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Okay, so the election is over, and most of us took delight in doing our patriotic duty in filling out little circles (or punching chads, some places). The votes are tallied (well, mostly) and now we're waking up on the other side of the decision-making process.
You think.
This is the day where I feel obligated to get on my soapbox and rant a little...those of you who know me well have heard it a million times before, but some of you won't have heard it, so I'm saying it again: Your most important voice in this culture is NOT through the ballot box, once a year in November. It comes out through your wallet, in the way you spend money, and the issues, groups, businesses and individuals that you support every single day of the year. Every dollar you spend is a vote for something, so please, take a moment when you're doing that spending and think about what and who you're supporting.
Get it? You vote with your money. If you voted yesterday, for example, for a minimum wage increase in your state, but you've hired your housekeeper "off the books" and pay her less than minimum wage, yourself, the money you pay that housekeeper all throughout the year more than cancels out the little circle you filled in supporting fair wages. Or maybe, on the other hand, you wanted to donate money last year to a tsunami relief fund, but couldn't, but sometime during the year you tranferred an account to a company that was a big supporter of the same relief fund, you just transferred your support to that fund, as well, and changed the flow of your money. There's no better way to know who you are and what you believe in than looking through your checkbook at who you give money to.
Consumer voting, just like ballotbox voting, requires that you know the issues, and that you know a little about the candidates (or companies) that you support. It's a lot more complicated than just checking a box, because companies and products don't line up evenly in "red" and "blue" columns. Is a "vote" for Starbucks, for example, a vote for a) mediocre coffee at exorbitant prices, b) proliferation of one corporation's worldwide domination of an entire product market, or c) a company that pays its employees well and provides health benefits beyond their competitors? It's actually all three--so even in simple daily choices, like buying an espresso, you have to decide which issues are most important to you, and which ones you want to get behind.
Also, keep in mind that just like in yesterday's election, your voice is loudest on a local level. Your one vote yesterday was more important to candidates right in your own town than it was for the statewide propositions, where many people were voting. It's the same with consumer spending...you might not, yourself, make much of an influence with money spend with worldwide corporations, but every choice you make locally helps shape your local landscape and the community around you. If you choose to have your lunches at Joe's hamburger stand instead of McDonalds, for example, it won't mean much to the McDonalds corp., BUT, if enough people on your street make the same choice, it means Joe's hamburger stand gets to stay in business, and now you live in a neighborhood where you can still choose to eat at Joe's, instead of having McDonalds and Burger King being the only choices available to you. Maybe you're even lucky enough to live in a community that's fostored local business long enough so that the spinach in Joe's salad is even from a local farmer, which means you're not going to have to worry about the next e coli outbreak! At any rate, when you travel and find every other neighborhood around the world has McD's and BK, but no-one else has ever tasted Joe's special barbequed bacon burger, you're gonna be pretty happy to come back home. You've just spent money and voted to make your neighborhood the kind of place you want to actually live.
Even if you decide you don't give a damn about Joe and your local farmer, keep in mind that for every dollar spent locally, $.75 remains in the community, where only $.35 of each dollar spent at a national chain remains in the local economy (and that, usually through lower-paying service positions...national chain restaurants, for example, need waitstaff and dishwashers in each town where they open a restaurant, but the real jobs, the administration, accounting, development, hr, media/publicity, legal and other departments...all the money-making jobs are headquartered elsewhere).
So please, if nothing more, think about what you vote for when you pull out your wallet, and make that decision consciously rather than carelessly. If you like the flavor and character of your local community, or rely on it in any way for your own job or business, then please, shop locally and spend locally.
You think.
This is the day where I feel obligated to get on my soapbox and rant a little...those of you who know me well have heard it a million times before, but some of you won't have heard it, so I'm saying it again: Your most important voice in this culture is NOT through the ballot box, once a year in November. It comes out through your wallet, in the way you spend money, and the issues, groups, businesses and individuals that you support every single day of the year. Every dollar you spend is a vote for something, so please, take a moment when you're doing that spending and think about what and who you're supporting.
Get it? You vote with your money. If you voted yesterday, for example, for a minimum wage increase in your state, but you've hired your housekeeper "off the books" and pay her less than minimum wage, yourself, the money you pay that housekeeper all throughout the year more than cancels out the little circle you filled in supporting fair wages. Or maybe, on the other hand, you wanted to donate money last year to a tsunami relief fund, but couldn't, but sometime during the year you tranferred an account to a company that was a big supporter of the same relief fund, you just transferred your support to that fund, as well, and changed the flow of your money. There's no better way to know who you are and what you believe in than looking through your checkbook at who you give money to.
Consumer voting, just like ballotbox voting, requires that you know the issues, and that you know a little about the candidates (or companies) that you support. It's a lot more complicated than just checking a box, because companies and products don't line up evenly in "red" and "blue" columns. Is a "vote" for Starbucks, for example, a vote for a) mediocre coffee at exorbitant prices, b) proliferation of one corporation's worldwide domination of an entire product market, or c) a company that pays its employees well and provides health benefits beyond their competitors? It's actually all three--so even in simple daily choices, like buying an espresso, you have to decide which issues are most important to you, and which ones you want to get behind.
Also, keep in mind that just like in yesterday's election, your voice is loudest on a local level. Your one vote yesterday was more important to candidates right in your own town than it was for the statewide propositions, where many people were voting. It's the same with consumer spending...you might not, yourself, make much of an influence with money spend with worldwide corporations, but every choice you make locally helps shape your local landscape and the community around you. If you choose to have your lunches at Joe's hamburger stand instead of McDonalds, for example, it won't mean much to the McDonalds corp., BUT, if enough people on your street make the same choice, it means Joe's hamburger stand gets to stay in business, and now you live in a neighborhood where you can still choose to eat at Joe's, instead of having McDonalds and Burger King being the only choices available to you. Maybe you're even lucky enough to live in a community that's fostored local business long enough so that the spinach in Joe's salad is even from a local farmer, which means you're not going to have to worry about the next e coli outbreak! At any rate, when you travel and find every other neighborhood around the world has McD's and BK, but no-one else has ever tasted Joe's special barbequed bacon burger, you're gonna be pretty happy to come back home. You've just spent money and voted to make your neighborhood the kind of place you want to actually live.
Even if you decide you don't give a damn about Joe and your local farmer, keep in mind that for every dollar spent locally, $.75 remains in the community, where only $.35 of each dollar spent at a national chain remains in the local economy (and that, usually through lower-paying service positions...national chain restaurants, for example, need waitstaff and dishwashers in each town where they open a restaurant, but the real jobs, the administration, accounting, development, hr, media/publicity, legal and other departments...all the money-making jobs are headquartered elsewhere).
So please, if nothing more, think about what you vote for when you pull out your wallet, and make that decision consciously rather than carelessly. If you like the flavor and character of your local community, or rely on it in any way for your own job or business, then please, shop locally and spend locally.
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