Moral Consumerism

[Gavmacp]

Today people were saying that they would not be buying coffee from Starbucks due to them 'avoiding paying taxes'.
But there are many companies that do far worse but we continue to buy there products.
How far do you go to be a moral consumer? Or can you be?

[flump1]

My budget dictates my shopping habits , if money were plentiful I might change them. Going to Starbucks is not on my list anyhow !

[Mamyalynne]

I am with Flump on this, my budget dictates my morals to a large extent.

I rarely eat or drink outside the home, I do however who can and do protest by withdrawing their patronage as long as it is across the board.

[Mamyalynne]

^^I do however admire^^

[Hopkirk]

I am with Flump - I don't go to Starbucks because I can't justify the expense on fancy stuff.

However I would be a mug to pay higher prices for stuff that is on Amazon.
They wouldn't know I was boycotting them, and I would be out of pocket.

[FredPuli43]

No, that's just silly. You can't blame them for taking advantage of generous tax regimes; that's for HMRC and the government, not the customers or the public; and, by doing so they're giving the customers a potential benefit, in that it makes Starbucks more competitive.

[rockyracoon]

I would imagine most big companies cross the moral line now and then, we just don't hear about it, the thing with the tax avoiding is getting on my nerves, these companies are being outed, but it's the government who should be closing all these tax loopholes to stop it being done, look at the MPs with their expenses, most of it perfectly legal, morally wrong but not against the law.

[lady-janine]

is it really for us (the general public) to sort out the tax avoidence of these companies or that of the government?

[Old_Geezer]

In practice I have not the time nor inclination to scrutinise each retail company, especially as they probably all have something I could object to. I rely on the law and government ensuring they don't get away with too much. I'm sure they are both very competent in achieving this and I need not listen to other idle gossip.