What a question! Of course not.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, how did I let these items lapse for I don’t know how long? But I did. I’m sure I got this from a Harper’s Weekly Review:<\/p>\n
It was reported that a financial services company in Montreal, Canada, played the children\u2019s song \u201cBaby Shark\u201d on loop for a year in its emergency exit stairwell in an attempt to keep unhoused people from seeking shelter there, a woman at an IHOP in Florida was fired for buying an unhoused man a stack of pancakes…<\/em><\/p>\n Now, people, let’s restate the raison d’etre<\/em> (my symbols list does not provide an “e” with one of those little peaked caps, so I’m having to cope with a bareheaded “etre”)…that was an unintended tangent so let’s restate the raison d’etre <\/em>of corporations: profit. Making money.<\/p>\n We can’t expect corporations to be kind. Despite John Roberts, corporations do not have human feelings or human souls. They are, in a non-perjorative sense, amoral. Their purpose is to produce something, convince consumers they need this something, sell it to them and cash in.<\/p>\n It does not mean a corporation necessarily deliberately produces bad things, things that will harm people. Some corporations produce things that help people. (What popped immediately into my brain is: bandaids. And: gaffer tape.)<\/p>\n Good; but you do realize you don’t have<\/em> to buy what they are offering. They spend a lot of money on advertising in order to sell you these products but advertising is NOT brainwashing! That is, you are not placed into an hypnotic trance making you buy the products. You are free not<\/em> to spend money on a product that you have no need or desire for. But if you do need it, you’re free to spend your money on somebody else’s product.<\/p>\n That’s one of the things about capitalism that isn’t bad.<\/p>\n \u2665<\/p>\n Let me again put in my usual plug for eschewing Amazon in all its aspects. Totally amazing, I know,<\/strong> but I have never used Amazon for anything at all.<\/strong> Yet I have bought things, things that Amazon sells. What magic from which gods has given me these astounding powers?<\/p>\n It’s enough to say while I have denied Amazon my $$$, I have not deprived myself of anything Amazon happens to be selling. (Which is everything.) Because — this will shock you — Amazon is not the only online sales business in the world. <\/em>And it certainly can’t replace neighborhood mom ‘n’ pop stores for personal connections and trustworthiness.<\/p>\n You want to punish Jeff Bezos? It’s easy. Because his billions (and Elon Musk’s trillions) depend entirely upon us.<\/em> You want them to suffer for having figured out how to evade paying taxes and facing monopoly lawsuits? Stop financing them! They need our money to become the repulsive grinning assholes we love to loathe.<\/p>\n Don’t give them your money!!! (Whew. Simple.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What a question! Of course not. Meanwhile, how did I let these items lapse for I don’t know how long? But I did. I’m sure I got this from a Harper’s Weekly Review: It was reported that a financial services … Continue reading