I don't use monopolies when I can help it. And I have have NEVER used Amazon. Hope OSHA goes after them real hard! (Side note, had a cousin who worked for OSHA in CT.)
i have used the smile program to contribute to our community health clinic, our local affiliate of the national alliance on mental illness, our community interfaith foodbank, our community mental health clinic, our local red cross, and our community charitable foundation. >> I << choose the group, amazon doesn't direct it for me. sure, it's only pennies but i can add that on top of my usual gift. they need every penny they can get and i know these local groups or local branches use the money directly on people and not glossy magazines or well-healed lobbyists - the town's not big enough to hide in and i was on the board for one of these groups getting reports on how much smile money came in. even some of my solidly red trump acolyte maga-ite neighbors donate to red cross, especially with western wild fires, at the same time they are donating to the orange unit. ah, never mind. yes, they need better oversight, every single charity out there does, just trying to say it's not the only thing the program does and your money goes to your choice. our community foundation probably gives money to the pro-choice family planning clinic which provides health care to moms and babies as well as the pro-life group that provides clothing and food support for moms and babies. life is complicated. i still donate to that foundation.
With all due respect to the previous comment, there's a world of difference between having different opinions on a subject and promoting flat-out lies. Vaccines have been proving to be safe and effective through careful study, proven facts, and millions of examples. No amount of wish-thinking will change that.
Please promote the truth-based charities of your choice directly, not through a monopoly.
Also, what's up with their response to people buried under the rumble of their former warehouse? If you make billions and can call up rescue resources like helicopters on a moment's notice to rescue your own employees, why not do it? Right away and with 100% effort? Compare that the more caring response to the owner of the Polar Fleece factory after it burned down.
very true, and i also *do* directly support those charities by u.s. mail and paper checks or online web sites and sometimes by time. amazon smile is not the only way i donate. and i do not believe amazon is benevolent in any way, shape, or form. i don't think they care any more about people than my health insurance does, which is a monopoly in our region, and definitely doesn't care except about profit. no, that's not excuse for how amazon treats their employees any more than the candle factory who threatened to fire workers who wanted to leave. so, amazon is bad. but, there are some products i have to order from them for because of where i live. so i had thought to squeeze a little good out of that for local charities i know are truth based and real and i have worked with in person. getting money to charities is so hard. so few people donate anything - time or money - to anything - what is it, like used to be 10% of any given population, and is much less now after 4 years of the orange unit. and then sometimes like sierra club, you find out they took massive donations from oil companies and then all of John Muir's racism. i'd rather not have every single person who did donate to real truth/science fact based groups via smile program suddenly stop. our local nami chapter died because the state suddenly stopped matching donations, not just smile, but all kinds of them. mental health care is not a "true" red state value. it's not true for them. trying to help my son in this state - but that's definitely not a good story. tldr. however, i agree to your points, and i agree with your criticism. it's been a good discussion. i am glad you are supporting the charities you do, however you do it. it doesn't have to be money, many need time as much as money. thank you.
i usually can find elsewhere, too, for Myself. walmart is the other fabulous monopoly i use. however, for my husband's summer STEM classes - signal processing, electrical engineering, programming targeted, two for high/junior high school teachers, one for high school students - it's a bit harder to to find the Arduino and Python thingies he and the other instructors use at a price that is affordable for the measly grants they can get since they, every summer, let all the participants take home the kits, especially the teachers, so the teachers can use those in future classes. and no, the state doesn't support that with actual dollars, just lots of photo-ops and speeches. it's more important to support our one university football team and our fossil fuel industries. so ... since they also try to target young ladies in their classes and in selecting the grad student helpers, and the full faculty give up the rest of their grant money to pay the grad students instead of themselves, that's another reason i let him buy those things from my amazon prime. i can't get those things from walmart or safeway or radio shack. i hate that, because i don't like amazon or walmart, but, there you go.
one of my favorite bloggers because sometimes i can get an insight into my kid via her bravery in discussing her own mental illness and how she uses amazon, entry dated dec 13 2021. again, amazon is scum, so twist your use of them to counter any little bit of the dark side that you can. keeping in mind, for your own personal use, where you can, be pickier about using other sources where you can. but keep in mind, in parts of the country, not just alaska, there isn't always an option.
Good!
ReplyDeleteI don't use monopolies when I can help it. And I have have NEVER used Amazon. Hope OSHA goes after them real hard! (Side note, had a cousin who worked for OSHA in CT.)
ReplyDeletei have used the smile program to contribute to our community health clinic, our local affiliate of the national alliance on mental illness, our community interfaith foodbank, our community mental health clinic, our local red cross, and our community charitable foundation.
