I’m a Democrat and I guess I don’t really care if my local business has strong left-leaning opinions on the capital gains tax or universal health care but I would give preference to a place that supported inclusiveness regardless of gender, race, sexuality, etc. Is it really a “politically left” opinion to be cool to gay people or not give trans people shit for which bathroom they choose? Feels like it in this day and age.
You not caring about the political impacts of your purchases doesn’t mean your actions are magically apolitical. It just means you’re throwing your hands in the air and letting someone else make your political decisions for you.
Yes, exactly, and it’s not a binary thing. It’s not “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism,” so why don’t we just exclusively do business with the Trump Org instead?
You want to see everyday consumer spending affecting national and international politics, you don’t have to look much further than Google, Wall Street, Anthem, Tyson, etc. Some of those have been around for so long it’s hard to see them as anything except entrenched power that’s “always been there”, but Google is only, what 20 years old and already a major player in world politics? Beyond Burger IPOed a couple months ago and is already changing fast food supply chain practices across the country (not that I’m saying they’ll be as big as Google, but it’s certainly a story of how some silly burger company is influencing food decisions at a national level).
If your argument is that no economic act can perfectly reflect your political values, then of course I agree. Who wouldn’t?
But that’s a different argument than “so it’s not even worth trying.” There’s a whole continuum of action, from simple awareness to boycotts to writing the company to investing in alternatives/communities to municipal regulation (Amazon in Seattle) to exile (Amazon in NY) to federal labor laws to international treaties to NGOs (fair trade, etc.). Not all of these things have HUGE impact, but they all have non-zero impact.
And what do you think happens when your daily wages rises to $15/day? They’ll replace you with poorer people from somewhere else. I don’t think this disproves anything I said as much as reinforces it. Commoditized global labor is exploitative and unsustainable.
Both countries I’ve lived in also went through similar industrializing phases, we’ve just gotten a bit ahead of the curve and have turned around and started exploiting others. That you happen to be enjoying the transitory fruits of this system during a given point in time doesn’t mean that the system as a whole is sane. It relies on a global underclass and infinitely growing consumer demand.
Exchange rates aside, it’s not much prettier (at all) if you look at it from a purchase-power parity standpoint. I’m not sure what system the website I listed above uses for comparison, but other comparisons aren’t far off, and the takeaway of all of them is that there is still overwhelming inequity both within nations and between them, and in many cases it’s steadily getting worse where the poor are not able to keep up with costs of living increases.
I’d argue that’s by design, with globalized capital manipulating governments to ensure a global underclass desperate to serve as commoditized labor for less than $15/day. Maybe the one major exception to that is China, with both a labor force and a government strong enough to not just kowtow blindly to American neoliberalism, attempting instead to cynically adopt and lure it in for that country’s own benefit (and who can blame 'em). And then back in the US, that same desperate struggle of farmers trying to feed their families by working in urban centers is transformed into racist politics and neo-Nazism. It’s all unavoidably political. How could it not be? The genesis of the modern Western way of life is the cementing of property rights into law, before human rights were ever a consideration. The dollar was always a more political unit than the person.
So if I’m understanding you right, Reply, we should abandon all commerce and subsist by eating the grass in our neighbors’ lawns?
Better just stay offn mine!
. . . (not trying to speak for Reply) or commit to investing our energies into other systems on which to found our pursuit of happiness.
Abandoning capitalist economic/cultural models doesn’t have to mean abandoning all models/systems. I don’t think anyone is proposing the “eat neighbor’s lawn” as a viable replacement.
I decided on the last choice however because I go a little past what I think the OP meant the way it was worded. Nothing against the agnostic selection but it was just a more personal approach on my part.
If by “Abandoning capitalist economic/cultural models” you mean “no longer buying things”, then my remaining options are grazing, theft, or starvation. And that’s regarding food; I have even fewer options regarding satisfying my video game obsession.
Nonsense. We should abandon all commerce and help our neighbors plant grass so they can eat, and we can starve! I thought it was obvious. The only alternative to neoliberal capitalism is anarcho-rumination.
Well, my grandmother used to tell me I had a second stomach somewhere, so I guess it’s time to embrace our anarcho-rumination future.
