While I’m not one to kick in Gap windows and piss off cops, I certainly think that unrestrained corporatism/corporations have ruined many things in our lives. While this isn’t a pit thread, what’s something that’s been ruined for you through unrestrained corporatism.
Mine go hand in hand - music and radio. By music, I mean the mainstream music industry and the indie ghetto it’s created, leaving the most creative and innovative modern artists mostly (if not entirely) absent from major labels (down from multitudes in the sixties and seventies to literally four thanks to unrestrained corporate consolidation). At least there are indie labels, though - radio’s the real victim. Through payola and unrestrained consolidation (mainly Clearchannel and friends’ buying up of most stations in most markets thanks to corporate influence on the FCC), radio - a prized cultural institution - is a pale shadow of its former self, with homogenized, boring playlists and absent DJ participation/talent.
What about you? I want to hear from a sports fan who’s sick of having his favorite team play in “Quiznos Stadium” (at least this fiscal quarter; name may change as money and ownership changes hands), or from a true cinephile who’s ready to puke over “Men in Black 3” and “Shrek 14” while visionaries like Guy Maddin and David Gordon Green will never see budgets larger than five figures.
I feel I should point out that the word “corporatism” doesn’t usually mean simply “the corporate system” or “the market society that results from lack of restraint on corporations.” It usually means “a social or ethical system in which your first loyalty is to your group, not to society at large, and any and all measures tending to advance the group are warranted.”
They do tend to go hand in hand, however, such as when we learn that, since a corporation exists to make profit for its shareholders, it is therefore justified in doing or attempting to do anything at all to further that goal, regardless of the consequences for others.
Yes, I hope that’s clear in the OP - not “what has capitalism” ruined for you, or etc., but what has unrestrained furthering corporate goals at the expense of everything else ruined for you (like it has ruined radio for me)?
I think the franchising of America/the globe is a little sad. You used to be able to go to a different place, and things were well different. Often surprsingly good. At least a change. But now you can get a taco, a taco pretty much anywhere in America. That’s just frickin wierd.
Not slagging starbucks, whatever it is they do appeals to the masses, but I miss the mom and pop espresso bars put out of business. So instead of winning some and losing others when you try a new shop, you end up with the lowest common deonominator
Good point - I’d definitely say this has ruined road trips for me. It still surprises me that no matter how far off the beaten path you go, there always seems to be a Subway or a Burger King rather than anything remotely unique.
I’m barely old enough to remember anything the way it was before the corporations took over, so I can’t point to anything specific. But if I never see another ad, it’ll be too soon. I’m sick of people putting ads everywhere.
I dunno. I’m not convinced it has ruined anything, in my life. Before Starbucks, you couldn’t buy fancy coffee. Before Barnes & Noble, you had to make do with bestsellers from drugstores. Before Panera, bread was soft and white. Before Gap, you had to find wearable clothes in department stores–not so appetizing a proposition, frankly. Corporatism has only made life better, where I live–that and the internet. Eagerly awaiting a Trader Joe’s, now.
Here’s a minor one-- I miss old-fashioned drug stores. Before Eckerd’s and CVS moved in, I had two (count 'em- two) old-fashioned drug stores with soda fountains in my neighborhood. I knew the druggists by name.
What I think of first is that corporatism has strained and confused my ethics. I’ve worked as a mostly happy cog in various corporate machines for something like 40 years now. I generally think of what I am doing, and what my employers are doing, as a very good thing. We make products or services that people would rather have than their own money - they buy from us of their own free will and they don’t have to justify their choices to anybody. I think that’s wonderful. For example, SDMB and the WWW that it lives in only got populated through the work of corporations, and this is definitely of value to me and apparently the others meeting here.
The sad thing is the part that doesn’t seem to fit that picture. All the big energy companies making huge campaign contributions to Bush and getting environmental laws set aside in what might as well be a documented quid pro quo arrangement is a great example now. I don’t know whether to think of it as a kind of antisocial behavior by a small number of leading individuals, or as some self-perpetuating problem like steroids in sports where decent individuals are forced by competition to sink to the lowest level, but it is such a terrible outcome for what seemed at the start like an ideal system that maximizes individual choice and opportunities.
That being said, I don’t know if the ethical part is what does me the most harm. The environmental damage in my example might actually be the bigger problem, long term (but it will take years of change and scientific discovery to know this).
