Corporate Secrecy Sucks
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Lately, I've been doing some work on expanding the Some of Nothing empire into other areas. One thing I'm trying to do is go predominantly organic and open a store on Amazon.com, thereby capitalizing on Amazon's currently well-traveled marketplace and getting Some of Nothing Designs in front of more eyes. However, I've heard some negative things about Amazon Corp in the past, so I've been hesitant.
One thing I've heard (via BuyBlue.org, which is now defunct) is that Amazon donates heavily to the Republican Party. Since part of Some of Nothing's mission statement is to build an empire on the backs of Republicans, it would be counterproductive of us to be helping the Republican Party in the process. So, I decided to email Amazon and ask whether or not they do, in fact, donate heavily to Republicans.
The response I received:
Please note that who Amazon.com donates funds to is internal information and not available to the public, nor is our department given this information.It's true that I received this response within hours of my inquiry, so from a customer service perspective, I guess we could give Amazon Corp a tiny plus there. But as far as information transparency is concerned, what is a consumer/empire builder to do?
Hello, OpenSecrets.org:
Contributions from this [Amazon] PAC to federal candidates (61% to Democrats, 39% to Republicans)Doesn't it seem like, if corporations are allowed to donate to political campaigns, they should have to tell us what they're doing with our money? Neocons tend to complain heavily about how the government uses their money (especially when they think it's being mean to Jesus). But the only way they know how their money is spent is that the law requires quite a bit of governmental transparency--except in the case of National Defense. Not so much for corporations. So, if neocons can get all bent out of shape over how the government uses their money, why don't they care to know how corporations use it?
Just askin.
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Nothing New byslag
at
4:03 PM
4 dispense karmic justice! (or just comment here):
To return to your original point: So, they give twice as much $$$ to the Demos as to the Repubs: is that sufficient for ya? :)
--GG
It will probably have to do. Must progress.
I wonder why Amazon thinks that it isn't "public information" who they donate money to? If its to a party, legislation or non-profit, it is very much so public information. If they really had competent customer service, they would direct you to the appropriate resources that can help you. Everyone should know about opensecrets, the FEC website and others. The moneys disclosure requirements for business entities are very easy, very clear and very often not followed. Each site is a great, mostly untapped source of juicy material for citizen journalists.
sufimarie: All you say is true. Yet I remember receiving a similar response to a similar inquiry from Amazon about four years ago when I stopped shopping with them. The reality is that corporations go to great lengths to hide info from consumers whether or not it is actually public info (as defined by law). Government can never get away with that.
I like your resource list. I'm going to include the items on it in my resources blog. Thanks!
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