Our Policy is We Don't Comply with Corporate Policies

Fair warning: This column over at Indian Country Today Media Network starts off with a letter I wrote to my credit card company that I have previously posted in a diary here.

I have added some additional remarks and, in a move that might be foolhardy, constructed the entire "moral" of the column around a famous clip from Five Easy Pieces that is linked in the column.

That is risky because things come and go on YouTube, but I just could not resist.

Anyway, I post the link below for those who haven't seen the original or those interested in the update.  My thesis is that government is easier to control than corporations are and, right now, it's best to always be prepared to walk away from a corporate transaction.

Easy for me to propose....Facebook pisses me off more every day, but I have not yet pulled it together to walk away.  Too many friends there.  How do you reconstruct an on line community?  I expect some Kossacks have felt the same way about Markos as I feel about Zuck, although Markos has never upset me.  I observe the problem.  I have no answer.  

Yet.

We can’t live fully in this century without encountering banks and car dealers, just like doctors and lawyers and veterinarians. It would be good if those were our kids, both the professionals and the corporate employees.

Still, corporations are more powerful than governments. The only way we can control corporations—and then only over the long haul—is to always be prepared to tell them to hold the chicken salad between their knees.