Don't Feed the (Bad) Corporations

Public Corporate Beingz are the true top predators of the world's ecosystem. Though artificial, because of their Law-based DNA, far more powerful than individual people They also have tremendous life-spans, feeding on differences in value and shortages. Unlike people, they have specialized organs that can diffuse responsibility.

A large portion of humanity has a symbiotic relationship with these creatures, who give up time, energy, privacy, and sometimes individual beliefs in exchange for money to buy food, shelter, and health care. An even larger subset of humanity engages in trade with them, paying money in exchange for food, shelter, communications, entertainment, transportation, information, electricity, water, technology, and other physical items.

Some of these creatures are better than others -- less prone to "evil" activities like selling personal information, suing innocent people, eliminating other more benevolent corporate beingz, and excessively controlling lives of people who ought to be living in a largely free society. All of them live upon the money we provide, so we as humans can do our part not to feed the ones that misbehave.

The challenge though, is that corporations merge, creating fewer choices for us. What was once a tolerable corporation to work for or buy things from may now be owned by an intolerable one.

In my case, these are some corporations I am either avoiding entirely, or would like to as soon as it's possible:

• Comcast
  
• ClearChannel
  
• AT&T (which now owns SBC... my DSL provider.)
  
• Adobe (which unfortunately, bought its primary competitor, Macromedia)
  
• Microsoft (nearly impossible to avoid though)
  
• Verizon
  
• MCI
  
• Monsanto
  
• Sony BMG
  
• Yahoo
  
• Wal-Mart
  
• Exxon
  

Of course, even the most "evil" of corporations can benefit the individual if the individual and it engage in "investing", an unusual relationship in which the more the corporation grows (either through selling things, or by getting more investors), the more it pays money back. This can come at a cost though, such as the effect on other people's rights and health, the environment, other creatures, pollution, privacy, food quality, etc. Ultimately, these can all affect the existence of humanity itself down the road, so one must decide if this "investment" is truly worth it.