Voting With Your Wallet

The title of this post relates to a method of showing your displeasure or disagreement with a company whose main business is to sell goods of some sort. Don't like the way BP handled it's oil spill? Buy gas at another gas station. Don't like the way the CEO of Company X talks about granola? Buy your goods from Company Y instead.

The fundamental problem with "voting with your wallet" is easy to demonstrate in a few simple steps:

Step 1. Take out your wallet, or gender appropriate equivalent.
Step 2. Take out the money in your wallet.
Step 3. Count the money.
Step 4. Compare the total to the amount of money Company X has available.

At this point you should be able to see the problem.

Granted, this is (obviously?) a simplification. If enough people get fed up with Company X, than their cash reserves will out strip the Company's. At that point you have equality and the large group of people can compete with the Company in terms of regulation, products, and even services. How easy is it to accomplish this feat? Depends on Company X. If they're a locally owned shop down the street, it shouldn't be too hard. If Company X is a mult-billion dollar multinational, well - good luck with that.

Another simplification: The total amount of funds available to you is not the amount you are going to "vote" with by purchasing a competitors product. Company X only loses the net profit from your sale, which may or may not be significant to Company X, whose revenue streams may come from an entirely separate source.

And there are still many, many other issues that I'm glossing over to make a point.

Speaking of making a point... When you vote with your wallet, you're not voting. Instead you're trading your actual voting power in a democratic society (where every one is 'equal') for a no-holds-barred market society where some groups are more 'equal' than others.

Which is stupid.

Black Butte Porter Re-hash

I was going through some old blog posts, specifically the once awesome and now defunct IBR Series, and noticed that I gave Black Butte Porter a simple 5 out of 10 on the First Beer scale. I'd like to revise that, as is my wont*. In truth, BBP (as we call it these days) has reached a level of enjoyment and basic availability that surpasses a mere 5. Invite some friends over for a beer and watch as their eyes light up when you hand them a frosty BBP. Know that to say "BBP" is to mean tasty beverage. Understand that most fine establishments carry the BBP around these parts, and it all makes for so much more than a 5.

What I am trying to say here is, "fuck the new beer drinker, BBP is awesome." I give it a 10.

Disclaimer: For the curious - I am in absolutely no way affiliated with Deschutes Brewery. I just happen to really like a lot of (but by no means all!) the beers they make.

* the word "wont" means habit. I didn't know that. I figured it had similar meaning to the word "prerogative." You learn something new every day! I have a wont of using words that I am familiar with in context, but not in actual definition, making for some interesting conversation when I'm talking with someone who actually knows what the word means. Or at least, I imagine it makes for interesting conversation because the opposite (that it just makes me look like an ass) isn't something I'd like to think about.

Quote of the Day

From Charlie Stross, here.

"...if you don't use a web browser with scripting disabled for all untrusted sites, you are some random black hat hacker's bitch."

Paradoxee

The earlier I have to get up, the harder it is to get to sleep. If I have to wake up at 5 am** to get to a meeting or catch a plane, then I will likely not be able to sleep until somewhere around 1-2 am.

And it's annoying.

** A relatively early-ass time for me to get up. I'm more comfortable with getting up between 8-9 am.

I don't Like it!

I don't like cranberries. I don't like their juice, I don't like their sauce. I just don't like them.

I also don't like vodka. It tastes like nothing much - and given my predilection for beers and other tasty beverages, you can guess why that's a problem for me.

So imagine my surprise when I tasted my wife's vodka cranberry drink. "this... this... this is... good?" Yes. It was good. So, it seems that I like cranberries when mixed with a relatively tasteless alcohol. WTF.

I guess I'll remember that come next thanksgiving.

Wowee

Found this video via autoblog.com. It shows a in-car perspective of a crash during the latest 24 Hours of Lemons race. This video is neat for a couple of reasons - first, it's surprisingly sudden. Second, it demonstrates in no uncertain terms why roll cages are awesome. Third, I can't believe how calm the driver is afterwards. Uncanny.

Yeah. What he said.

http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/49/2/Religion.htm