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> But i believe we should start doing this for US companies as well. We can "call out" whatever you want. People vote with their dollar. Target, Walmart, cheap

> But i believe we should start doing this for US companies as well. We can "call out" whatever you want. People vote with their dollar. Target, Walmart, cheap resellers on AliExpress/Amazon are "winning" every day because the most important thing most consumers care about is rock bottom price. I don't think "calling out" will do much other than virtue signal.

kennywinker 6y ago
Here's the trick. If choice has been eliminated, i.e. walmart has replaced your local shop, you can no longer vote with your dollar - pressuring the companies (via "calling-out") to give you options becomes the only choice available. That said, there are a ton of areas where we still have choice. In those cases, people do need to become more aware of the impact of their purchasing decisions - but in those cases I agree with you: making different decisions is the actual required action.
- qeternity 6y ago
  > Here's the trick. If choice has been eliminated, i.e. walmart has replaced your local shop, you can no longer vote with your dollar - pressuring the companies (via "calling-out") to give you options becomes the only choice available. Aside from actual monopolies (utilities, etc) what is one example of having no choice? Whenever I hear this argument, it’s not that there’s no choice, it’s that there’s no cheap, convenient alternative...hence Walmart’s domination. It’s like people never stop to ask why Walmart is so successful: people would rather have abundant selection at low prices rather than support their local mom and pop shop.
  - Qub3d 6y ago
    Take a look into how Dollar General is actively displacing and destroying local grocery opportunities in small towns: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/when-the-closest-grocery-store-is-a-dollar-store https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/when-the-...
ardy42 6y ago
> We can "call out" whatever you want. People vote with their dollar. Target, Walmart, cheap resellers on AliExpress/Amazon are "winning" every day because the most important thing most consumers care about is rock bottom price. I don't think "calling out" will do much other than virtue signal. People also vote with their votes. If voting with dollars was the only thing that counted, we'd still have rivers so polluted they'd regularly catch on fire (see http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cuyahoga_River_Fire http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cuyahoga_River_Fire). All all "voting with dollars" does is sum up an unfathomable number of myopic, usually short-term decisions. Sometimes the overall result is counter-intuitively brilliant, but other times the terrible result of myopia magnified.
lotyrin 6y ago
You can't vote with a dollar you don't have. You can't vote for something that's simply not on the ballot. Many can only afford to shop at those places, or they're the only stores that provides certain classes of necessities within the travel time constraints imposed by their work (multiple minimum wage jobs) and home schedule (they often are obligated to bear the burdens of assisting disabled, elderly, or young members of family or social groups).

kennywinker 6y ago

Here's the trick. If choice has been eliminated, i.e. walmart has replaced your local shop, you can no longer vote with your dollar - pressuring the companies (via "calling-out") to give you options becomes the only choice available. That said, there are a ton of areas where we still have choice. In those cases, people do need to become more aware of the impact of their purchasing decisions - but in those cases I agree with you: making different decisions is the actual required action.

qeternity 6y ago
> Here's the trick. If choice has been eliminated, i.e. walmart has replaced your local shop, you can no longer vote with your dollar - pressuring the companies (via "calling-out") to give you options becomes the only choice available. Aside from actual monopolies (utilities, etc) what is one example of having no choice? Whenever I hear this argument, it’s not that there’s no choice, it’s that there’s no cheap, convenient alternative...hence Walmart’s domination. It’s like people never stop to ask why Walmart is so successful: people would rather have abundant selection at low prices rather than support their local mom and pop shop.
- Qub3d 6y ago
  Take a look into how Dollar General is actively displacing and destroying local grocery opportunities in small towns: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/when-the-closest-grocery-store-is-a-dollar-store https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/when-the-...

ardy42 6y ago

> We can "call out" whatever you want. People vote with their dollar. Target, Walmart, cheap resellers on AliExpress/Amazon are "winning" every day because the most important thing most consumers care about is rock bottom price. I don't think "calling out" will do much other than virtue signal. People also vote with their votes. If voting with dollars was the only thing that counted, we'd still have rivers so polluted they'd regularly catch on fire (see http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cuyahoga_River_Fire http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cuyahoga_River_Fire). All all "voting with dollars" does is sum up an unfathomable number of myopic, usually short-term decisions. Sometimes the overall result is counter-intuitively brilliant, but other times the terrible result of myopia magnified.

lotyrin 6y ago

You can't vote with a dollar you don't have. You can't vote for something that's simply not on the ballot. Many can only afford to shop at those places, or they're the only stores that provides certain classes of necessities within the travel time constraints imposed by their work (multiple minimum wage jobs) and home schedule (they often are obligated to bear the burdens of assisting disabled, elderly, or young members of family or social groups).