Do you try to make a difference with your dollar? (Optimism at the End of the World #15)
Many of us seem to think we have little influence of the world around us. We hope that "they" will fix things or that "they" will be exposed for their corruption. This is what's it means to be disempowered. It leaves us in a perpetual state of wishful thinking and escapism, waiting around as things get worse. It keeps us angry and lazy instead of focusing on the things we can do. For all intents and purposes, there is no "them", "they" are not important to your experience, if you want a change, look at yourself because this is what is relevant to your experience of life, this is where you can make the difference, and anyone who tells you one person can't make a difference doesn't know what they are talking abo and is trying to share their disempowerment with you.
How we spend our money is more important than who we vote for because it's support that we are giving continuously, every day. If you change your spending habits you can do a lot more good than you realize.
Instead of Starbucks...
Let's say that you go to Starbucks every day for a coffee. How much does it cost? Multiply that by 30 (or 20 if it's only on the weekdays). Thats how much money a month you give Starbucks. Now if you think Starbucks is a great organization and want to support them, go for it. I could tell you about the many times I've seen them engage in predatory business practices where they opened shops in unprofitable locations just to crush tiny competitors, only to move shop after the local competition was eradicated, but the point of this post isn't to single out and bash this one company.
The point is, your one little coffee a day isn't one little coffee. It's hundreds of coffees and potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars in the course of a lifetime.
Maybe you bring friends to Starbucks and they buy coffee there too. Maybe you even turn someone on to this brand of coffee and they become regular customers. Maybe your Starbucks cup or mug reminds someone of coffee and that particular brand (as it is they most prominent in the world) and it turns them into a regular customer like you. That person could also start bringing their study group to Starbucks to study.
You could potentially be helping the company bring in thousands of dollars every years just by your little coffee habit and your insistence on the brand or maybe just the desire for a convenient location. This is might be enough for 1-2 months rent. It might be just enough to urge the company to open another's location in your neighborhood. Meanwhile, the local shop around the corner goes out of business. Who do you think that money would make a bigger difference for?
Now let's imagine you go to the local shop every day instead.
- That $1000+ a year could help put food on a families table
- If you like the shop or the owner you could easily turn your friends there and make plans to meet there and help them pull in up to an extra $10000 a year, which to a regular family is a significant amount!
- Since it's easier to forge relationships in local shops, you aren't likely to make new friends if you try. You could even arrange use the space for something you are interested in, a class, a meeting, an event, whatever, everyone wins here.
- Local shopsnare often more than just work to people, they might be more related to their passions and so you may be helping someone to live their dream.
- By helping this shop to stay afloat you are encouraging other people to dare and open up their own shops or small businesses, or do whatever it is they dream of.
- you are also helping the environment as local shops are much less likely to use disposable cups and other such waste.
This obviously doesn't just apply to coffee
If you buy your groceries, get a haircut, buy books, eat food, and buy presents for others at local shops you are affecting the lives of hundreds of people, helping them. Your purchase may be the difference between someone getting by and doing well that week. Think about that.
What about cigarettes? This is the primary reason I never started smoking, along with health reasons.
Consumption and Waste
Let's say I'm thinking of buying a new smartphone because there's a new model and it looks cool and I guess I kind of like the camera better. I'm probably not thinking about the fact that eventually that phone is going to become garbage. All things we buy eventually become garbage and yet we rarely realize it. The more clothing you buys hthe more accessories, the more anything, you are creating waste, unless you are very careful about what you buy. Not only does the product itself become waste but so does all the packaging, the pollution created in making and shipping it around the world. I'm not suggesting you stop buying anything at all, but ask yourself, are you going to put it to full use? I will always wait until my computer or phone is unusable before I buy a new one.
I also buy from medium or small companies because it encourages competition (which I'm not crazy about since I have qualms about capitalism but that's the system we are living in and so in this system such competition is a good thing)
Support Independent Artists!!! Especially your friends!
If you spend even $1 on iTunes you don't have much of an excuse for not spending money on your friends music. We all want to live life on our own terms and it really takes a lot of hard work and faith for artists to survive outside of the corporate structure. Don't you want them to succeed?
I try to make all of my writing and music available pay-what-you-want because I believe in a gift economy, NOT because I don't think my songs aren't valuable, in fact I believe that I deserve an above average salary for my work, but people take artists for granted, and tend to respect the ones who are far away way too much and the one step right in front of them too little.
And an upvote isn't always the same as making a purchase, as much as we all hope steemit will be a successful and stable currency, it is still very difficult to make a living on steem. It is greatly appreciated but NOT the same thing.
Give what you can?
