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.