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Buyer's Strike for Regime Change
Buyer's strike to highlight Bush economic Disaster
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aakm_9xUOhvE&refer=us Article above is about consumer numbers and contains the implicit argument that this could cost Bush the election. What helps obscure yet assists the bad things Bush & Co is doing to the economy is that people keep blindly consuming, borrowing, buying and going into debt against their own self-interest. Debt is stealing from the future. We have stolen a lot and we may find nothing there when we arrive.
You can't vote against Bush until 2004 but you can use your daily economic actions to great effect. How do we put this into practice? We're only buying food and essentials in local small businesses until the election and when we need something sold in a big-box store, we'll look for it used in a garage sale or on CL . If it's not available now it soon will be.
Spending this way provides cash to people often under/unemployed and strengthens small businesses that are the backbone of the local economy by keeping money circulating here instead of shipped to China or Wall Street. Rather than loading up on 50 lbs.of detergeant at Costco, we'll use up our inventory, then we will buy small, albeit more expensive, quantities at the corner market. We've just paid off the last of our credit card debt. Never again.
We're getting rid of the stuff that we don't actively use by selling it or just giving it away. This helps us by eliminating clutter, gets us cash and provides things to people that may not be able to afford them new. It also helps the environment by reusing things and in the context of politics, cuts into the retail numbers and thus hurts Bush's chances of re-election.
Do these actions hurt Walmart, Costco, Toys R Us, Home Depot and their overseas suppliers? We couldn't care less. Are we hurting their employees? This is a concern but we know that they'll be far better off without Bush, besides, they're already being squeezed to death by the employment practices of the giants as it is.
We encourage all of you that want to help defeat Bush and his handlers to do the same. You'll be saving money, helping your community, your country and your children's future. Republican clones who disagree with this idea feel free to max out your credit cards. <font color=green>Bet there's more of us than there are of you.
<img src="http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.h134.gif">
You can't vote against Bush until 2004 but you can use your daily economic actions to great effect. How do we put this into practice? We're only buying food and essentials in local small businesses until the election and when we need something sold in a big-box store, we'll look for it used in a garage sale or on CL . If it's not available now it soon will be.
Spending this way provides cash to people often under/unemployed and strengthens small businesses that are the backbone of the local economy by keeping money circulating here instead of shipped to China or Wall Street. Rather than loading up on 50 lbs.of detergeant at Costco, we'll use up our inventory, then we will buy small, albeit more expensive, quantities at the corner market. We've just paid off the last of our credit card debt. Never again.
We're getting rid of the stuff that we don't actively use by selling it or just giving it away. This helps us by eliminating clutter, gets us cash and provides things to people that may not be able to afford them new. It also helps the environment by reusing things and in the context of politics, cuts into the retail numbers and thus hurts Bush's chances of re-election.
Do these actions hurt Walmart, Costco, Toys R Us, Home Depot and their overseas suppliers? We couldn't care less. Are we hurting their employees? This is a concern but we know that they'll be far better off without Bush, besides, they're already being squeezed to death by the employment practices of the giants as it is.
We encourage all of you that want to help defeat Bush and his handlers to do the same. You'll be saving money, helping your community, your country and your children's future. Republican clones who disagree with this idea feel free to max out your credit cards. <font color=green>Bet there's more of us than there are of you.
<img src="http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.h134.gif">
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Why the Buyer's Strike for Regime Change? Follow up to original post at http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/07/1631744.php
Retail sales are the gross yardstick of "how things are doing in the economy". No matter how bad it is for working people as long as these numbers are up and improving there need be no change in the pattern of activities of Bush's handlers. The converse of this is that if these numbers are dropping the business and economic community will sense that something is wrong in Washington and may actually do the right thing. Can it get any worse than Bush?
The Buyer's Strike for Regime Change may cost you some convenience and perhaps a little money but you will be trading these for the opportunity to make a political and economical statement of your displeasure with the Bush Mal-administration. Any conscientious citizen or environmentalist will be probably spending their money this way anyway no matter who is president. Only now, we have the opportunity to rigorously do this before the election for another purpose and that is to register displeasure and withdraw economic support from this economy and those who control it. They have abandoned loyalty to working class Americans in both the manufacturing and retail sector. Why should we continue to support them?
Some mechanics of how to do this; in order of preference.
1. Forgoing things like a new car, kitchen remodel, appliances or major landscaping means more than little things in dollar terms. Money is a product that you are buying if you are paying interest on a credit card. Buy less and pay off your debt. Turn off the interest faucet that leaks productivity away from your life.
2. Obtain what you truly need from sources other than retail such as friends, neighbors or garage sales. Pay with cash or barter. This way the money you spend won't be part of the measured economy. Make and carry copies of a list of things that you need so that you can post it on community bulletin boards or share it with people.
3. Make available for others as much merchandise as possible from the inevitable collection of seldom used things that most homes have. Even small things that may have no resale value can be given away to charities or individuals and this may satisfy someone's desire for something that they won't need to buy. The world is awash in things for sale, you're just putting more into competition with the new stuff .
4. When buying new things or services keep the money as close to home as possible. Do you know the owners of the businesses? How do they treat their employees and interact with the community? This is payback time for good locally owned non-corporate businesses. i.e. if your local lumber-yard doesn't carry an item that's available at Home Depot, order it through the lumberyard. Price difference? Ask they for a discount or pay the difference.
Some of these things will be mocked as petty and silly by those who like Bush and or who benefit from what he is doing. These small things in the aggregate can change the direction of our economy for the better.
Retail sales are the gross yardstick of "how things are doing in the economy". No matter how bad it is for working people as long as these numbers are up and improving there need be no change in the pattern of activities of Bush's handlers. The converse of this is that if these numbers are dropping the business and economic community will sense that something is wrong in Washington and may actually do the right thing. Can it get any worse than Bush?
The Buyer's Strike for Regime Change may cost you some convenience and perhaps a little money but you will be trading these for the opportunity to make a political and economical statement of your displeasure with the Bush Mal-administration. Any conscientious citizen or environmentalist will be probably spending their money this way anyway no matter who is president. Only now, we have the opportunity to rigorously do this before the election for another purpose and that is to register displeasure and withdraw economic support from this economy and those who control it. They have abandoned loyalty to working class Americans in both the manufacturing and retail sector. Why should we continue to support them?
Some mechanics of how to do this; in order of preference.
1. Forgoing things like a new car, kitchen remodel, appliances or major landscaping means more than little things in dollar terms. Money is a product that you are buying if you are paying interest on a credit card. Buy less and pay off your debt. Turn off the interest faucet that leaks productivity away from your life.
2. Obtain what you truly need from sources other than retail such as friends, neighbors or garage sales. Pay with cash or barter. This way the money you spend won't be part of the measured economy. Make and carry copies of a list of things that you need so that you can post it on community bulletin boards or share it with people.
3. Make available for others as much merchandise as possible from the inevitable collection of seldom used things that most homes have. Even small things that may have no resale value can be given away to charities or individuals and this may satisfy someone's desire for something that they won't need to buy. The world is awash in things for sale, you're just putting more into competition with the new stuff .
4. When buying new things or services keep the money as close to home as possible. Do you know the owners of the businesses? How do they treat their employees and interact with the community? This is payback time for good locally owned non-corporate businesses. i.e. if your local lumber-yard doesn't carry an item that's available at Home Depot, order it through the lumberyard. Price difference? Ask they for a discount or pay the difference.
Some of these things will be mocked as petty and silly by those who like Bush and or who benefit from what he is doing. These small things in the aggregate can change the direction of our economy for the better.
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