I'm personally not a huge fan of NGOs because I think there is too much bureaucracy and it's hard to know exactly where the effort goes, I've heard a few horror stories. But I do try to support any direct direct initiatives to help others when I can. I also try to give a portion of everything I make to community spaces that I'm familiar with hat do awesome things in the neighborhood.
Don't feel pressure to be perfect, Do what you can do!
You don't need to put too much pressure on yourself for your bad habits but you've should assess which are bad habits st you'd like to work on. Do you buy shit you don't need? Do you shame people for downloading the music of famous stars with million dollar contracts and then ask your friend if you can get into heir show for free? Do you smoke ciggarettes?
As much as I can't stand Mcdonalds for fattening the world and helping to create the factory farm system, I still go there to eat two or three times a year. For better or worse, it was part of my childhood and so it's nice to remember that flavor every once in a while. I don't feel that bad about that or other purchases because at least 300 days a year I'm supporting local business and independent people. Even if it's only 50% of the time, that's something to be proud of. I didn't get to this level of conscious consumption overnight. It took me a year to get off my soda addiction as well. I'm still working on some things.
I'm not going to judge anyone for their habits as long as they are clear about what they support and try to live more in line with their desires.
So how do you make a difference with your dollar?
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It really is the small stuff that helps. Whenever I see a new sale come in for my album, if it's even only a few bucks, I breathe a sigh of relief. I think what people forget is even if a small contribution now doesn't change everything, it still might give the artist/owner/entrepreneur enough motivation to keep going for another day.
"Voting with your dollar" is a great way to live life! Maybe it helps with personal finance too, by creating more meaning to a dollar then just "I want that so I buy it."
For sure, this is the main reason I don't want to continue a kind of squat/couachsurfing lifestyle, aside from the toll it took on my health and the inability to travel easily, I want to be able to support people like you and all the others who are trying to live on their own terms and for their passion, including squaters and couchsurfers.
I like the patreon model as it's able to provide a more stable income for artists, though it is very hard to gain patrons if you aren't big on social media, I've only managed 3 so far :-\
As soon as I'm able to stop scrapping by I will surely send some support your way as well brother! You are super talented and creative and deserve it. Hope it doesn't take too long!
How long have you had the patreon for? I think it might take a long time. I thought about setting up one of those but I want to build up my bandcamp page first which is a similar scenario to what you are dealing with, only a few sales so far.
So far steem is still easily my biggest creative income stream :-)
I think I've been doing it for 6 months? I don't think it matters how long you do it, if you don't have a big social network either online or in the real world that you share it with, it doesnt grow, because the platform doesn't really have any community on there. But if you do have a place to share links that people will see it and click it its quite nice. Steemit doesn't count because people upvote here and want to keep it all on steemit.
It's refreshing to hear a word of sanity amongst the relentless corporate cacophony of marketing and advertising !
Good job.
When visiting family in Taiwan we shop the local markets which is a norm there. To be able to cultivate a true relationship with the family that sells vegetables is priceless. We return to them because we know them and they know us. We know their families and they know ours.
But in contrast there are some large "modern" stores owned by even larger corporations. I'm sure you can imagine them. There the people we contact are merely employees. Being "on the clock" there is a barrier to relationship building. Sadly, these corporations are succeeding in Taiwan just as they have in the US. At a point in the future they may well be the only option the people have.
But, if we use our dollars wisely as you urge, maybe not!
i know what you mean. In HK the street stalls have been sentenced to death, where the old leases will be allowed to live out their contracts but no new leases will be made, so they are being picked off one by one. In japan, buildings are required to be rebuilt every few decades in order to keep the cogs of the machine moving, the new buildings almost always find chain stores as tenants. Taiwan seems to develop slower than the rest of Asia but it's also a geographically isolated space so once it's developed, it's developed, and there won't be anywhere to go!
Regrettably, I never got a chance to leave Taipei when I went to Taiwan. It seems the younger generations are loosing touch with that local feeling though, which is really tragic. I heard there are a bunch of people into sustainable living out in the outskirts though.
There is a trend (not sure how big) of the children of farmers going away to school and then returning to the land with new ideas on how to save the land. A big problem is the price of land, anywhere on the island, because it is an island and there's no place else to go.
Hear, hear! I feel you.
I always try to support the locals, small business owners and even try to do so with art(ists) but, unfortunately, I too often fall into the trap of big companies. Especially buying food in supermarkets. Mainly because they are often cheaper and I don't have a lot of money...
I can't wait to have my own piece of land and become mainly self sufficient or at least not dependent on supermarkets.
By the way, I recently realized that one of the main motivations for me to make a lot of one money - if that day ever comes - would be that it enables me to help out others (starving artists, poor people, et cetera). That, in my eyes, is real wealth.
