Fight for your rights as a consumer!

I believe that the singular most important aspect in Capitalism is the competing for consumers aspect. If 2 men are fighting for the love of a beautiful woman, neither will do something stupid like dump chemical waste into her bathwater. However modern corporations occasionally get away with this. How do you stop them? Easy. Don't buy and let them know why.

Consumer activism is the most important keg in the wheel of capitalism.

So in this thread, let's share what corporations to avoid business with or otherwise protest.

Your cell phone provider:

Cell phone providers are the greatest examples of corporations that are fucking retarded or something. I seriously think there are some trusts going on here, because it seems every last company is overcharging through the roof.

An SMS message (text) consists of 160 characters, each of which can't be more than 8 bits. That makes a 160 character text message 1280 bits, aka "a little over a single kilobit". There's probably other information that goes along with it, let's make the packet huge and say it's 8 kilobits (one kilobyte) just for simplicities sake. By the way this is way bigger than the actual size.

Verizon's cheapest package is:
$5 per month for 250 Messages sent and received

AKA "4000 kilobytes, little less than 4 megabytes, for 5 bucks", plus since they charge both ways, it's actually 10 bucks.

This is absoludicrous considering that dialup service providers can give you more monthly bandwidth. Imagine if your ISP put a 5 MB cap on your traffic. People go apeshit over 250 GB limits.

Also, is it just me or is charging for a text message you receive extortion? What would happen if you were required to pay for every package, letter, or bill you received via snail mail?

Discuss this and other corporate faggotry. Also discuss how to best change it.

Why smack the hand of the beast when one can simply cut off its head?

because we wouldn't be able to text at all? Duh?

So you're pro-capitalism because of text messages? What the crap?

I think you misinterpreted my metaphor, though.

*facepalm.jpg*

No. You're just an idiot. It's an example.

Beast = cell companies

Okay, so I chop off the head of the beast

Cell companies = dead

Oh great, now I can't text

Now, lets' try again, I slap their hand

Cell companies = "Ouch!"

Hey! They made the deal slightly better! Not good enough... *Slap*

Cell companies = "Fine! We'll make the deal better!"

NEW PRICES:

3 dollars for unlimited texting per month

Now I have texting at a reasonable price!

okay, next company that pisses me off:

GoDaddy.com, a domain registrar.

Why?

http://nodaddy.com

Solution: Get rid of captialism alltogether.

The fact that capitalism treats human beings as mere toys of their enjoyment has me gagging like crazy...

X_X

nillerz: I understand what your general point here is; in the market, you have competing interests that aim to gain your patronage through good services and fair prices. My only question is, in a purely competitve market, how can we be sure that businesses in a competing industry - businesses that you don't "slap the hand" of - won't, eventually, not be able to continue competing?

I raise this question because I would assume that, in a competitive market, the bigger, more successful businesses will simply buy out the smaller, less successful ones. Immediately, this isn't a problem, and it sounds almost moral; if one business creates a genuinely better product in a certain industry than other businesses, then who cares if they lose out? But when businesses monopolize - which can only come about in a competitive and free market -then why wouldn't these monopolies raise their prices to whatever rates they'd like and create products that just aren't up-to-standard? If consumers have no other businesses from which to buy a certain product from, and thus have to turn to the huge monopolies who overprice undervalued products, then why would the monopolies care about prices and product standards?

Maybe I'm just an extreme cynic who sees nothing too virtuous about businesses, but that's just the way I see free markets and how I think they eventually end up looking like - in a word, not so free.

Also, I'm not going to go for the whole, "Capitalism is evil, blah blah blah" thing, because I don't think that gets anyone anywhere. I really do think that we can make an anti-Capitalist argument purely on the grounds of efficiency.

Okay, NOW I get what everyones problem wtih capitalism is (assuming they understand it)

Yes, in theory, monopolies will emerge. Also, in theory there would eventually be only one in the end. But realistically this doesn't appear to be happening, and is unlikely because the worth of small companies just isn't that much to large companies.

Take my local favorite store for example, the Pike Red & White.

It's a small general store, about the size of a gas station but they don't actually have gas. They're maintaining worth, and have been for a few decades now. It's been bought and sold a few times but essentially nothing major has happened to the place.

Wal*Mart doesn't care about this chicken shit store in the middle of nowhere, they'd rather negotiate contracts and buy lots in major places. Could they buy the Red&White? Sure, but there's not really any practical reason to, they wouldn't profit enough off it to make the investment worth it, they can't make a supercenter here, local zoning laws disallow it, so competing with this small town store isn't very important to them.

Wal*Mart has stuff for cheaper. They have more variety. They have all things going for them, except that they aren't located in Pike and the Red & White is. The R&W is pretty much safe from corporate whoring for a LOOONG time.

Also, statistically, 90 percent of profit made in the US is done by small businesses. If you're in a city you won't see as much of this but around here it's a pain in the ass, a trip to Wal*Mart is actually a haul, 40 miles out of our way. McDonalds is also pretty far away. It's much more convenient to buy it at the R&W or eat it at the Pizza Shed, another small business.

Also, corporations like Wal*Mart which have killed off alot of competition are still amazing examples of "How the fuck DO they stay in business?"

