truly hits the fan, we see what. Insurance companies do all the time. You're on your own. And that is the great American lie we live in this narcissism nation. The fact that we think we have some level of control in our lives, when in reality control is very limited. It's an illusion. If anything it's something that, that is off. Been created as this trope to get us to buy into this big American dream that exists in reality there isn't much freedom. You are bound by the fact that someone else much more powerful than you, is deliberately trying to offload their waste onto you and then gaslight you into accepting it. That is the nature of the United States as we experience it in 2025. if we look at it from the LA perspective, Now in July of 2025, while removed from that January day where all this went down, nobody talks about the fires anymore. And if anything, people are still fed up. insurance companies aren't helping people the way that they said they would help people, we have politicians and local governments that are still not providing building permits. You have people living in what's essentially a Superfund site that has lithium. Waste that has all kinds of carcinogens littered throughout. Its top soils and groundwater people living in houses that are inhabitable because they've suffered a lot of smoke damage, and have major losses to local infrastructures. These are the realities we live with. in Los Angeles, especially in Pasadena, no one really thinks about it anymore. People don't bring it up as a topic of, that is something that really affected me, unless that is of course your personal struggle and you were affected personally. The new cycle has shifted to ice raid. The new cycle has shifted to, losing your Medicare. The new cycle has shifted to Texas, people in Texas are gonna have to start to, worry with the fact that a month from now, no one's gonna really care. And that's by design because if we take the Medicare example. Those cuts, they're not policy, they're abandonment rituals. that's the government essentially being the parent that is making you dance for your love and telling you that you're not good enough. this promise that if you work hard and trust the government and you trust this mechanism that they've put in there to help you with the social assistance that. When you turn 65, that might not be there anymore. That is classic abandonment. classic narcissistic, abandonment and abuse because it's essentially blaming you for the issue. We can't pay you because you spend too much money and you make us spend too much money. So because of that, we are gonna have to cut it. That is also like the insurance denials. that's gas lighting 1 0 1, right? Because they tell you this is your responsibility to, go out there I just go back to my own experience, not with the fires, but with the traffic accident I was involved in, a couple days before the fire, I essentially had to threaten this company that I was with with actual litigation and filing reports with Department of Corporations And with the insurance commissioner here in California, just to get back my $250 deductible, which was mine to begin with, it was my money. I was sitting at a stoplight minding my own business when suddenly a Jeep runs a red light, hits one Lexus, and then that Lexus pushes that deep into me, literally just sitting there. Not being part of anything I get affected. I get hit on collision by this Jeep, and rather than the insurance company recognizing that, yes, you do have a claim and you have been injured and have a right to your deductible, Because, for the collision insurance, it wasn't your fault, it took me six months and even having to threaten people on the 4th of July in emails for them to come back this morning and tell me here's your 250 bucks. The way that it was presented to me with the phone call, a voicemail that I received was with the sense that I should feel grateful that they decided to put in advance on the subrogation process and give me my $250, as opposed to saying, you know what? You're right, these $250 that you made us and threatened us and had to force us to give you, it's here, it's yours. That is gaslighting. At work. And that is the issues that we're seeing every day here when it comes to how, we navigate the world with the very little control that we have? And if we look at Paolo Ferre, The Brazilian sociologist who wrote the pedagogy of the Oppressed, he tells us that true liberation begins when the oppressed recognize the false generosity of the oppressor. this insurance company isn't being generous to me. they're positioning it as if they've gone above and beyond to provide me with this refund. The reality is I'm being gaslit in real time made to feel as if my pain and my claims here are not legitimate. And they are the one corporate actor who's the one good actor in all this that's coming through in the end. They're the ones who have dragged their feet for six months, illustrated nonstop incompetence and are working in concert with the legal industry, which themselves are also, a money producing. part of all this because they do work in concert. the legal system with the insurance company. It's a very symbiotic relationship where if the case is too complex, the lawyer's not gonna take it and they're very hesitant to bring any action against the company because they recognize that they do businesses with these companies all the time. And that it messes up their reimbursement models. But here's the thing, It's the system is intended to make you crazy because it's intended to make you want to feel the control that you don't have, right? And it's intended to make you feel this pull, that you're being driven to madness by systems that teach you to blame yourself for their collapse. And these are the things that we very much in this society today live with the government positioning it that you should know better to live in a place where we get flooding, you should know better than to trust companies that say that they have everything under control and obviously don't. this is what I saw all the time at residential eating disorder, addiction, suicidality. that's the language of the body when speech is denied, right? There's nothing left