It takes time to escape, especially if you are like me and want to remain pretty social and spend time in the city. I've choose my living space based on the availability of both country and city environments always making sure I'll be happy to frequent the local places. I've found the most miserable times in my life were when I lived surrounded by shopping malls.
I'd like to move out to the country eventually but I'd like to take some city culture with me (art and music and experimentation and friends).
Your idea of monetary success is identical to mine. I dream of a day when we don't need to worry about money, but until then I hope to have lots of it to support everyone with pure intentions or even half pure intentions.
You make some really valid points here. I know there's been work done looking at the multiplier effects of spending $1 in a locally owned store compared to a chain store, and it makes quite a difference to that community. Although now everyone just shops online...
It depends what you mean by everyone. I hang out in areas where people like to hang out and not much in places like chain stores, so there are tons of little local shops around, but yes, if we are talking about the masses....
has never tried to go to sleep in a room with a mosquito in it XD
Words of wisdom pretending to be random
Words of wisdom, indeed! I try to avoid the big box stores, haven't been in a Walmart in well over 20 years, get my veggies from a CSA farm down the road, and haven't drank a soda in many many years, but now that I am unable to drive Amazon gets far too many of my dollars. They provide a way to get the things I need without asking for someone else to do my shopping errands. And I love being able to order my groceries online from a locally owned grocery store. I am good at recycling, reusing, and repurporsing and am not much of a consumer these days!
Everyone has their own way of going about this and their own limitations. The important thing is having the intention and making an effort. I would love to go off the grid completely but I want to focus more on helping others who are looking to do the same thing so I still find myself in situations where I have to give money to a company I don't really want to support (for example, this cell phone company and service provider).
This Country started out as a "Free Market" economy and there were no corporations that were given unlimited charters. The only Corporations that were allowed had limited charters to do work for the good of the Nation and it's people, like building roads and rail lines, as soon as that work was completed the charter was supposed to end. There was no Central Banks allowed and all money was to be minted by the Government only and it was to be in gold or silver so that the currency always had intrinsic value and the wealth of the Nation stayed firmly in the hands of it's citizens. The men who wrote our Constitution and created this Country knew about the evils of capitalism and the banking system of Europe and it was their intention to prevent such in this new system of Government by the people and for the people.
I despise the fact that I have to go to a corporate box store to receive certain goods because they are not available anywhere else, or at least at a price that I can afford. I try to shop local as much as is possible, but each year there seems to be more and more local businesses gone. I also shop thrift stores and other places that have used items for sale, if I can get what I need before it makes it's way to the dump and help some local charity or individual at the same time then I believe I have contributed in some small way to preserve resources and the environment.
I listen to very little music any more and it is no longer a big part of my life. But occasionally I do hear about a local singer that I know and like who will be performing at a restaurant or on a city stage. I find this to be a great opportunity to get out in the community and fellowship with folks from our area, support local artists, and also reward the businesses who are supporting local artists. I would encourage everyone to do this a few times every year, if you take someone with you that you really care about you are sure to create some great memories and you can feel good about what you are giving back in support of your community and the arts.
I rarely support any large National or worldwide charity, there is just way too much corruption in the world right now and many of these "Charities" seem to have been infiltrated and taken over by unknown political factions that use them either as weapons, or carrots for some political agenda.
This was a good first read this morning, thanks! 🙂
It's hard to imagine what the exact vision of those who live hundreds of years ago might be but it was clear some of them did see this coming and were trying to prevent it. Hopefully we will learn from our experiences, kind of like kids who have to make the mistake themselves to learn the lesson, theory alone won't help. I feel many people are waking up, but we are made to feel separate and disempowered. Community helps!
Most of my favorite artists and musicians are friends. i would love to support them but we are all struggling and there's isn't enough money or resources floating around in the independent artistic community so we need to find some support from outside. I've been experimenting with this on steemit and Patreon. The Patreon method seems quite sustainable, but they are lacking the community found at steemit and it sometimes both steemit and Patreon have a similar problem as 3D, all artists, and not many enjoyer of art who are willing to pay and support artists.
You are so right, and history abounds with starving artists. I have always found it interesting that many are not really appreciated until they are gone, now that's sad!
Great way to think about things! Whenever we trade any resources (time/money mostly) we are supporting whoever we are giving it to. I try to use this principle in my time management as well.
For sure! I try to give freely to people with honest intentions, and receive freely from those who can afford it. Those who can really afford it are welcome to give 10x the amount :-)
Very most of our consumption are actually unneccessary. The small cut backs could help a lot!
Like we could use those 500 bucks to buy crypto.
That is a whole other topic, but yeah, crypto has the potential to change things for the better, or worse, depending on how they evolve and how we respond.
BTW, I want to submit this to OCD if you are down! see below:
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yeah dude im always down for OCD :-D Thanks!