Looking for a MeFi comment September 28, 2010 1:29 PM Subscribe
I remember reading a comment on why the standard recommendation of "voting with your wallet" if you want to see political and/or economic change is bad/bullshit/bogus (in the opinion of the poster). My MeFi-fu is failing me. Please help?
I think the comment had something to do with food safety - perhaps salmonella/e. coli outbreaks. Or in the context of Michael Pollan, organic food and similar. I am not sure about it and the only thing I'm sure of is that it was a comment and not a post. Don't know if it was on blue or green.
(The comment is needed as ammo in a debate, as it was arguing its point much better than I ever could.)
I think the comment had something to do with food safety - perhaps salmonella/e. coli outbreaks. Or in the context of Michael Pollan, organic food and similar. I am not sure about it and the only thing I'm sure of is that it was a comment and not a post. Don't know if it was on blue or green.
(The comment is needed as ammo in a debate, as it was arguing its point much better than I ever could.)
If you do quote that, say "underlying assumptions" instead of "underlining assumptions."
posted by John Cohen at 2:13 PM on September 28, 2010
posted by John Cohen at 2:13 PM on September 28, 2010
There is also this great comment from Enn ("Systemic problems require systemic solutions").
posted by Paragon at 2:35 PM on September 28, 2010
posted by Paragon at 2:35 PM on September 28, 2010
can you vote with an empty wallet?
something something poll tax
posted by maqsarian at 3:09 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
something something poll tax
posted by maqsarian at 3:09 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
I thought the expression was 'vote with your mallet.'
posted by box at 3:33 PM on September 28, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by box at 3:33 PM on September 28, 2010 [5 favorites]
They tell you to "vote with your wallet," but what they really want you to do is "emote with your wallet."
posted by notyou at 4:27 PM on September 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by notyou at 4:27 PM on September 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
'vote with your mallet.'
Congressional whack-a-mole?! Where's my roll of quarters?
posted by carsonb at 5:07 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
Congressional whack-a-mole?! Where's my roll of quarters?
posted by carsonb at 5:07 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
'vote with your mallet.'
God, that would be so much more satisfying.
posted by grapesaresour at 5:45 PM on September 28, 2010 [3 favorites]
God, that would be so much more satisfying.
posted by grapesaresour at 5:45 PM on September 28, 2010 [3 favorites]
Could it have been in the advertisers abandoning Fox thread?
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:05 PM on September 28, 2010
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:05 PM on September 28, 2010
I used to vote with my mullet until I got a decent haircut.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:27 PM on September 28, 2010
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:27 PM on September 28, 2010
That side pony-tail is not decent.
posted by carsonb at 6:59 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by carsonb at 6:59 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
Paragon, I think that's the comment I had in mind, but cgc373, thanks for the great find!
I soooo wish I could vote with my mallet.
posted by gakiko at 12:17 AM on September 29, 2010
I soooo wish I could vote with my mallet.
posted by gakiko at 12:17 AM on September 29, 2010
Speaking of mullets... I have, in the last month, seen at least five children running around with mullets. And at least one adult, although he looked stupid, so I'll count that as six kids. And I haven't seen any since the late 90s. What's up with that? Good thing they're all children, mind, as voting with your mullets should be a capital offense.
posted by WalterMitty at 12:29 AM on September 29, 2010
posted by WalterMitty at 12:29 AM on September 29, 2010
I tried to vote with my wallet but they got really pissed off and they wouldn't open up the box to give me my wallet back. And it turned out my wallet was Tory, which wasn't the idea at all.
posted by Grangousier at 1:27 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by Grangousier at 1:27 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
I vote with my feet, which is another kettle of idioms calling the fish black.
posted by pracowity at 2:22 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 2:22 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
I vote with a shallot. It's like voting with a bullet, but slightly more effective against vampires.
posted by quin at 7:23 AM on September 29, 2010
posted by quin at 7:23 AM on September 29, 2010
I vote with a ballet. I find an arabesque, followed by a gentle pirouette, as I move from the booth to place my ballot in the box to be just the right artisty for such a dignified event.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:28 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:28 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I like to vote with my palate. If you know what I mean.