Humorist Roger Price put it best – “If everyone doesn’t want it, no one can get it.”
In short, go into a mall bookstore and try to buy any book that isn’t already hugely popular (or being pushed like crazy by its megalithic publishers), or, for that matter, any book from a SMALL publishing house. Quite a few of them won’t even carry stuff like that for ORDER, much less sale.
Same goes for audiovisual media. Used to be you could hit all the mom and pop video stores in town, and find a copy of most anything. Nowadays, even the CLASSICS section doesn’t have a copy of anything that doesn’t rent at least twice a year.
I’m with you. What is this romantic nonsense that the world was better before everything was “corporatized”? Yeah…I miss having to drive to twenty different Mom&Pops instead of making one trip to Home Depot. I enjoyed my little local bank with two ATMs. I can’t stand the low prices of Target or Walmart. Was there even a place where people bought coffee or donuts before Starbucks or Duncan Donuts? There’s a reason you can find so many classics at the M&P video store. Unlike Blockbuster, they haven’t updated their selection in four years.
What people are sick of is “branding”. Branding has it’s place - everywhere you see Starbucks or McDonalds, you know you are getting the same cup of coffee or burger. What people don’t want is to be inundated by the McDonalds logo everywhere.
Guinus really ruined world records for me with their book.
Corporatism has ruined radio for me, too, and it’s the industry in which I work. My dream, and anyone else’s, of going to work at a commercial station run by local people with solid ties to the community, and staying there until retirement age, is gone. Nowadays, outside of public radio, you will work for either Clear Channel, or Cumulus, or Infinity. They will change the call letters and the format and fire all the staff at some point and start over again, only to do the same thing in a few years or less. And if that were not enough, you may be forced to sign a non-compete clause in your contract that states that you may not work in the same market as the station you will eventually be fired from, for years and years and years.
I got into radio initially because if you were talented and funny and had great production skills, you could go to the top or somewhere close to it. Now there is no funny or talented on the radio. There’s an abundance of gross and demeaning and totally WTF (like “Drunk Bitch Friday”), but no personality jocks anymore, and no hilarity on morning drive.
When I was a kid in Toronto, CFNY did. They played indie and local bands all the time. That’s how the Barenaked Ladies got such a huge following. Now they are called the Edge and they play things like Lincoln Park (or whatever the fuck it’s called) all day long. So yeah, I hate that radio has been ruined. Go listen to the Rush song, Spirit of Radio. It will cause you to shed a single lonesome teardrop.
Clear Channel has ruined radio. There is no other way to say it. The exact same formats in every US city. “Xtra” sports, “KIIS” fm, “A better mix…” You can’t even tell what city you’re in. Predictable formats, narrow range of music, no unique local stations.
I’m also sick of corporations and sports. The Spiderman logo on the bases last year showed that I’m not the only one. Fox’s phony baseball ads and endless hype have all but ruined the baseball playoffs. Corporate sponsering of stadiums is also ridiculous. I’m dreading the day in which the teams are named for companies and the players wear ads. I"ll quit being a fan at that time.
No athlete is worth 30 million to play a game when there are research scientist working on cures for Horrible Afflicting Diseases who make under 20K a year.
It.Is.Obscene.
I’d like to add that Hollywood has stopped making good movies and churns out predictable, formulaic crap over and over.
Corporatism had nearly ruined working for a living for me, with their relentless willingness to do anything it takes to squeeze as much profit out of anything as possible, but then I started working for a small business where I am treated like the valuable asset I am.
Now the small business I’m working with is being squeezed out by corporations because he had the audacity to make a valid claim on his insurance (a claim which, I might add, cost less than the total dollars that he has paid in insurance over the years), and his insurance company dropped him as a result, and no other insurance company will insure him because he made a claim, so he is close to losing his rented office space because he doesn’t have insurance.
Oh, and don’t forget television. Especially cable, which was supposed to be commercial-free since you’re paying for it from the cable company already.
let me be the nth to agree with radio. Except for a few AM stations, local content is just about gone. I also miss the local ethnic programming…true, I can’t understand a word they’re saying but some great music nervertheless.
Well, obviously he/she/it is worth it to SOMEONE or the $$$ wouldn’t have been offered.