Shopaholic Reform: Really Target, Really?!

Tuesday, August 3

Really Target, Really?!

Okay so yesterday I got an email from moveon.org asking me to join in the boycott of Target. This was the first I heard of it. So I had to do a little research. This is essentially what I found out...

Target donated $150,000 to a conservative right wing political campaign in Minnesota...AKA Anti-Gay.

I am for NEITHER of these aspects of the problem.

Corporations need to stay the hell out of politics...ALL corporations. Buying your vote is not democracy. Read the definition. Thank you supreme court justices for your recent decision to entitle corporations to personhood. Super.
I'm against anything anti-gay. period. Mind your business Target.

So in summary, yes I will be joining the boycott. BUT I'd be lying if I said that I can boycott Target without getting a little teary eyed. I mean I have already stricken Walmart from my life (not really all that hard, that store is my hell), and while I realize that Target stands for pretty much the same principles as Walmart (a big box mega corporation with too much power who is leading the charge in globalization, absolutely nothing local or sustainable about it, end of story), I will miss it. I have always turned to Target for my random life needs. Let me explain, it's just a great place to go on a lunch break to pick up everything you need and don't need in any way shape or form in one, single, beautiful shopping trip. I mean it's just so freaking convenient to buy your toilet paper, greeting cards, excessive amounts of toiletries, kitchen gadgets, and endless odds and ends under one roof...but I suppose that's their business model, eh? Jerks. They got us/me.

So friends, I will most likely be spending a bit more dough more for my trinkets and hair dye (yes, that's right I said hair dye...I inherited my father's silver locks, and am not at all ready to fully embrace it, not at all...sigh). It's probably good that this happened, it's time for me to take my conscious consumer experiment one step further.

Screw you Target, I'm out.

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Something to Chew On...

The downside to Globalization

1. “The general complaint about globalization is that it has made the rich richer while making the non-rich poorer. It is wonderful for managers and investors, but hell on workers and nature.”¹

2. Multinational corporations are accused of social injustice, unfair working conditions (including slave labor wages and poor living and working conditions), as well as a lack of concern for the environment, mismanagement of natural resources, and ecological damage.

3. Multinational corporations which were previously restricted to commercial activities are increasingly influencing political decisions. Many think there is a threat of corporations ruling the world because they are gaining power due to globalization.

4. Opponents say globalization makes it easier for rich companies to act with less accountability. They also claim that countries’ individual cultures are becoming overpowered by Americanization.

5. Anti-globalists also claim that globalization is not working for the majority of the world. During the most recent period of rapid growth in global trade and investment, 1960 to 1998, inequality worsened both internationally and within countries. The UN Development Program reports that the richest 20 percent of the world's population consume 86 percent of the world's resources, while the poorest 80 percent consume just 14 percent.

6. Some experts think that globalization is also leading to the incursion of communicable diseases. Deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS are being spread by travelers to the remotest corners of the globe.

7. Globalization has led to exploitation of labor. Prisoners and child workers are used to work in inhumane conditions. Safety standards are ignored to produce cheap goods. There is also an increase in human trafficking.

8. Social welfare schemes or “safety nets” are under great pressure in developed countries because of deficits and other economic ramifications of globalization.

As manufacturing continues to decline, so does our ability to innovate. In the long term, this means fewer well-paid jobs, lower productivity, declining wages, declining living standards and low economic growth. Globalization is a big part of this decline and will affect all jobs and all sectors of the economy. From the point of view of multinational corporations and Wall Street investors, globalization is probably viewed as a wonderful phenomenon with many opportunities. But from the point of view of American manufacturers, manufacturing workers, the middle class, professional service workers and overall economic growth, I think the disadvantages far out weigh the advantages.

-Mike Collins, The Pros and Cons of Globalization (2010)