posted by kingbenny at 8:21 AM on September 29, 2010
posted by kingbenny at 8:21 AM on September 29, 2010
This thread is kind of giving me the idea that everybody else in the world pronounces "wallet" so as to rhyme with "mallet"(or "palate", or the American pronunciation of "shallot"), and now I'm wondering whether I've been saying "wallet" wrong my whole life. Or whether I've even ever heard anybody say the word "wallet" out loud. I think I'm just going to go back to work for a while.
posted by penduluum at 8:37 AM on September 29, 2010
posted by penduluum at 8:37 AM on September 29, 2010
If you've been rhyming it with "Call It", you've been doing it obscenely wrong.
posted by kingbenny at 8:49 AM on September 29, 2010
posted by kingbenny at 8:49 AM on September 29, 2010
I vote with a ballot.
Wait, I think I'm doing it wrong.
posted by klangklangston at 9:01 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
Wait, I think I'm doing it wrong.
posted by klangklangston at 9:01 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
beep beep beep Hey guys look out I'm trying to find a place to set this pallet of votes.
posted by kingbenny at 9:04 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by kingbenny at 9:04 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
In Wisconsin, most of us pronounce wallet slightly differently from mallet or shallot. Wah-let as opposed to maa-let. It's a very minor distinction, but it is there.
Not enough to distract me from the joke though. Hell, I tried to use "bullet" as being vaguely rhymey adjacent (Two syllables ending in "let"? Run that fucker!)
posted by quin at 9:20 AM on September 29, 2010
Not enough to distract me from the joke though. Hell, I tried to use "bullet" as being vaguely rhymey adjacent (Two syllables ending in "let"? Run that fucker!)
posted by quin at 9:20 AM on September 29, 2010
why the standard recommendation of "voting with your wallet" if you want to see political and/or economic change is bad/bullshit/bogus
Because it would involve taking personal responsibility for the consequences of your actions.
posted by Zed at 11:33 AM on September 29, 2010
Because it would involve taking personal responsibility for the consequences of your actions.
posted by Zed at 11:33 AM on September 29, 2010
Huh, I say "wallet" like "whoL-lit"
How do you say Cool Whip?
posted by electroboy at 2:43 PM on September 29, 2010
How do you say Cool Whip?
posted by electroboy at 2:43 PM on September 29, 2010
This doesn't answer your direct question, but I can respond to the underlying idea...
Voting with your wallet doesn't work for two main reasons:
1) Not enough people will participate to make it hurt, even in some of the most egregious situations you can imagine.
2) For most companies, you can't accurately target them in the first place.
I'll use BP to illustrate the above.
At the moment, despite the entire US loathing BP, despite countless millions saying they boycott BP, BP's sales have dropped only 5% across the board. The vast majority of people won't even bother pretending; Of those that do, very, very few will pay a single penny more (or take the long way home) just to avoid a BP station.
Now consider that, with petroleum products, you don't get "gas from BP". You get gas from the nearest terminal or bulk storage facility (which stores - all in the same tank at the same time - product from dozens if not hundreds of different sources), delivered maybe by BP fleet vehicles, to BP-branded franchise stations. Then on top of that, take my 5% figure mentioned above - BP (as a retail holdings company, not as an oil company) sees that number; Individual stations in some areas report as much as a 30% drop in sales. Joe SmallBusinessOwner sees that number, not the 5%.
So BP has plenty to worry about at the moment, certainly; but if their execs lose sleep tonight, they will have cleanup liability issues to blame, not a flash-in-the-pan boycott that at its peak will barely register on the bottom line, and will vanish within six months anyway.
posted by pla at 5:02 PM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Voting with your wallet doesn't work for two main reasons:
1) Not enough people will participate to make it hurt, even in some of the most egregious situations you can imagine.
2) For most companies, you can't accurately target them in the first place.
I'll use BP to illustrate the above.