ReplyDelete>> I << choose the group, amazon doesn't direct it for me. sure, it's only pennies but i can add that on top of my usual gift. they need every penny they can get and i know these local groups or local branches use the money directly on people and not glossy magazines or well-healed lobbyists - the town's not big enough to hide in and i was on the board for one of these groups getting reports on how much smile money came in.
even some of my solidly red trump acolyte maga-ite neighbors donate to red cross, especially with western wild fires, at the same time they are donating to the orange unit.
ah, never mind.
yes, they need better oversight, every single charity out there does, just trying to say it's not the only thing the program does and your money goes to your choice.
our community foundation probably gives money to the pro-choice family planning clinic which provides health care to moms and babies as well as the pro-life group that provides clothing and food support for moms and babies.
life is complicated. i still donate to that foundation.
With all due respect to the previous comment, there's a world of difference between having different opinions on a subject and promoting flat-out lies. Vaccines have been proving to be safe and effective through careful study, proven facts, and millions of examples. No amount of wish-thinking will change that.
ReplyDeletePlease promote the truth-based charities of your choice directly, not through a monopoly.
Also, what's up with their response to people buried under the rumble of their former warehouse? If you make billions and can call up rescue resources like helicopters on a moment's notice to rescue your own employees, why not do it? Right away and with 100% effort? Compare that the more caring response to the owner of the Polar Fleece factory after it burned down.
Just saying...
very true, and i also *do* directly support those charities by u.s. mail and paper checks or online web sites and sometimes by time. amazon smile is not the only way i donate.
ReplyDeleteand i do not believe amazon is benevolent in any way, shape, or form. i don't think they care any more about people than my health insurance does, which is a monopoly in our region, and definitely doesn't care except about profit.
no, that's not excuse for how amazon treats their employees any more than the candle factory who threatened to fire workers who wanted to leave.
so, amazon is bad. but, there are some products i have to order from them for because of where i live. so i had thought to squeeze a little good out of that for local charities i know are truth based and real and i have worked with in person.
getting money to charities is so hard. so few people donate anything - time or money - to anything - what is it, like used to be 10% of any given population, and is much less now after 4 years of the orange unit. and then sometimes like sierra club, you find out they took massive donations from oil companies and then all of John Muir's racism.
i'd rather not have every single person who did donate to real truth/science fact based groups via smile program suddenly stop. our local nami chapter died because the state suddenly stopped matching donations, not just smile, but all kinds of them. mental health care is not a "true" red state value. it's not true for them. trying to help my son in this state - but that's definitely not a good story. tldr.
however, i agree to your points, and i agree with your criticism. it's been a good discussion. i am glad you are supporting the charities you do, however you do it. it doesn't have to be money, many need time as much as money. thank you.
but probably shouldn't be clogging up shay's blog with this discussion any more, so i'll shut up : )
ReplyDeleteI've used amazon dot com as my default provider since, like skubitwo, I live where there are some things that I just can't get.
ReplyDeleteI can certainly find everything I buy on amazon, elsewhere - it's just going to take me a little longer now that I'm looking items up one by one.
i usually can find elsewhere, too, for Myself. walmart is the other fabulous monopoly i use.
ReplyDeletehowever, for my husband's summer STEM classes - signal processing, electrical engineering, programming targeted, two for high/junior high school teachers, one for high school students - it's a bit harder to to find the Arduino and Python thingies he and the other instructors use at a price that is affordable for the measly grants they can get since they, every summer, let all the participants take home the kits, especially the teachers, so the teachers can use those in future classes. and no, the state doesn't support that with actual dollars, just lots of photo-ops and speeches. it's more important to support our one university football team and our fossil fuel industries.
so ... since they also try to target young ladies in their classes and in selecting the grad student helpers, and the full faculty give up the rest of their grant money to pay the grad students instead of themselves, that's another reason i let him buy those things from my amazon prime. i can't get those things from walmart or safeway or radio shack. i hate that, because i don't like amazon or walmart, but, there you go.
" no, the state doesn't support that with actual dollars" That would be silly...//s//
ReplyDeleteone of my favorite bloggers because sometimes i can get an insight into my kid via her bravery in discussing her own mental illness and how she uses amazon, entry dated dec 13 2021.
ReplyDeleteagain, amazon is scum, so twist your use of them to counter any little bit of the dark side that you can.
keeping in mind, for your own personal use, where you can, be pickier about using other sources where you can. but keep in mind, in parts of the country, not just alaska, there isn't always an option.
and that would be https://thebloggess.com/
ReplyDeletethe emerging threat to democracy scares me more than amazon.
ReplyDelete