Suckling on the Corporate Teat

[burythehatchet]

My dad always told me that the best way to make a living was to get a job in a big company, keep your head down at work, don't get friendly with anyone, bring home a paycheck, and everything will be fine. As the father of a family of immigrants from a third world country, he knew no better. As a young man in the early 80's, I knew no better.

I entered into the insurance business out of college and spent the next two decades alternating between two states of mind: A contented corporate drone and a deeply unhappy person who knew at his core that this was not the life he wanted to live. With each passing day my state of mind was more and more the latter; I was miserable. Even when I felt contented because I started making more money, I knew that my contentment was based on a false set of values. They did not reflect my own.

What I really wanted to do was be in business for myself. I wanted to work hard to achieve goals with which I could be morally comfortable. I wanted to hire people for whom I could help make a better life because whenever I had to manage people in my corporate job, what I wanted to do for my employees was never in line with the company wanted. But it was getting too late, I was addicted to the steady paycheck. My life was dependent on my bi-weekly on the 1st and the 15th except when those dates fall on a weekend then the previous Friday if the date falls on a Saturday and the following Monday if the date falls on a Sunday. I was suckling on the corporate teat.

The founders of Democratic Underground accomplished a great goal: They built a web presence - a small business - from the ground up and made it a successful venture. For that they should be proud and we should be thankful, as members. This Google ad stuff is the first taste of corporate breast milk. It will taste sweet and the bosom Will be warm. There will be a feeling of well being because we'll never have to go hungry again. But don't be mistaken, the milk is addictive and the teat does not belong to a benevolent momma. Unless DU recognizes that and gets off that breast, we will be there forever, and in the future, some of us may remember when we had the world by the tail, we were independent rabble-rousers and we paid our own way.

We should get off this stuff because its addictive.

[Deja Q]

1. Is this a sex thread?

LOL.

Ask the admins for the balance sheet. Maybe they're in bad financial shape, lot most small businesses - mostly due to ambient cost-of-living prices and how big corporations have a randy desire to stomp on the small ones.

[larrysh]

2. I agree

the taking of Corporate money is never a good thing, even for advertising. At some point in time,
someone will post something the Corporate Masters disagree with....and then all hell will break loose!

[A-Schwarzenegger]

3. Just get rid of the ads for people who donate.

Which is under consideration apparently.
I doubt I'd donate again if I got to see those ads.
Just me, y'all.

[burythehatchet]

5. On the surface, on might agree with that modification

But to me it smacks of classism. When the NYTimes went to their Premium option, for example, it eliminated access to anyone who couldn't/wouldn't pay. Its simply not a democratic value in my opinion.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

6. Huh? It wouldnt deny access to anybody.

How would eliminating ads for donaters deny
DU access to non-donaters? What am I missing?

[burythehatchet]

7. The NY Times example is not 100% analogous

it was merely pointing out the establishment of classes.

[porphyrian]

4. Dawn of the Dead (the original) is an excellent metaphor...

...for rampant consumerism. Just sayin'.

[leftofthedial]

8. mmmm teats

I like


seriously, you are right.

until Americans reject corporatism--HARSHLY--we will always be swimming upstream.

[burythehatchet]

9. Resistance is not necessarily futile n/t

[otherlander]

10. Agreed!

:toast:

[rug]

11. I vote for noncorporate teats.

[burythehatchet]

12. Those would be the natural, non-siliconized versions

far more preferable than the rubbery peaks that look nice in pictures.