#big corp

Publicidad contra la gentrificación. Tu Airbnb era mi casa / Your Airbnb was my home

Hello, I’m not a big reader on this topic because I just can’t take it, so I’m sure you’ll find a way more comprehensive list on a vegan society website or by asking on r/vegan on reddit, but I can suggest

George Monbiot’s articles - he’s a British journalist who writes on all kinds of issues, and he’s very good

The China Study, which is more about nutrition

If you’re on Netflix, they’re screening The Game Changers, Cowspiracy and What the Health rn, which are different takes on the same subject

James Walvin’s How Sugar Corrupted the World is specifically about the sugar industry, but there are a couple of chapters about the catastrophe sugarcane plantations inflicted on the natural world over the last two centuries, and since sugar remains the world’s largest crop (!!!) it’s very relevant

I am one of those who knows US holidays are not world holidays, so anything I say is strictly related to US practices and I don't in the least think anyone else should bother with this. In fact, feel free to ignore this if you want, I don't mind.

When choosing our family pharmacy we wanted to stay away from the "Big Box" chains. There's a lot of reasons why but I'm sure you can guess most of them without my saying. They sell your information. They use collective marketing. They make you sign up for a discount card to be able to get the regular price for  an item that without the card, you will be forced to overpay. You get the gist. So when we found THIS guy...

...we were totally excited to get the win-win; be treated like real people AND support local business.

Conveniently located just 5 minutes from our home, we felt so lucky to have such a friendly, local store to put our faith and trust in and to know that our family medical needs were going to be met in such a safe and protected environment.

And they had a cow.

Two weeks ago, a FB friend had a post that totally grabbed my attention. Her words gutted me to the core in more ways than one. It went something like "There's nothing better than coming back home from vacation to find out that you're unemployed and your boss has closed the store."

Husband and I were floored! Mostly because we felt really sorry for this poor girl who had just lost her job. Also because we felt really sorry for whatever tragedy had bestowed our pharmacist that he had to close the doors so abruptly. I mean, surely it was a terrible fate that had devastated his family. His precious children? His loving wife? We were immediately sorrowful for this awful situation that had now affected all of these great people. Except...

It turns out that Mr. Pharmacy hadn't closed up in a hurry. He had actually been in the process of closing up for some time. He had struck a deal with CVS pharmacy up the street. In this deal, they were going to purchase our information. ALL of it.

So for those of you who really don't know how this works, he basically sold them our lives. Name, date of birth, social security number, address, telephone number, reproductive history and preventions, medications we're allergic to or need on a daily basis. Heart disease, diabetes; whatever the ailment, big corp now has their hands in collecting that information and selling it out to whomever they so desire. -- Let the junk mail commence --

My FB friend was contacted by her boss and was offered a job in one of his other locations. It's actually a location that is just a short 20 minute drive from my house.

She accepted his offer (as no fault of hers; I mean, ya gotta have a JOB) and promptly deleted her FB post within 24 hours of posting.

Within 2 or 3 more days, the store was closed and we received an automated telephone call from the CVS informing us (and most of his customers for the VERY first time) that our loyal, local pharmacy had closed and that we could now get our services fulfilled through their store with an address and telephone number of how to reach them. The standard automated calls that one can expect from Big Corp.

So what's the problem, right? Poor guy couldn't keep his store open; couldn't fight against the Walmart, the Walgreens and the CVS, all of which were just a few doors down from his own location. Maybe we should just give the poor chap a break!

Well...

South Oaks Pharmacy wasn't really closing up shop. They were only closing up THIS shop. The one at this particular location. This would be a whole separate matter if Mr. Pharmacy couldn't pay his bills, couldn't support his business and didn't have the means to continue on with his customers. I would still think that selling personal information is a sleazy thing to do but I could at least understand it. Half-heartedly.

The thing is -- Mr. Pharmacy could have done a number of things. He could have called his clients individually. He could've sent out a letter or even an automated call. He could've said:

"Hey there. I can't keep my store open but I want you to know that I have another location just a short 20 minutes away. I can serve you from over there or you can take this warning time to find yourself a new pharmacy."

He could've recommended some his local pharmacist friends with whom to move our business, which they DID, suggesting that we transfer our ALREADY SOLD information from the CVS over to "his best friend" who has a pharmacy up the street the other direction. (I'm guessing Best Friend just didn't have the big $$$ that CVS had to offer)

He could've offered to continue service from the farther location with a delivery stipulation of $10 per transaction. I know our family probably would've stuck with him.

But simply speaking, Mr. Pharmacy didn't do any of these things because it was never about the customer. CVS Pharmacy doesn't care about his small stash of pills, his one cash register, his three shelving units or his mini cooler dispenser with overpriced bottled water. They don't want his crappy strip-mall space, perfectly suited for small business, nor the three boxes of tampons and condoms sitting dusty on his shelves. They want our INFO. That is exactly what the big $$$ is paid out to get. It's all about collection of information.

[As if NutraSweet wasn't misleading enough, now they're cloaking their poison as some kind of implied amino acid derivative with AminoSweet. What a wicked sham. Warn others. Zen]

This is an all too common practice, and it churns my guts every time I see it.But there's always a grey zone with it, too, and sometimes a little assessment needs to occur before a stance is chosen.

For one thing, it's the major reason I refuse to acknowledge AMC's version of The Walking Dead. What the company (who are classic-censoring, bastard possible lobbyists, anyway) did to everyone involved with that show, from the creator to the actors, was kept hush hush for awhile. But by the time NY and SD 2011 Comic Cons had rolled around, the royal assfucking AMC had given those guys broke out and went viral pretty quickly. I'm not a fan of the original comics, maybe read the first TP vol. or so. I'm hit or miss with zombies. But the thing is, Robert Kirkman wrote and drew every single issue of The Walking Dead himself, and I think continues to do so. He's the creator, and the TV scripts are based on that core work. For AMC to take a legal route to a loophole that acquires his work for their own exploits is disgraceful. It's not about money, it's not about Kirkman not having a grasp of the legal understandings required for his contract with AMC. It's about a company with bigger pockets, sleazier lawyers, and a lot more to gain stomping out the little guy.

Because Kirkman might be big in comics, but even the big guys can't even touch a TV execs salary. Comic creators and artists on Kirkman's level work their asses off for a pretty good salary in normal terms, but they just aren't that valued in society yet.

The problem here is the work-for-hire thing, which separates Kirkman form Kirby.  I think if Jack Kirby were alive, then there's no question that Kirby should've been given a percentage of royalties from Marvel from the The Avengers film. If they refused, then yes, that's absolutely the gross injustice on the level of Kirkman and AMC. But Kirby's estate? I'm a little on the fence about that.  Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe to the fullest extent that the Kirby's should see some of that ridiculous gross that is likely to occur.  It's the decent thing to do for the people who gave these characters to the world that became such powerful cultural icons. But is Marvel obligated to do that? 

Well, no.

It's a shame. It's definitely cutthroat business politics. It's ugly. And the more it's allowed to happen, the more it happens to living creators who get initiated into this pop culture game while they're still bright eyed and busy tailed. Not that none of them know what they're getting into, or that they can't make their own decisions, because I would never promote that mindset, but that our society is set up in a way that can make the majority of comic creators humble. Hollywood egos versus the humble one? Advantage just gets taken. Just compare creators like Alan Moore's relationships with the corporate powerhouse that is DC in the 80's compared to his relationship with them now, and it just shows the natural progression of these situations.