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Comment by rhacker | Hacker News Reader

Totally distracting aside: I've always felt I wish I could walk around a store with a special set of glasses on so I could apply my own personal voting filters - Chili - benefits monsanto $0.05 per can, KRAFT Foods $1 per can

etc...

I mean I have a lot of values - I buy small label organics and that does a lot, but sometimes I just want to buy cheetos- I think I would think twice if I knew my enemies were benefitting.

Honestly I thought that was one of the purposes of something like G-Glass.

Anyway - but yeah, these companies exist because even if we know they are bad - we have no way of knowing what we are buying that is making them stay in power.

Money is our voting power - and unlike presidential elections, we generally have no idea what we're voting for.

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A wikipedia based on Universal Product Codes has been in the back of my mind for a long time. Scan the UPC and a page pops up. Have the data in the form of an infobox or RDF (dbpedia.org) and the basis is there for an app or glasses that does what you describe. Biggest problem would be how to defend each UPC page from astroturfing by whoever makes money off the product associated with the UPC.

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Edit: It seems like the aforementioned https://www.buycott.com is essentially this? It's always nice to see an idea completed with no work!

Not exactly a special set of glasses, but probably as close as you're going to get right now: https://www.buycott.com/

That said, the idea that you can enact change by making "good consumer choices" is probably one of neo-liberalisms greatest, most insidious triumphs. It subverts democratic ideals to make us feel like we have power, while diverting our energy away from pushing for the kinds of systemic changes necessary for meaningful impact on big problem (e.g. putting the responsibility for reduction of plastic pollution on consumers, rather than on manufacturers via legislation).

Totally distracting aside: I've always felt I wish I could walk around a store with a special set of glasses on so I could apply my own personal voting filters

Oh it's worse than that. Go to your favorite restaurant (or any restaurant really) and ask if they use kosher salt. If they answer in the affirmative, ask which brand they use. Dollars to donuts it's Diamond brand.

Guess who owns Diamond?

Hah - I had to look it up (answer:Cargill). FWIW, it's good salt.

It is good salt, and if memory serves the production method is patented. Even if the production were easy to reproduce, aside from boutique stuff, I typically only see Morton's and Diamond in the stores out here. Boycotting Cargill completely is a monumental task.

You know what is GOOD salt.. Costco himalayan pink salt. HOLY crap you will never go back after that. Unfortunately they dropped their tellicherry pepper. I'm still trying to find a replacement for it. But, I'm sure Cargill has its hands on Costco somehow too.

If you accept that your only political power is your power as a consumer, they've already won.

Patrick Henry didn't accept that, did he?

Actually, he was the first. In his speech at the Second Virginia Convention, he spoke the immortal words: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me voting dollars or give me death!"

Part of the idea of free market liberalism is that people don’t care who you are, where you came from and who you vote for as long as your product or service satisfies the consumer. If you start to decide which toilet paper to buy based on if a company’s owners have a certain political view or which fried chicken to eat based on a company owners religion then we may be sacrificing some industrial liberty.

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