Boycotting Amazon - could you do it?

[Guest]

After yesterday's infuriating revelations before the public accounts committee of MPs that Amazon paid NO corporation tax last year (along with Starbucks), I was wondering who here could you bring themselves to boycott the site and all those lovely bargains? Even the Market Sellers would need to be abandoned, since Amazon receives a percentage of each sale.

The tax dodges are unbelievably galling. That they are not illegal is a disgrace; that they are immoral speaks for itself.

Bravo to the committee for taking these reprobates to task so publicly and making them look like the weasels they are. I can only hope that huge fines follow in lieu of criminal convictions.

[Paul Sherratt]

But where on earth will I find my next replacement grill pan and handle?

[VodkaDilc]

I never use Amazon (too many good businesses deprived of customers due to its greed) or Starbucks (nasty coffee served in cardboard cups). Google is harder to avoid - though I don't pay them anything (directly).

[gingerjon]

I'll boycott them after Christmas

[Thropplenoggin]

I'll boycott them after Christmas

[Pianorak]

Hmmm, a Gretchen Question? We, who are morally pure before meeting Amazon, are tempted into a life of immorality just as Google tempts Amazon.

[Bryn]

I do use Amazon, among may other suppliers. Their tax avoidance is indeed morally reprehensible, but when it comes to boycotts, where does one stop? Which are the truly ethical suppliers without 'sin'?

[Nick Armstrong]

I can't get my head around why the criticism isn't directed towards the law-makers rather than the companies. If the laws are as they are, can companies really be vilified for complying with them? Trying to impale them on the spike of 'immorality' seems to me beside the point. If they are so outraged, why don't Hodge MP and her harrumphing side-kicks do something about it?

I certainly shall not boycott amazon.

I shall on the other hand continue to boycott Starbucks because their 'coffee' tastes of nothing.

[Bryn]

I can't get my head around why the criticism isn't directed towards the law-makers rather than the companies. If the laws are as they are, can companies really be vilified for complying with them? Trying to impale them on the spike of 'immorality' seems to me beside the point. If they are so outraged, why don't Hodge MP and her harrumphing side-kicks do something about it?

I certainly shall not boycott amazon.

I shall on the other hand continue to boycott Starbucks because their 'coffee' tastes of nothing.

I don't so much boycott Starbucks as simply not offer them my custom, for much the same reason. Mostly I get my take-away coffee from Maud's.

[teamsaint]

I can't get my head around why the criticism isn't directed towards the law-makers rather than the companies. If the laws are as they are, can companies really be vilified for complying with them? Trying to impale them on the spike of 'immorality' seems to me beside the point. If they are so outraged, why don't Hodge MP and her harrumphing side-kicks do something about it?

I certainly shall not boycott amazon.

I shall on the other hand continue to boycott Starbucks because their 'coffee' tastes of nothing.

Margaret Hodge?

She's not really likely to go after tax avoiders with a big stick is she?

Not unless she likes self inflicted pain.

Until Labour, or somebody, start really opposing the cultures of corporate greed, tax avoidance, and bank dominance of our financial and political world, nothing will change for the better.

Incidentally, in a non principled way, I would just buy as little as possible at amazon, especially if a decent deal can be had elsewhere.

[LHC]

If they are so outraged, why don't Hodge MP and her harrumphing side-kicks do something about it?

Interestingly, Margaret Hodge MP is a shareholder in Stemcor, a steel trading company set up by her father and now run by her brother. Stemcor generated revenues of more than £2.1bn in the UK in 2011, but paid just £163,000 in corporation tax. That's 0.01 percent tax on business generated in the UK, which is less than the tax paid by Amazon or Google.

Hodge claims that Stemcor pays 'every penny of tax that is owed'. Of course, Amazon, Starbucks and Google pay every penny of tax they owe. That isn't the question; the real question is how they, Stemcor and other multinational companies are able legitimately to reduce their tax burden to such a low level. As Am says, that is a matter for the legislators and not the companies.

[Nick Armstrong]

As Am says, that is a matter for the legislators and not the companies.

Am I Am?

[amateur51]

Am I Am?

I thought you were Spartacus

[teamsaint]

It would be interesting to know, given her form, how hodge got near that committee.
I suppose she knows all the tricks, so she can tell the other committee members how its done.

[LHC]

Am I Am?

Apologies, Caliban. I obviously mistook Margaret Shostakovich for Dmitri Rutherford, or something. Perhaps I need new glasses...