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Whoever has money, has the power

Having run into a string of bad experiences with companies, it made me think this:

The only thing that companies actually want from you, that matters to them, is your money.

Where you decide to spend that money, is your voting ballot on whether or not they should continue to be in business.

I’ve always felt this, and we even learn this in business school: Cash is King.

You vote with your dollars, and it creates an economic impact that makes a difference because they feel it in their profit margins, and EVERYONE understands money.

This is also why everyone feels that rich people run the world (and they do, from my observations), because we all listen to people who are rich — Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, etc.

Who would listen to the homeless beggar on the street and take their ideas into account, over someone like Donald Trump?

stock-photo-money-cash-coins-bills

So even though we may not be as rich as those celebrities, but our dollar still speaks just as loudly as a collective group.

Or even just think about when you were a kid and you wanted those red sneakers that were double the price of the standard but practical brown shoes.

Who decided which ones you’d get? Your parents right?

It’s because they were the ones with the money, not you.

Whoever has money, has the power.

You may not want to acknowledge or believe this, but it’s how the world works. Your dollar is your power.

It’s also the reason why it makes me believe even more strongly that when I go into a store and they refuse to treat me as a proper client, or are rude or condescending, I just stop shopping there.

(Staples, for instance, is on my hit list by the way. They are just ridiculous, and they aren’t getting any more of my money because they don’t deserve it.)

They may not even realize it or care in the slightest, but my dollar will not be going to shops that don’t treat me well and even if they grow exponentially, it won’t be off my bank account.

I don’t want to support them, and if you have ever felt like that with a company or a store, you shouldn’t give them your money either because you’re just reinforcing their horrible habits.

6 Comments

  • ArianaAuburn

    I have done the same thing where if the service or products were horrible, I stopped going/shopping there. There are 20+ places or so that are on my “NO PATRONAGE” list. If you are at the bottom of the economic ladder, you have to fight harder to get money. So the less money you have, the louder you should get when voting with your money.

  • Dan

    Haha I do that, but my wife always says ‘you have to tell them why they died’, which I suspect is a literal translation of a Chinese saying.

    By that she means damn right she wont tip or shop there again but by God she’s going to tell them why too!

    I will always give feedback if I’m arguing with a company by email but she’ll straight up do it face to face. Earns apologies and outrage in pretty much equal measure…

  • raluca

    Yep, we definitely live in a world where money is power.

    Inside families, the ones who have more money are the decision makers most of the time, whether they are parents, spouses or siblings.

    In the economy, the bigger companies like Wallmart gobble up the competition and distort the market in such a way to make sure they will not have to pay their employees a lot and also, there won’t be many shopping options for their customers.

    At country level, the biggest donnors can influence presidential elections. They can run adds for a candidate to convince everyone to vote for him/her, they can create smear campaigns for the other candidate and influence the minds of many.

    At the world level, the multinational trading conglomerates can decide the prices they will pay for commodities like wheat, coffee and cacao, prices that don’t always cover the costs for the farmers in the poorest nations. This means they will either have to sell their land, stop their children going to school in order to help in the farms or starve.

    So yeah, every dollar we spend, every yen or euro or pound can make a difference. A fair trade chocolate may cost more but can help out a child across the globe go to school for one more day. A sustainable organic cotton T-Shirt is a small step towards better standards of living for everyone on earth. Investing in a clean energy company can give you profits but also better air to breath. Money is power, so we need to use it wisely.

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