The Franco-American Flophouse: Amazon in the Hexagon
She says it well: in past months I have also begun to resent the fact that be it a book or a DVD series, it is easiest to just head to Amazon instead of having to actually get in the car and go to a book store (and I might add, as I live in a country where English is not the native language, there are often valid reasons such as price and availability of the original version to order via Amazon). I am a card-carrying member of the American Library as well.
Nothing is making me do this, but I am slowly waking up to the fact that soon we may have ONLY Amazon.com for all of our purchases - a monopoly. I thought that our governments were supposed to watch out for this kind of lack-of-choice-for-the-consumer type of entity (never mind that they - and I am speaking of they, as in many corporations, not specifically Amazon - then promptly take their profits wherever they are taxed the least, leaving us often to pick up the tab on that as taxpayers as well).
Nope, it again comes back to an ancient philosophy that many of us have forgotten: personal responsibility. If we don't think about our actions, our purchases, our investments, soon we have no choice and someone else is doing out "thinking" for us.
Stop and reflect - what kind of a world do we want, not only for ourselves, but also for our children and our grandchildren. I for one am paying much more attention to my purchases these days. Food - locally; clothing and gifts - nothing "made in China" (and yes, if one pays a tad more attention, one can actually find locally - or at least indigent to one's own country - items) ; gas - I have my own personal boycott of one provider; anything else, I try not to purchase imported - again personal boycotts on some countries whose political policies I find either inhumane or otherwise totally lacking in ethics.
I am only one, some say that's not enough, but if I don't start, why should anyone else?
She says it well: in past months I have also begun to resent the fact that be it a book or a DVD series, it is easiest to just head to Amazon instead of having to actually get in the car and go to a book store (and I might add, as I live in a country where English is not the native language, there are often valid reasons such as price and availability of the original version to order via Amazon). I am a card-carrying member of the American Library as well.
Nothing is making me do this, but I am slowly waking up to the fact that soon we may have ONLY Amazon.com for all of our purchases - a monopoly. I thought that our governments were supposed to watch out for this kind of lack-of-choice-for-the-consumer type of entity (never mind that they - and I am speaking of they, as in many corporations, not specifically Amazon - then promptly take their profits wherever they are taxed the least, leaving us often to pick up the tab on that as taxpayers as well).
Nope, it again comes back to an ancient philosophy that many of us have forgotten: personal responsibility. If we don't think about our actions, our purchases, our investments, soon we have no choice and someone else is doing out "thinking" for us.
Stop and reflect - what kind of a world do we want, not only for ourselves, but also for our children and our grandchildren. I for one am paying much more attention to my purchases these days. Food - locally; clothing and gifts - nothing "made in China" (and yes, if one pays a tad more attention, one can actually find locally - or at least indigent to one's own country - items) ; gas - I have my own personal boycott of one provider; anything else, I try not to purchase imported - again personal boycotts on some countries whose political policies I find either inhumane or otherwise totally lacking in ethics.
I am only one, some say that's not enough, but if I don't start, why should anyone else?
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