Sunday, May 20, 2007

The consumer IS king

In a world where we feel increasingly powerless in the face of big business and increasingly invasive and authoritarian governments, it's heartening to see that we still have some influence in the world around us.

The most effective protest you can make in a capitalist society is to very publicly withdraw your custom from a company, thereby hitting it in the one place it'll feel it most, its pocket. By way of example, Mars has abandoned attempts to introduce animal products (the stomach lining of calves no less) into its chocolate bars after a mass backlash - see here. Not only is it a strike for the common man, it's also a stark reminder to companies that they cannot go around cutting costs left, right and centre for the benefit of their increasingly greedy shareholders.

Let's hope the Mars case inspires more people to take a stand against the darker side of capitalism, which is increasingly prevalent in today's society...

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