Generica

Generica - that's what my friend matt sai once called corporate america. it's true. sometimes when i visit a new city, i feel like i might as well have stayed at home. i feel hard pressed to find stores i haven't seen before or don't have in my own town. last weekend, we were in southern california for my cousin's wedding. brian and i asked my mom and grandpa (who both live there) if there were any restaurants in town that we don't have here in modesto that they would recommend. they started listing off restaurants - every single one of them a chain, every single one a place we have here at home. sad. I feel like this just reinforces what i already knew. i need to be more conscious of the companies i buy from - what they stand for, how they treat their workers, if they're taking over the free world, etc. Sometimes my attitude has been something like - well, what am i supposed to do? yeah, all corporations are evil entities, but how can i avoid them? - but i think that's just a lie that keeps me from having to pay attention and make sacrifices. anyway, in the vein of this thinking, brian saw this disturbing article on msn yesterday. i think i've been to wal-mart once in the last three years, as i don't like it and already knew they were evil, but anyway, i thought people should see this article. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. if the western world can't afford to shop at places that don't exploit people, who can?


photo courtesy of justinyc on flickr