Who else is doing Blackout Friday to protest trillionaires?

[nanana]

[think before following links] https://x.com/LangmanVince/status/1894539889435091234

[DallasPozzible]

🖐️

[partying.hard]

Anyone who has studied economics, whether micro or macro, will tell you that a one day protest is useless. The people protesting will spend their money the day before or the day after. Look at a profit and loss statement, even for a week; there’s not going to be a bit of difference.

[PozBearWI]

Exactly @partying.hard.  and yet it is super simple to do.  If nothing else it gives Muskrat a clue of the economic power he is fucking around with.  

[viking8x6]

I had noticed this, and noted that its existence speaks volumes...

As @partying.hard correctly points out, it will be completely unnoticeable (apart from a throwaway news item) to the people it's intended to hurt or threaten. A one-day event won't touch their bottom line significantly (and if it would, our economic system would be so volatile as to be useless).

Also, a one-day event will most probably be a throwaway even from the point of view of the proletariat customers. People who participate will simply move their purchases to another day.

But furthermore (and this is the part that to me personally is most interesting), the existence of such an event directly implies that it will be a meaningful change in behavior for the people cancelling their purchases... in other words, that most people BUY A SIGNIFICANT QUANTITY OF GOODS EACH AND EVERY DAY! That says a lot about the 21st century American culture and economy.

 

[topblkmale]

20 hours ago, nanana said:

[think before following links] [think before following links] https://x.com/LangmanVince/status/1894539889435091234

 

I stopped reading at Al Sharpton and continued to add a slightly used Fleshlight and expired lube to my Amazon Prime shopping cart.

 

[nanana]

LOL I like the reactions about how ineffective it will be from a protest perspective but from a life is beautiful perspective I just found a great small business that offers growers champagne and takes cash 🙂. 

[BlueSaphir]

I took partake so I can gradually put myself to spend LESS overtime. 
 

I am also focusing on supporting local small businesses, foreign brands that don’t have any operations or big presence here in the U.S. 

[chipygmalion80]

19 hours ago, partying.hard said:

Anyone who has studied economics, whether micro or macro, will tell you that a one day protest is useless. The people protesting will spend their money the day before or the day after. Look at a profit and loss statement, even for a week; there’s not going to be a bit of difference.

 

I tried telling this to folks pushing for the boycott yesterday.

Basically, I said that long term, systemic choices affect businesses bottom lines.  The Bud Light-Mulvaney fiasco had long-lasting effects because those consumers stood their ground for months.

Who remembers when Amazon only sold textbooks?

<-- me.

I stopped enriching Bezos after I made choices about the long-term effects of flying things around overnight and over-stocking HUGE warehouses just so folks get next-day delivery.  That was over 10 years ago that I dropped my Amazon Prime.  

This 1 day boycott isn't going to have an impact on Bezos.  Boycotts that matter come from the consumer making a permanent change in their life style. 

[BootmanLA]

As others far more articulate than me have stated, a one-day boycott doesn't affect the bottom lines of big companies like Amazon or Walmart or whomever. Particularly since many of those people will go buy on Saturday the things they didn't buy on Friday, from the same place they were boycotting on Friday.

Where the one-day boycotts ARE effective, however, is as a warning shot. Let's say Walmart's sales, on a boycott Friday, drop by $300 million. On any given day their sales are somewhere north of $1.5 billion, so that loss isn't disastrous, especially if Saturday and Sunday are larger as people "catch up".

But it lets Walmart know how much it could expect to lose from a sustained boycott, if one were to actually come about.

Compare with Target, where consumers are doing an extended boycott over its cancelation of its DEI policies (and, to a lesser extent, over its getting rid of LGBT themed merchandise during Pride last year). The ongoing boycott there *IS* hurting Target - sales are down across the board significantly.

It's arguable, of course, that Walmart and Amazon, as giants and being aimed at a lower-price demographic than Target, are better insulated from the effects: everyday shoppers won't be able to afford to boycott them the way a typical Target shopper can shift to, say, Trader Joes or Whole Foods.  But there's no guarantees. 

[Poz50something]

[think before following links] [think before following links] https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-bourbon-boss-bemoans-canada-tariffs-americans-will-suffer-2040605
I second what Bootman has said. There is a sustained boycott of American products like Kentucky bourbon by provincial liquor boards such as the LCBO and SAQ in retaliation for the tariffs that Don the Con has imposed on Canadian goods entering the US market. Yes, it’s going to affect the people who are employed in related industries, such as barrel makers, truckers, farmers, and distillery employees. But THAT is exactly the point of a sustained boycott, and if people stop buying, it is going to hurt.

Edited 23 hours ago by Poz50something

[PozBearWI]

And with DTC (Don the Con) with is on again, off again tariffs, I am glad our clear thinking neighbors to the north are keeping their boycott and tariffs in place.