At the moment, despite the entire US loathing BP, despite countless millions saying they boycott BP, BP's sales have dropped only 5% across the board. The vast majority of people won't even bother pretending; Of those that do, very, very few will pay a single penny more (or take the long way home) just to avoid a BP station.
Now consider that, with petroleum products, you don't get "gas from BP". You get gas from the nearest terminal or bulk storage facility (which stores - all in the same tank at the same time - product from dozens if not hundreds of different sources), delivered maybe by BP fleet vehicles, to BP-branded franchise stations. Then on top of that, take my 5% figure mentioned above - BP (as a retail holdings company, not as an oil company) sees that number; Individual stations in some areas report as much as a 30% drop in sales. Joe SmallBusinessOwner sees that number, not the 5%.
So BP has plenty to worry about at the moment, certainly; but if their execs lose sleep tonight, they will have cleanup liability issues to blame, not a flash-in-the-pan boycott that at its peak will barely register on the bottom line, and will vanish within six months anyway.
posted by pla at 5:02 PM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Waitwaitwait, do people seriously pronounce "wallet" like "mallet" or "shallot"? I live in the Pacific Northwest US (parents from Minnesota) and I have never in my life heard anybody use that pronunciation. I have always heard it with the "a" sound pronounced like "mall" or "all", never like "shall" or "ballot". Am I missing the sarcasm here, or has the whole world gone crazy?
posted by pikachulolita at 5:23 PM on September 29, 2010
posted by pikachulolita at 5:23 PM on September 29, 2010
In Wisconsin, most of us pronounce wallet slightly differently from mallet or shallot. Wah-let as opposed to maa-let. It's a very minor distinction, but it is there.
Is there anyone who pronounces them the same? The first syllable in "wallet" is like "wall," and then you have "mallet," "ballot," "shallot," and "palette/palate," which rhyme with each other because the "a" sounds like the vowel in "hat" (completely different from wall/wallet). This is not "a very minor distinction" as I've ever heard it. Are you really suggesting that there are regions in the US that pronounce it differently than I've described it?
posted by John Cohen at 5:31 PM on September 29, 2010
Is there anyone who pronounces them the same? The first syllable in "wallet" is like "wall," and then you have "mallet," "ballot," "shallot," and "palette/palate," which rhyme with each other because the "a" sounds like the vowel in "hat" (completely different from wall/wallet). This is not "a very minor distinction" as I've ever heard it. Are you really suggesting that there are regions in the US that pronounce it differently than I've described it?
posted by John Cohen at 5:31 PM on September 29, 2010
...and then there's hwoL-it, like Ted Koppel.
posted by electroboy at 7:28 PM on September 29, 2010
posted by electroboy at 7:28 PM on September 29, 2010
I vote with Beckett.
No, we're not gonna do that.
posted by at the crossroads at 7:47 PM on September 29, 2010
No, we're not gonna do that.
posted by at the crossroads at 7:47 PM on September 29, 2010
Waitwaitwait, do people seriously pronounce "wallet" like "mallet" or "shallot"? I live in the Pacific Northwest US (parents from Minnesota) and I have never in my life heard anybody use that pronunciation. I have always heard it with the "a" sound pronounced like "mall" or "all", never like "shall" or "ballot". Am I missing the sarcasm here, or has the whole world gone crazy?
posted by pikachulolita
Yeah, just to clarify - I was not being serious. I pronounce wallet with the mall-rhyme you describe.
But I DO like the idea of pronouncing it to rhyme with shallot. That sounds fun. I suppose it's not the most polite thing to do, going around just pronouncing things how I want them to sound, messing with the social contracts of language.
posted by kingbenny at 9:36 AM on September 30, 2010
posted by pikachulolita
Yeah, just to clarify - I was not being serious. I pronounce wallet with the mall-rhyme you describe.
But I DO like the idea of pronouncing it to rhyme with shallot. That sounds fun. I suppose it's not the most polite thing to do, going around just pronouncing things how I want them to sound, messing with the social contracts of language.
posted by kingbenny at 9:36 AM on September 30, 2010
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posted by cgc373 at 1:39 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]