We need to put our money where our voices are.

[ConsAreLiars]

I'm very low income, but support, in a small way, four groups that do work I regard as doing important work. One is regional, but on an issue important to everyone, another very large and famous and a big budget and a matter of survival for all species, another obscure but internationalist/anti-imperialist, all non-profits. And Nova M, now on my second year, a for-profit operation, because it also gets the word out on all those issues. I get my long distance (wireless is also available) through Working Assets, which last year gave over 3.5 million bucks to groups (as voted by members) ranging from ACLU to Democracy Now! to Planned Parenthood and 40-50 more. My ISP had at one time a progressive agenda, and my TV money goes to a service that carries FreeSpeechTV, CurrentTV, and LinkTV rather than alternative that carries only one of those.

I also don't do other things I could/should. I don't get food from local farmers' markets and only sometimes buy organic, and my gas money goes to criminals. Ditto with much of my tax contributions. And so on. Like all of us, I am enmeshed in a corrupt and exploitive "for profit" system in which nearly everything is designed simply "for profit" and with no ethics at all or any concern for the common good.

So, I don't do much, just a little. But I invite everyone to think about the simple and practical choices available, if there might be a case or two where you might, with a minor tweak or two in your spending choices, add a little more to our side and take away a little from the monster.

[Breeze54]

1. You sound like me... I do the best I can and it isn't easy....

But i do actualy THINK about where i shop and whom i buy from....

I'm trying.

We are NOT alone... I doubt it.. ;)

[ConsAreLiars]

5. Al Gore is both right and wrong

He emphasizes the small things all of us can do. And these are indeed pretty much all we can do, and important. As for ending the system that regards stripping the skin off of Mother Earth and values profit more than any number of human lives, he has nothing to say. And, at least until we begin to starve the monster, we are in the same position.

Weakening the monster, depriving it of our financial support, one small bit at a time, and switching those few bucks tom something that weakens it -- well we can do that much. And since the monster's appetite increases with every life it devours, even these small deprivations will hurt it, and along with the fact that its appetite is insatiable, will weaken and kill it. At the same time, these few small acts might help build an alternative in which the common good has more value.

[Nitrogenica]

2. The minor tweaks all add up over time.

I have never before been so careful about what I buy, and definately spend a lot less than I did even a couple of months ago.

I think the best thing my wife and I did was minimized our use of credit. We have 2 cards with balances less that 300 bucks each. One vehicle paid for.

Still, we had to buy a house 2 years ago at a greatly inflated price. We had few other choices, everything was priced high.

The biggest influence on our spending has been keeping informed about issues here on DU and other places on line.

Is it reasonable to think that average working people who only pay attention to Republican talking points are more likely to have overextended themselves?

It may be them who are the angriest of all, because their support for Republicans got them shat upon.

[EFerrari]

3. I tried to switch my long distance over to Working Assets

and finally got tired of wrestling with ATT for a year and a half. I STILL cancelled theirs but never was able to make them switch me over. :grr:

[ConsAreLiars]

6. When I moved to Working Assets

I simply went to Working Assets and signed on. They did whatever was needed to wrangle my account out of either AT&T or Qwest's grip. (Not sure which had the service at that time.) Go to WA and ask them to do the switch. AT&T obviously isn't really going to want to be very helpful, and whatever poor prole you talk to knows that no act that reduces their subscriber base will get praised, and even if the prole tries, the upper levels will kill that effort.

[EFerrari]

7. WA can't do my switch. I have to call ATT and give them a code

and they have to switch me over. They won't.

[ConsAreLiars]

11. Sheesh, monster describes them well.

You at least ought to be able to tell them to go fuck themselves and cancel your service, and then call or net-connect WA to start theirs. If that fails, call/write the state Attorney General and bitch loudly.

[EFerrari]

13. I cancelled my long distance with them and told them to gft.

There's no way I can get my landline switched over w/out ATT cooperation. They have to physically switch something and they won't.

I make all my LD calls on my cell for free now but, it is chilling that consumers have so little power.

[ConsAreLiars]

14. Indentured servitude

Once you get in you never get out. Capitalism. Feudalism. Fascism. Despotism by any other name. This is our world today. At least you found a way around the monster.

[Solly Mack]

4. I think the little becomes a lot when everyone does what they can

[ConsAreLiars]

8. And by consciously doing a little, just what we can, we become empowered.

and the monster is weakened because of that. Not only by the act, but because we again become aware of the nature of the monster we face.

[Solly Mack]

10. Well said.

We then start looking for other little things we can do.

[Juche]

9. I do some things

WHen I go grocery shopping at my old apartment, I would always pick kroger instead of the other 2 chains in the area becase Kroger had a union and starting salaries were higher there.

I was going to mention CREDO mobile but they are working assets. They are a good company to get wireless through, and they refused to go along with Bush's spying program. Their rates are the same as Verizons and they donate 1% of revenue to progressive charities.

I have started to buy my clothes online from union stores.

Individually we really can't do much. But if a million people start actively shopping in places with unions & good employee treatment rather than Verizon or Walmart then it can add up.

[ConsAreLiars]

12. Exactly.

We can't do everything, but we each can do some thing. None of us are perfect models, none of us do every possible thing we might do, but if each of us does a little bit, and then maybe a little bit more, we weaken the monster by a little bit more.