In democratic countries the representatives of the people are elected. Not each vote counts, since after a certain critical mass to one candidate is reached the rest of the opposing votes are useless. This is the nature of the current political system in most if not all countries. So even 1% of a population can invalidate the vote of 49% in any given presidential election. This is one of the reasons why many people do not vote, their feeling that it sometimes is futile.
But there is another kind of democracy in which every vote counts. Your purchasing power. Each and every product you buy, each and every hard earned cent you spend is a vote. It is a vote to the company who’s product you are buying, to the political alliances of this company and to economies of the country it belongs to.
Unlike political votes economical votes are done all the time. They have a direct impact on the way the world is run, they have an every day impact, that is you do not need to wait for election day. A 1% change in revenue for a large corporation may translate to a 5% change in profitability and to the corporations that is a lot.
Think for one second about this, most corporations care primarily about the bottom line, and you change that bottom line for corporations every day. Every cent counts.
So how should you cast your economical votes, well first for all you need to identify what you do not want to be a part of. Do you agree that large industrial companies should dump toxic wastes in seas that we will later ingest in the fish we eat? If you do not then do not buy from the companies that do so. Do you agree that a certain country can invade other countries to control world oil production? If not then see what companies elected the president that decided to go to war thus killing hundreds maybe thousand of innocent children in the way. And do not buy their products even if you like such products. Send a letter to these companies or an email stating why you stopped buying from them and started buying from their competitors. And tell all your friends that now you are a world citizen who refuses to finance even in remotely indirect ways that which he thinks is not correct.
If this is the time in which as the saying goes “Money walks and bullshit talks” then this is the time in which a new kind of democracy is needed. Money is important, with less of it, revenues of companies that poison our environment will dwindle to the point that maybe doing the right thing is more economical, at that tipping point, morality becomes more economical. It is up to those that think and have morals to change the economic feasibility of not having morals to non feasible.
Even if your effort runs short some times you will know that you did not help what is wrong by adding more money in its pockets.
Your money buys you stuff you like, but it could also buy cleaner air for your children and buy life for children in areas torn by wars created by political leaders that do not respect the sanctity of human life.
( Dedicated to the memory of Gandhi, a great leader by all standards who taught us that what we think should be mirrored in our daily life and that you can change the world without spilling a single drop of blood )
