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Perhaps we can just embrace this new reality of corporate decision making in politics, and game the system. If companies like Burger King can be brought to the

Perhaps we can just embrace this new reality of corporate decision making in politics, and game the system. If companies like Burger King can be brought to the consumer's side on certain issues, perhaps it's possible to rally many others to bring powerful special interests to heel. Imagine a future where rather than jamming stupid advertisements down our throats, companies can just straight up "buy" the good will of their consumers for a time by openly opposing certain things legally. If the citizen's only worth to political discourse is the amount of cash they have in the bank and how they spend it, then maybe this is just the natural evolution of democracy to a more pure, unpretentious form.

djsumdog 9y ago
Special interest groups already dictate policy. There have been actual studies on that, and I did a video on one of them a while back: http://fightthefuture.org/videos/does-voting-make-a-difference/ http://fightthefuture.org/videos/does-voting-make-a-differen... I'm currently working on a post called "You can't vote with your purchases" which is something I feel a lot of libertarians and capitalists spew out. Don't like Wal-Mart? Don't shop there. The trouble is you really can't. Edward Bernays and Anna Freud really changed the game when they started teaching companies how to market to people emotionally to draw them in. I know tons of people, myself included, who don't shop at Wal-Mart, but it doesn't make a dent. Wal-Mart can still manipulate millions of people with their extensive ad campaigns, and most people simply don't care. Tobacco companies got women to smoke more by disusing it as being part of women's rights (look up Torches of Freedom). McDonalds led a PR campaign against "frivolous lawsuits" from the women who got 3rd degree, life threatening burns from their coffee, that people still believe to this day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWh6Kw3ejQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWh6Kw3ejQ). The Baptist church didn't put a dent in Disney by boycotting them. Even MLKings Montgomery bus boycotts didn't succeed due to financial pressure. They succeeded because the news and media attention got so huge that the Supreme Court had to step in. Every company does something unethical. Your processors are manufactured in Malaysia by people who get paid barely enough to live on, your shoes are made in Africa by companies driving people off their land and into the cities to work in factories, your shirts are made in South American sweat shops .. just by living in a high income country (US, EU, AU, even Russia) you are part of a river of exploitation (the book The Culture of Make Believe goes into this in detail). To vote with purchases requires all the actors to be active, uncompromising and aware .. and that simply never will be the case.
- deevolution 9y ago
  There are efforts to record the history and origin of manufactured items using bkockchain in the supply chain. It will probably end up increasing the price of the items though because only items created in a sustainable way will want to publish to a public ledger. You will be able to vote with purchase, it will just become increadibly expenisve to do so.

djsumdog 9y ago

Special interest groups already dictate policy. There have been actual studies on that, and I did a video on one of them a while back: http://fightthefuture.org/videos/does-voting-make-a-difference/ http://fightthefuture.org/videos/does-voting-make-a-differen... I'm currently working on a post called "You can't vote with your purchases" which is something I feel a lot of libertarians and capitalists spew out. Don't like Wal-Mart? Don't shop there. The trouble is you really can't. Edward Bernays and Anna Freud really changed the game when they started teaching companies how to market to people emotionally to draw them in. I know tons of people, myself included, who don't shop at Wal-Mart, but it doesn't make a dent. Wal-Mart can still manipulate millions of people with their extensive ad campaigns, and most people simply don't care. Tobacco companies got women to smoke more by disusing it as being part of women's rights (look up Torches of Freedom). McDonalds led a PR campaign against "frivolous lawsuits" from the women who got 3rd degree, life threatening burns from their coffee, that people still believe to this day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWh6Kw3ejQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWh6Kw3ejQ). The Baptist church didn't put a dent in Disney by boycotting them. Even MLKings Montgomery bus boycotts didn't succeed due to financial pressure. They succeeded because the news and media attention got so huge that the Supreme Court had to step in. Every company does something unethical. Your processors are manufactured in Malaysia by people who get paid barely enough to live on, your shoes are made in Africa by companies driving people off their land and into the cities to work in factories, your shirts are made in South American sweat shops .. just by living in a high income country (US, EU, AU, even Russia) you are part of a river of exploitation (the book The Culture of Make Believe goes into this in detail). To vote with purchases requires all the actors to be active, uncompromising and aware .. and that simply never will be the case.

deevolution 9y ago
There are efforts to record the history and origin of manufactured items using bkockchain in the supply chain. It will probably end up increasing the price of the items though because only items created in a sustainable way will want to publish to a public ledger. You will be able to vote with purchase, it will just become increadibly expenisve to do so.