In the US, you can go to WallyWorld and get DVD movies for a dollar. They are in bins, and you dig through and you can find a movie you like for a DOLLAR. Most places charge at least 7 bucks for a movie. How do they do that? Well, they do it to get people into the stores. The logic is that if you are in there buying cheap movies you will buy other stuff too, popcorn (which is sold about 10 cents above suggested retail value) candy (something that is only a few cents above suggested retail value). So you save, but the company saves too. Thse giant stores are run by economic geniuses. If the economy goes bust so do they. There are businessmen that spend every single day of their lives looking at our economy (which is sorta in a ditch right now) and say "What caused this? How do we fix this? Which company should I buy stock in?" These people know more about capitalist trade than any one of us and these people get rich off of capitalist trade.


90 percent of profit in the US is made by small business.

nillerz wrote:

Okay, NOW I get what everyones problem wtih capitalism is (assuming they understand it)

Yes, in theory, monopolies will emerge. Also, in theory there would eventually be only one in the end. But realistically this doesn't appear to be happening, and is unlikely because the worth of small companies just isn't that much to large companies.

Take my local favorite store for example, the Pike Red & White.

It's a small general store, about the size of a gas station but they don't actually have gas. They're maintaining worth, and have been for a few decades now. It's been bought and sold a few times but essentially nothing major has happened to the place.

Wal*Mart doesn't care about this chicken shit store in the middle of nowhere, they'd rather negotiate contracts and buy lots in major places. Could they buy the Red&White? Sure, but there's not really any practical reason to, they wouldn't profit enough off it to make the investment worth it, they can't make a supercenter here, local zoning laws disallow it, so competing with this small town store isn't very important to them.

Wal*Mart has stuff for cheaper. They have more variety. They have all things going for them, except that they aren't located in Pike and the Red & White is. The R&W is pretty much safe from corporate whoring for a LOOONG time.

Also, statistically, 90 percent of profit made in the US is done by small businesses. If you're in a city you won't see as much of this but around here it's a pain in the ass, a trip to Wal*Mart is actually a haul, 40 miles out of our way. McDonalds is also pretty far away. It's much more convenient to buy it at the R&W or eat it at the Pizza Shed, another small business.

Also, corporations like Wal*Mart which have killed off alot of competition are still amazing examples of "How the fuck DO they stay in business?"

In the US, you can go to WallyWorld and get DVD movies for a dollar. They are in bins, and you dig through and you can find a movie you like for a DOLLAR. Most places charge at least 7 bucks for a movie. How do they do that? Well, they do it to get people into the stores. The logic is that if you are in there buying cheap movies you will buy other stuff too, popcorn (which is sold about 10 cents above suggested retail value) candy (something that is only a few cents above suggested retail value). So you save, but the company saves too. Thse giant stores are run by economic geniuses. If the economy goes bust so do they. There are businessmen that spend every single day of their lives looking at our economy (which is sorta in a ditch right now) and say "What caused this? How do we fix this? Which company should I buy stock in?" These people know more about capitalist trade than any one of us and these people get rich off of capitalist trade.


90 percent of profit in the US is made by small business.

Thats not the point. Read the communist manefesto to get the exact reason why.

what?
he gave you an answer and you refuse to do the same he obviusly isn't explaining shit about communism so the commist manifesto is usless.
if you can't "win" argument at least bloody admit it.

Oh god, the cold war tech wars...

First off Russia got off the ground first, but America wasn't really into it yet. They should have allowed private business to give it their shot.

I'll read the communist manifesto if you read some of John Locke's stuff. Man was a genius and real champion of human rights.

One of the things people assume about capitalism is that large businesses care about small businesses. They don't. They're more concerned with large businesses.

nillerz wrote:

Oh god, the cold war tech wars...

First off Russia got off the ground first, but America wasn't really into it yet. They should have allowed private business to give it their shot.

I'll read the communist manifesto if you read some of John Locke's stuff. Man was a genius and real champion of human rights.

One of the things people assume about capitalism is that large businesses care about small businesses. They don't. They're more concerned with large businesses.

I deleted it I knew there was no point they just kepp coming on with the
"the ussr wasn't communist becuse it wasn´T better than a capitalist cuntry" Bshit

Isn't there a few threads on this forum about the question of "Was the USSR a success?"

Also, isn't a forum dedicated to the KGB?

go putin.

nillerz wrote:

Isn't there a few threads on this forum about the question of "Was the USSR a success?"

Also, isn't a forum dedicated to the KGB?

go putin.

lol

I may dislike communism and the KGB but Vladamir Putin is just an all-around badass.

mattabesta wrote:

what?
he gave you an answer and you refuse to do the same he obviusly isn't explaining shit about communism so the commist manifesto is usless.
if you can't "win" argument at least bloody admit it.

READ my answer. If you look closely, you can see my reply.

Re-read. No real point is made. You just say "hey read the commie manifesto"

nillerz wrote:

Okay, NOW I get what everyones problem wtih capitalism is (assuming they understand it)

I hate to not address the rest of your post - because it was really well done - but I just wanted to talk about this part. I think the scenario that I mentioned isn't so much a critique of Capitalism as it is a critique of markets in general.

You'd find that most on the traditional left are against Capitalism because of its exploitative nature - in that it demands that a worker submit himself to wage slavery and the rule of a boss - and unbalanced job complexes, not for the reasons I gave you. The reasons I gave you could be, perhaps, applied to a market abolitionist argument, which I think goes further than just being anti-Capitalist.

I know that that's a somewhat vague answer, but I'm tired right now, so nyeah.

P.S. Putin kisses little boys on the stomach. What a fagmo.

Putin also saves TV camera crews from tigers.

nillerz wrote:

Putin also saves TV camera crews from tigers.

That sounds incredibly epic and I'm gonna go Google that.

t's true!