Giving money to Amazon, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Google .etc

It’s like, you can’t have an argument for price gouging, when you’re enabling them by spending. If people were smart, they’d stop giving them money 10 - 15 years ago and they’d be right now, trying to reconstruct so they can be more economically friendly than how they are now.

  • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    Because with stuff like this you cannot simply say “everyone should know better” they don’t know btr, they don’t care, they don’t understand. For a myriad of reasons people will always do stuff counter to best logic, so you cannot ask them to. The only practical way to prevent stuff like this is through regulation and a government that serves the people. Lol it’s nice to dream.

    • thevoidzero@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah, and also even if there’s smart people doing it, it doesn’t matter. Supposed 10% of people don’t use Amazon, as long as 90% are fine, it won’t affect them. Most people won’t look beyond “it costs me less”, the whole reason thing like temu is widespread is exactly that. People don’t care about other people, ethics of things, or even the long term effects of their actions. They just see low price vs high price on everyday setting.

      If a chain restaurant gave half price food for a year in a loss to take out all local businesses people would gladly buy it. And then when everything is gone and that chain raises price because there’s no competition they’ll just blame other people, economy, whatever they can find.

      In many cases it also comes from the side that people can’t afford to spend more money for the right reasons. Many people are living paycheck to paycheck, and those that aren’t, are still not well off and want to save as much money as they can for retirement/emergencies. You can’t count on anyone except yourself for your future, so they’ll take whatever costs them less now.

      • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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        15 minutes ago

        If a chain restaurant gave half price food for a year in a loss to take out all local businesses people would gladly buy it. And then when everything is gone and that chain raises price because there’s no competition they’ll just blame other people, economy, whatever they can find.

        Nice summarization of modern day capitalism, this is pretty much the play book. Operate on a loss and Survive off of investments until you have created a monopoly, then the price is whatever you want, use your newfound endless wealth to pay the government to create fake consumer protections that’s only goal is to increase the startup capital required to attempt to compete with you thus securing your monopoly, all while the poorest people have all of their money transferred to the people with too much money.

        Then you have people come around with this unwise narrative that people need to just “choose with their wallets” like somehow you can convince enough people, who are at a majority financially unstable because of unregulated capitalism, to spend more money than they have, to stop capitalism. I totally understand where they’re coming from with this, but sadly it just serves the capitalists by placing the blame for their gross greed on the people instead of on them. Its the same thing with consumer recycling agendas when global warming was a new concept, its redirecting the blame onto the wrong people.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Building electric car charging stations without security cameras.

    About 75% of the chargers are disabled in my city. The primary method of disabling them is roll up with a sawzall and just chop the cable off. Gets you $5 worth of crack, which is always a nice incentive structure when there’s unguarded copper lying around.

    The only chargers that survive are in front of 24 hour businesses.

  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    It’s not about “smart” vs “dumb.” People’s ideas are shaped by their Class Interests and Material Coniditons.

  • rando895@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 day ago

    They’d stop believing people are stupid, especially those they disagree with, and realize that their differences are mostly made up by the ruling class to keep them in line.

  • sit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Stop generalising groups of people.

    I cannot think of a proper example rn, but I see this everywhere.

    meme example

    group a does x

    also group a: says something contradicting x

    This happens across the board, not only in political topics.

  • tomi000@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    If people were really smart, how would they post insults to make them less obvious?

  • Mesa@programming.dev
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    2 days ago

    Thinking that they have the “one simple trick” for everything when most matters are actually a complex network of issues where there isn’t one answer.

  • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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    2 days ago

    You’re not getting cashback on your credit cards yous daft cunts 😂 You’re paying it in advance

  • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    Stop driving (pollution, deaths, cost of living etc) and remodel cities and town around PT and AT , restricted gun ownership

    • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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      2 days ago

      How do people living with no PT or AT options stop driving?

      Also, the working masses must remain armed to prevent even further class slavery.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        I’ve joined three different unions and the only guns I’ve used were loaned to me by a representative of my country for a short period decades ago.

          • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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            1 day ago

            OP mentioned remodeling cities around public transport, I think that also goes for more rural areas. There’s a solution for every scale : metro, bus, train, shuttle, etc.

            • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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              1 day ago

              I agree there are solutions, I have lived in places with great options. But getting things changed here is very slow and for now you still can’t walk or bike, and there are no buses or trains.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    3 days ago

    I’m doing better now, but 15 years ago Walmart was the only option I had for food. Local/regional grocery stores were more expensive and I was living paycheck to paycheck with growing debt.

    “If people were smart they would stop buying the most cost-efficient option” is really not feasible.

    “If people were smart” they would read and stop putting oligarchs in power.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      “If people were smart they would stop buying the most cost-efficient option” is really not feasible.

      In fact, more and more people don’t have the luxury of buying more expensive options.

      Of course, stealing is an option, and I think ‘If people were smart’ they would accept that stealing from Walmart is not an ethical or pragmatic problem, but it’s a risky behavior so I wouldn’t criticize people for not stealing. [edit: see Fubarberry’s reply]

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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        3 days ago

        Stealing from walmart also isn’t sustainable if many people are doing it. For example there were a ton of walmarts and other stores in the Chicago area that recently closed due to high theft at those locations. Now whole communities there are left without convenient shopping options, which can be a big problem for people with limited transportation options.

          • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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            2 days ago

            You can look up videos of some of the stores that were closed, they were basically being straight up looted.

            I remember seeing the videos, and thinking to myself how I didn’t understand how they could afford to stay in business like that. So when they announced they were closing those stores for theft, I didn’t really think the given reason was ever in doubt.

            • Didros@beehaw.org
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              3 days ago

              "“The decision to close a store is never easy,” company officials said in a statement. “The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago.”

              The stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, according to the company, a figure that nearly doubled in the last five years despite numerous strategies to boost performance, including building smaller stores, offering local products and building a Walmart Academy training center."

              https://news.wttw.com/2023/04/12/walmart-closing-4-chicago-stores-company-says-losses-have-doubled-last-5-years

              Doesn’t sound like theft was ever the problem here according to them?

        • comfy@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          Good point. If there aren’t other local stores remaining to fill the gaps, then that would be a critical problem.

          • SinAdjetivos@beehaw.org
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            2 days ago

            Walmart, Kroger, etc.'s entire business model is to undercut other local stores to drive them out and become local monopolies. If they exist in a location there likely aren’t many, if any, local stores remaining…

        • mke_geek@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          Stealing isn’t right.

          The Walmart near me closed due to high theft. There were actually people stealing from the construction site when the store was being built, so it really was a ticking clock as to how long the store itself would even last.

          Some people are just awful.

          • comfy@lemmy.ml
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            1 day ago

            Stealing isn’t right.

            I conditionally disagree. In fact, there are many real situations where stealing is the right option. There are valid reasons why folk lore glorifies figures like Robin Hood. And when it comes to international conglomerates like Walmart, which hoard astronomical wealth while others who can’t afford bread starve nearby, theft of the hoard is justice in its most appropriate form (if one values human survival more than legal property rights).

                • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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                  3 hours ago

                  Look. There was a subreddit that got banned because it was a bunch of shoplifters, dumb ones, showcasing what they stole. They all claim that they’re doing it to hurt corporations.

                  If anyone had a clue at all about working retail - that’s not how it works. The corporation is going to be sailing just fine. It’s you, the worker and the store that’s getting hurt.

                  And that’s why these shoplifters are absolute assholes. They steal enough, the store is closed, many jobs lost.

                  How the fuck is that hurting the corporation?

    • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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      3 days ago

      But you’ll notice that the price comparison is narrowing and Wal-Mart is slowly not looking better off than the competition. It’s almost like shopping at Dollar Tree is more feasible, it’s what some of us are going to be forced to be doing if not now. Just shopping Dollar Tree almost regularly.

      • finderscult@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        Entirely depends on region. Walmarts strategy is to take a loss in an area until all local competitors are out of business then crank back up until that area is profitable enough to subsidize new areas. In my area Walmart is cheaper than pretty much everyone except dollar stores, and dollar stores treat their employees even worse while having even worse quality food for barely any cheaper.