Amazon and the GooseIn the past I have shown some of my favourite books with links to Amazon which added some colour to the site and enabled people to click to Amazon to purchase them. A very small royalty was then paid to me. Recently it was revealed that Amazon pay little or no tax on their large profits in this country which raises ethical issues about their lack of contribution to the country in which they make profits and drive out smaller businesses who do pay their dues. I am also aware small traders use Amazon to connect with their customers. My suggestion is that people find what they need on Google and then contact companies direct to make purchases. If you don’t want to make book purchases on the High Street (or you can’t because the independent book shops have closed) there are other big booksellers online or you can purchase from Housmans, an ethical alternative whose website also gives further reasons to avoid Amazon. It is difficult to live an ethical life in our complex society which presents us with so much consumer choice and so little political choice. When the institutions we trust to care, protect and serve us are used as vehicles for greed and self-aggrandisment it is not surprising people first despair and then abdicate from their own social responsibilities. The problems aren’t new-this is part of a poem written at the time of Land Enclosures when common land was “privatised” in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The law locks up the man or woman I believe it is important to make conscious choices as consumers and as citizens to support those who are working for social and economic justice. It is easy to make cheap (and funny!) jokes at the expense of people who agonise over the ethical choices they make in the supermarket- much harder to ask ourselves these questions - “Am I aiding and abetting companies who hurt people and the environment?” and more positively - “Can I support those who are mindful in their treatment of people and the environment?” The choices aren’t always easy and there are huge industries and political systems devoted to promoting mindless consumption and keeping wealth and power in the hands of the insatiable rich. There isn’t an ethical alternative to Google yet and some green choices are unaffordable for most of us but not making the choices we can make without too much effort makes us accessories to injustice and corruption. If enough people make small changes and raise the awareness of others everyone gains. At the very least politicians and businesses need to be reminded that not everyone shares their values or lack of them. The growth of Fairtrade and the campaigning power of Avaaz and 38 degrees are examples of large numbers of people taking small actions to bring about positive change. Some links: www.ethicalconsumer.org |
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