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What do you do when the boycott is ineffective because the service has a network effect that borders on monopolistic that doesn't allow for others to compete?

What do you do when the boycott is ineffective because the service has a network effect that borders on monopolistic that doesn't allow for others to compete? How do you boycott your power company? There aren't a lot of options... (p.s. thanks for the civil discussion).

will_brown 9y ago
So take a look back in history to the civil rights, take just a single example, the Montgomery Bus Boycott organized in part by MLK in response to Rosa Parks not giving up her seat. The 13 month protest resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Before that look towards US Homestead Steel workers strike to protect unions and wages, that literally ended in a fire fight between 10,000 townspeople and the private security firm the Pinkertons. There were legal battles and boycotts, all of which failed. So there is no guarantee you prevail and I don't mean to make real change sound easy, but we live in a different day and age, and I don't think you need to worry about Google hiring private security firms and actual fire fights, but who knows, could you imagine everyone in the US boycotting Google Search until they repatriated HQ to the US to pay normal corporate taxes and pay their back taxes? What would that look like, I have no idea but maybe just a single day of boycotting. And as unrealistic as that might sound, would it really be such a disturbance for everyone to collectively use bing or duckduckgo for a day to avoid Google? Compared to facing the Pinkertons or the hell people faced fighting for their civil rights, it seems pretty easy. So its not just a matter of how, the how is easy if there is a good enough why that will prevail in the marketplace of ideas. Give workers a reason and they can strike, give consumers a reason and they can boycott. Such things make it untenable for the shareholders and they can elect a new board who can elect new corporate officers, if they continue to fight, make in untenable politically and they lose their support all the way around. Again in the internet age its easier than ever to organize, promote a message and hold people accountable...but that doesn't mean its easy.

will_brown 9y ago

So take a look back in history to the civil rights, take just a single example, the Montgomery Bus Boycott organized in part by MLK in response to Rosa Parks not giving up her seat. The 13 month protest resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Before that look towards US Homestead Steel workers strike to protect unions and wages, that literally ended in a fire fight between 10,000 townspeople and the private security firm the Pinkertons. There were legal battles and boycotts, all of which failed. So there is no guarantee you prevail and I don't mean to make real change sound easy, but we live in a different day and age, and I don't think you need to worry about Google hiring private security firms and actual fire fights, but who knows, could you imagine everyone in the US boycotting Google Search until they repatriated HQ to the US to pay normal corporate taxes and pay their back taxes? What would that look like, I have no idea but maybe just a single day of boycotting. And as unrealistic as that might sound, would it really be such a disturbance for everyone to collectively use bing or duckduckgo for a day to avoid Google? Compared to facing the Pinkertons or the hell people faced fighting for their civil rights, it seems pretty easy. So its not just a matter of how, the how is easy if there is a good enough why that will prevail in the marketplace of ideas. Give workers a reason and they can strike, give consumers a reason and they can boycott. Such things make it untenable for the shareholders and they can elect a new board who can elect new corporate officers, if they continue to fight, make in untenable politically and they lose their support all the way around. Again in the internet age its easier than ever to organize, promote a message and hold people accountable...but that doesn't mean its easy.