Helpless Adrift on a Sea of Grey

With everything that is going on in the world or even just in North America these days, it seems hard not to feel somewhat helpless.
My one vote in the pool of millions has negligable effect on the direction of politics in my riding, province or country.
My few purchases and investments have negligable effect on the direction of the economy in the stores I frequent or the stock market or the financial industry as a whole.

The argument that we all contribute together and every vote counts seems to be a general principle that does not apply to the specific individual. I'm not just referring to the infinitely small effect, but the fact that there are infinitely many variations and combinations or choices and intentions such that there really is no overall combined effect in any one direction.

Elections are not a simple tug of war to see which side gets the most people on their side. The stock market is not simply directed by whether there are more buyers than sellers. And the world extends this complexity to include an infinite greyness between the absolutes of "true" and "false".