omnivorousstegosaurus:

leftish:

THIS PHOTO IS GOING VIRAL ON FACEBOOK RIGHT NOW!

Okay, this is truly funny, however, all of these corporations have been FOISTED upon us, we did not CHOOSE them…and we also do not necessarily APPROVE of the greed that these corporations exhibit - they are our ONLY option for a lot of the products they offer, because they have literally CRUSHED all the competition.  Just because we use their products does not mean that we LIKE the way these Corporations operate!!

If I COULD buy Poster Board and Indelible Ink Pens somewhere besides Michael’s I would!!  I didn’t CHOOSE to buy from Michaels - they’ve just wiped out the competition.  If my local art supply store was STILL OPEN, I’d shop there!!  But Michael’s has gone into every suburb and bankrupted those little stationery stores and art supply stores nationwide.

And I do NOT PREFER the crappy, flimsy, poorly-made clothing and shoes, that only last for one season, that you find at America’s Malls, instead of the olden days concept of Mom and Pop specialty stores, where the functionality and long-lasting quality of a product had value.
 
When I was a kid (born in 1945), I remember walking with my mom to do the shopping.   I remember being around 3 yrs old, and holding on to the bottom of my mom’s purse.  We would walk together about 1/2 mile up to Kingsbridge Rd, where we went to the Vegetable Stand, the Cheese Shop, The Butcher, The Bakery, the Fruit Stand (yes, SEPARATE from the Vegetable Stand), and when we had a need, we also went to the Mom and Pop Hardware Store, Art Supply Store, The Liquor Store, etc. These store owners KNEW their customers.  The butcher would tell my mom when specials were running on the cuts of meat she usually bought.  Same with the other merchants.  It was personal service. They gave me bits of cheese, or a muffin, or a beef jerky.  They knew my name.  And when I had my tonsils out in 5th grade, they all asked my mom how I was doing.  I miss all that personal service we had before the corporations came in and took over.

Look, I love my Mac like crazy, and my iPod, and I couldn’t live without my iPhone, however that doesn’t mean that I approve of EVERY single move that Apple practices.  There are so many suicides in one Chinese Apple Computer factory that Apple actually erected a net around the worker’s dorms to combat the deaths!  That’s INSANITY!!  Isn’t it?  And the cancer rate in the surrounding areas around Apple’s manufacturing plants is way higher than in other parts of China.  We here in the West tend to look the other way when hearing these facts.  We should, instead, demand that a way be made to create better working conditions for these Chinese workers, as well as a more environmentally sound way to create our electronics.

This is true of all these corporations whose products have been foisted upon us.  WE DIDN’T CHOOSE TO ONLY HAVE CORPORATE OPTIONS, it’s been FORCED upon the consuming public.  I’m sure most people do NOT prefer the corporate, strip mall lifestyle, where you can spend an entire day on the phone just trying to right a wrong that has been perpetrated upon you by some corporation or other…I posit that most of us would much prefer to live in a less corporate world, especially reflected in our work environment, and in our retail shopping experiences, because most corporations suck at what they do.  There are a few corporations that seem to still value and respect their workers (Starbucks comes to mind), but they are few and far between.

So, yes, we use the products that corporations have created — that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement!

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