there. But to have this internal self attack, like a histamine attack. With the reaction being very negative thoughts that promote intrusive thoughts of self-harm, intrusive thoughts of wanting to take back control, by regulating what we put in our body, regulating how we're going to process emotions, and then dissociate from the pain that those emotions give us. And the thing that Precision Cycle works to help clients come to is that understanding that you're not crazy, for wanting control. You're not crazy for wanting to have that element and control in your life to , satiates you and make you feel safe. Because that is a very real feeling and a very real component to humanity. This idea that I want to feel safe, it's part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And so when we look at Ferre and what he writes, he writes that the oppressed are not only dehumanized, but told to view suffering as a personal failure. this is America in a nutshell. Demonize people who don't make $10,000 a month. We demonize people who have to reach out and ask for assistance. We demonize people who aren't fortunate enough to have the opportunities Many of us had to get educated and obtain the skills to work in positions that pay a living wage. This is why Precision Cycle exists, to give clients that language. when you give clients that language, they're able to conceptualize their worlds in a way that gives them agency to move forward. there is a reason why employers mistreat you at work put you on PS and tell you all kinds of things about you that are false, but make you feel like you're the problem. Because they know that the average person isn't gonna fight back. The average person isn't gonna reach out to a lawyer to sue the company for wrongful termination. And if they do, they're gonna encounter a legal system. That is gonna treat them like they were the problem to begin with, and that is going to completely dismiss any of their pain because it doesn't fit within the rubric that legal organization, operates under There's a reason why lawyers like to litigate, wage theft issues because those are pretty cut and dry. But when it comes to actual, harassment, when it comes to actual wrongful termination, when it comes to whistle blowing protections, no real lawyer wants to touch that because It doesn't fit the operating model that works for their financials. It's too much work. And not worth their time because they'd rather have something cut and dry that they could put into some class action and then get that result rather than really fight for the justice of a person that was truly wronged. And And that's what Precision cycle's here to, is to give you the language so that you know when you have been wronged by an organization, by a government, by an entity, by someone. so you then have the pathways for your own relief. one of the things I've had to encounter myself is, lawyers, not wanting to help me because my issues are too complex. Having the language and the wherewithal to take control of that and then submit my own claims for Justice Pro se. being my own advocate, being my own legal counsel, which takes on these organizations. precision Cycle isn't here to help you process the emotions of woe is me. Elements of this oppression precision cycle is here to tell you exactly what they're saying so you can make an educated decision and. Action plan to move forward. oftentimes that action plan comes with understanding how systems work, so you can weaponize your mental health into the result that you need. And it's not DSM. This is not resilience. This is not coping. Precision cycle is not gonna sit here and process what it means that you have these particular feelings inside of you. This is naming. Precision Cycle is gonna help you name the code and reject the programming that still lives within your brain and personality. That will let these people get off the hook because that's the thing that they're banking on. These oppressors are banking on the fact that you don't know your rights. You don't know what's happening to you. You can't name the feeling that you have in your body, and you're never gonna challenge their abuse. But here's the thing. As Pao Ferrera writes, and as he shows us, once you teach people that language and once you give them the power to understand exactly what the oppressor is trying to tell you, that's when you have true agency. That's when you have true power, because now you can see through the bullshit, you're able to recalibrate yourself and you're able to understand that these systems were never made. To be fair, these systems were made to make as much money as possible, to put as much blame as possible on external factors. To excuse incompetence. And once you understand that's what is happening to you, whether it's the government, whether it's some insurance company, whether it's your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, whether it's your parents, these people have all put a lot of money, time, effort into making you feel as if you are the problem as opposed to them being truly awful human beings and organizations. And that is the narcissistic abuse 1 0 1 of this narcissism nation, which trickles its way down families at large. Number one step that they always do is inflict harm. That is, by definition, the American way a company is going to internalize. all of its profit and externalize all of its collateral damages, then it's gonna demand gratitude, right? It's gonna say You should feel lucky that you're in this system, or you should feel lucky that I love you as your parent, or that I love you as a partner, and whatever you get from us, you should be happy with it. Third, what do they usually do? They withhold aid, they withhold love. That is narcissism 1 0 1. Again, getting back to that, you should be Grateful. The fact that I'm even thinking of you and then they blame you It's, I'm not the problem. I'm reacting as a product of you and your personality and how completely this calibrated you are. your eating disorder is your problem. It's got nothing to do with the fact that me as a parent. abused you and gaslights you and continues talk down to you like someone who's trying to impose all kinds of control this is by