Opinion: When bombarded by an uncaring corporate world, focus on making a difference with your dollars

Spending money on local goods and services can send a message to big corporations and their owners, writes our columnist. (Getty Images)

As the votes are tallied and certified, pay attention and keep steady. A recent Washington Post poll found that seven out of 10 Americans don’t believe Trump will accept Republican losses in the midterms.

The fact that we have to worry about whether the president will uphold free and fair elections is not normal. The fact that we have to worry whether Congress will hold the president in check if he tries to disrupt free and fair elections is not normal. We do not have to accept any of it.

I know I’m tired of living in interesting times. I know a lot of you are, too. But the difficult truth is, we cannot sit any of it out.

We can make a difference with our dollars. Where we spend our money, or choose not to spend our money, can shift the balance of power. And we can use this power to stop supporting corporations and billionaires with our hard-earned dimes.

The rich need fewer of our dimes anyway. Especially when the rich use their wealth to buy politicians and policies. Many of the problems we face today are the result of wealth concentrating at the top. It can feel like there is nothing we can do about that. But it is important to remember that there are more normal people like us than there are billionaires or corporations. The corporations need our purchases and our dollars to survive. Throughout history, time and time again, we have seen small, deliberate actions add up to big change.

Breaking the cycle of consumption doesn’t just starve the rich of profits. It is freeing. It helps us focus on what we actually care about. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in “The Serviceberry,” “Recognizing ‘enoughness’ is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.”

We can live just fine without new clothes or gadgets. We need enough. But we don’t need the more, more, more that corporate marketing tells us to buy. What we really want is to be afford the basics and support our communities.

If we wait past the initial impulse to buy whatever item, maybe we can save the money we would have spent. Or maybe we can find it in a locally owned shop instead. Money we spend locally can then be part of what our neighbor spends — to buy school supplies for his kids or to donate to the school or to pay her employees and so on down the line.

We get what we need. The money stays out of corporate hands. More importantly, the money supports our community.

Knowing that is true and making lifestyle changes are very different. Our family has been slowly peeling off companies we no longer want to support since 2020. We had to learn how to shop again. It hasn’t been an easy or straightforward process. Sometimes, we stumble and click things into a cart. Sometimes there is no other choice than to buy from a place we would rather not spend our money. All any of us can do is do our best each day. Then we wake up and try again the next day.

In case you are wondering about making changes of your own, here is what we have learned about keeping our money out of the hands of big corporations:

• Waiting a few days before making a purchase is smart. In a lot of cases, we decide we do not actually need the thing we would have clicked into a shopping cart for delivery.
• When we do want or need an item, we check if we can repurpose something we already own. If not, we look for it in a local “buy nothing” group or at a thrift store. If that doesn’t work, we look for locally owned businesses where we can buy it. If no local choice exists, we order directly from the company website when possible.
• Internet searches are an excellent resource. Researching alternate places to buy basically anything on our list is easy. A simple search of “where to shop instead of big corporations” returns a lot of good advice.

The bottom line is this: Not spending our hard-earned wages or only spending to support local businesses is a power move. If money is the only message the rich and corporations will hear, we should make sure they hear it loud and clear. The less we give to corporations and billionaires, the stronger we are. The more we support local, the stronger our community is.

This may be the only lever that the rich and the corporations truly understand. If money is all that they love, money is what they will not get.

Tamara Moots lives and works in Manhattan. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.