I lean right, I would prefer whatever company (or actor, celebrity, etc.) to not be overtly political, at all. That’s not an option though.
It’s literally the middle option for each leaning.
Oops, thanks.
Pretty sure Jefferson tried to warn us about this. Survival of the chewiest.
But maybe it’s not so bad. Aside from the one-stomach-one-vote thing, which is difficult to count on the census, really it’s sort of a model society. You just sit around all day, mowing the lawn, shooting the shit, chewing the cud, brewing your own beer, all at once. It could be worse.
Sounds rather idyllic, to be honest. When does the revolution start?
I think all else being equal, I’d like them to align with me.
But not all else is equal. At the end of the day, I’m buying a product or a service from that company, and in general I’m going to want the highest quality I can get for the price I am willing to pay.
Put another way, if two bottles of wine are equally good, I’d want to go with the one whose producer aligns with me. But if the one that aligns is notably inferior to the one that doesn’t, I’m getting the better one. Similarly, if I’m having heart surgery, I’d go to the Grand Wizard of the KKK or the head of the Nation of Islam if either of those guys is the best heart surgeon for the job.
+1.
I don’t care about your politics. Just sell me my widget, and let me get on with my day.
Are you sure they’d even operate on you? Maybe you’re a black Muslim Nazi, who knows. Vendors have historically refused to offer their goods/services to certain classes of people: blacks, gays, Jews, etc. And these days it goes the other way too, with conservatives being kicked out of tech platforms and academia.
And how do you know you’re getting the highest quality at the best prices under this system? Your options are limited by not just by vendor restrictions, but monopolies/oligopolies, tariffs, overwhelming economies of scale, currency manipulations, lobbying, etc. The invisible hand stops working when corporations can get so powerful they can outright manipulate the marketplace and stifle competition, whether through overwhelming dominance or regulatory capture or both. An economic system that worked (somewhat) during industrialization doesn’t necessarily function indefinitely into a globalized post-industrial future.
We all contribute to it little by little. Amazon used to just be a tiny bookseller. Facebook was some stupid college yearbook. Dominion/Premier/Diebold made ATMs (and now control many of the elections in the USA). Bayer-Monsanto. Google. Pharma/insurance. Boeing. Comcast. Verizon. They’ve all added some value to society, and they’ve all established such a foothold it’s hard to imagine a new competitor meaningfully challenging them, and they’ve all coerced government to do some anti-social-good thing.
I think we like to think of our marketplace as “I can choose from a hundred different candies and crackers” while many of them are just Nestle, and all that money goes to some pretty evil shit. Just about everything we buy is created by slave labor (“employment”, as AK84 calls it) with externalized human and environment tolls. That’s not a free market, it’s the privatization of profits coupled with socialization of costs, all masked by brilliant marketing. The propaganda would have you believe it’s capitalism vs socialism, when it’s really capitalism vs democracy. Your votes lose power when politicians are more beholden to capital than individuals… and that’s not a partisan thing, it’s an American thing. You may not care where your dollars go, but the corporations certainly do, and they’re very good at using them to distort the marketplace and society, and almost always not in your favor.
I’ve vowed not to utilize the services of local businesses that are vocal Trump supporters and which, as the OP indicates, make their support a part of their brand identity. As it turns out, however, I have, and likely will continue to have, little need for a painted sign and/or plumbing supplies. So there’s that.
I also “boycott” a certain fast-food chain, a certain craft supplies store, and a certain Southeastern grocery store chain due to their advocacy on different causes. However, I don’t like fast-food chicken (and the nearest location is 100 miles from me); I’m not a crafter (and the nearest location is 100 miles from me). And it’s been a decade since I’ve been in the Southeastern United States.
By Spanish standards I’m center-right, by American standards I’m left of Bernie Sanders. When it comes to non-profits, I choose those with whose goals and methods I agree (as I expect anybody else does, but who knows); when it comes to for-profit, I’d avoid giving my money to any company which makes politics a part of their corporate identity no matter which side they’re on. It’s just gauche leaves the room with her nose up in the air, or as up in the air as 5’4" gets.
I feel like I ought to boycott Chick-fil-A, but I’ve never been there. Perhaps I should go to one, stand outside the building for a moment, and then walk away?