design. Built into the cake. This is America 1 0 1 here. It's washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless. So that we end up. Siding with the powerful, precision cycle is here to help you see how you've been recruited to gaslight yourself. Because the minute that you recognize that you can step outside of the system that continues to gaslight you in real time. that's when I can take, Ownership and agency and really look to fix my situation by understanding that other people are here to cause me harm. So Ferrera taught us that liberation comes from naming your reality. Precision cycle is your translator to that reality. It teaches you how to read between the lines of your trauma, your patterns, and the system that benefits from all of that. when you name the gaslighting, it kills the power. When you speak the language of the oppressor fully, it no longer has power over you. That's not therapy, that's liberation. That's precision cycle. our hearts go out to all those 95 people. and their families who now have to work through the difficult stages of picking up the pieces and trying to get whole again, which undoubtedly someone will never be able to, because you don't you don't. move on from losing a child in such a horrific manner. You don't move on from losing your property in a way that was so profoundly devastating and terrorizing. Those are things that you live with every day. And as we sit and we as Americans come together again and recognize the importance having our collective, focus to help these individuals just like we did with the people here in la and the nation is responding to Texas, we also have to understand that as we navigate these natural disasters, the systems that were put in place to give us a sense of safety, we're never really there to begin with. They were never really present. rather, they were just illusions that people gave us so that we would keep providing them with money funding their business practices and Helping them create these multi-billion dollar agencies that will now turn around and use that money to gaslight us into believing that we don't need to be paid back, and that we don't need to be made whole. And as I sit here. July 7th, 2025, I'm calling on everyone out there to keep the pressure up to make sure that we are maintaining our solidarity with our fellow Americans By demanding that governments keep their word, by demanding that insurance companies keep their word by demanding all these other actors here in California keep their word and pay out what they need to pay out. By demanding that our local governments begin to ask questions and make people who have suffered truly whole again. Rather than give the illusion that they're doing something. if we look at LA there's a lot that's been going on. The fires are something that really have become not so big of a topic anymore, and we're seeing in real time how now the government has decided to stop providing, permits to rebuild these areas. Partly because they recognize that a lot of these places are toxic waste dumps. doing so would probably lead to far greater externalities than they're prepared to pay out for. precision Cycle is here to help you see through all of that dysfunction. Because the reality is that we're truly on our own. And unless we recognize the power that we have within our own voices, and unless we recognize what they're trying to tell us, we're never gonna be able to really be free in society because we will always be beholden to someone else's control and to someone else's version of what they feel our lives should look like and what we're entitled to. This has been. A presentation that I hope has really illustrated how we have to come together and own a lot of our own mental health. And how we have to really become those operators who move away from simple processing of emotion to understanding what the words and these activities are doing to our bodies so we can fight back against that. you don't gain control by dissociating not eating, or going into a vape pen or a pipe or any other type of pill consumption that people might utilize to dissociate. You gain control by understanding how people are talking to you, what they're saying to you. How they're saying it to you, what they mean and how you can fight back. Thank you very much for joining me today on this episode of Precision Cycle. we are in the midst of our July recalibration. we are available for clients who want to come and start understanding how their lives and environments are shaping their mental health and what they can do to help. Fix that and create a better outcome in their life. Please feel free to reach out. DM me at Precision Cycle tv. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok threads. Or enrique@elevateepo.com. We are ready here to receive you and to work with you if you're ready. To start moving away from the process model of mental health and more into the action oriented next steps, liberation element, parts of mental health, which lead to personal growth and self-agency. Again, we're offering our hundred dollars referral special. Send us someone you feel will be a great candidate for Precision Cycle. They sign up, you get a hundred dollars. That quick, that easy, no strings attached. That's how confident we are in precision cycle, and the people you bring us and refer to us, or if you yourself, wanna come and refer yourself, that is how confident we feel Precision Cycle will be able to help you regain control of yourself. Regain control. So that we're not having to engage into our behaviors that are built on narcissistic defense to narcissistic abuse. My name is Enrique Raga. Thank you very much for joining me. We will be back on Wednesday for another episode. Once again, our hearts go out to everyone in Texas praying that. anyone still missing can be found healthy and safe and that those families of those 95 people who have lost their lives and all others who have lost their homes and property are able to regain some sense of balance and can be made whole again. We are truly with you. Please feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about Precision Cycle and how we can help you with your mental health concerns. Thank you very much