Did you know buying Dixie cups, Angel Soft toilet tissue, or Brawny paper towels were part of the Koch Brothers empire? Neither did I, until a nifty mobile app called Buycott was created, and it is currently available for download in Google Play and iTunes
In North Carolina, Billionaire Art Pope owns Maxway and Roses among others, and he does not allow any of his stores to be constructed unless they are in neighborhoods that are two-thirds minority. Then, he uses those profits to advocate for policies against the poor and minorities. The buycott app and future similar inventions could create a phenomenon that corporations are not used to. It could drive competition between corporations for consumer dollars if consumers decide to reward those that contributor to charity and punish those who use their profits to lobby for more oppressive polices.
According to Forbes Magazine,
Once you’ve scanned an item, Buycott will show you its corporate family tree on your phone screen. Scan a box of Splenda sweetener, for instance, and you’ll see its parent, McNeil Nutritionals, is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
To watch Forbes test drive the app in a supermarket aisle, click here.
Even more impressively, you can join user-created campaigns to boycott business practices that violate your principles rather than single companies. One of these campaigns, Demand GMO Labeling, will scan your box of cereal and tell you if it was made by one of the 36 corporations that donated more than $150,000 to oppose the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.
Deciding to add that campaign to your Buycott app might make buying your breakfast nearly impossible, as that list includes not just headline grabbers like agricultural giant Monsanto but just about every big consumer company with a presence in the supermarket aisle: Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kraft, Heinz, Kellogg’s, Unilever and more. Read Full Article
View the Video Below to See How it Works:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBU51v5obDo[/youtube]
Something like this article? http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/02/koch-brothers-give-more-to-charity-than-to-right-wing-causes/
thankfully I dont buy any of those products! Great post, thanks for sharing. #awareness
I suggest you provide all the information, rather than just one side of things. These plants, which have often provided well paying jobs in rural counties, where employment options are limited. Why not research all the charity & community involvement that these companies provide? Why not mention the thousands of college scholarships sponsored by these companies to individuals who would have no other way to pay for college? YOU are controlling what information you are spreading to support specific agendas. I’m just saying, tell the whole story & research.
Valerie you have the right to do so. As social workers, our job is to provide information, so people have all of there options instead of controlling what information we feel they should have. This post is about information and a tool if someone decides to use it.
My entire family works at plants that make dixie and Brawny products. Go ahead and boycott these products and I wiill forward this post on to all of those thousands of workers that you may be responsible for making lose their jobs, homes, amd ability to feed their children. As social workers, we are supposed to be open minded and look at the whole picture. I am disgusted by this post and will unfollow.