SIVACRACY.NET

I think the concept of vandalizing grocers is brilliant. Grocers operate on the thinnest of profit margins, usually three to five percent. It wouldn't take many stickers to reduce that to zero and put your local grocer out of business. That would show them! All the while, the most you risk is a misdeamenor, which, with a sympathetic judge and the right attorney would be dismissed. It's a win-win situation for everybody. I like the light bulb one the best:

"The reason you are paying only 53 cents for this light bulb is because of this little boy. He works in a factory in Bihar, India, producing light bulbs. His job is to pull bulbs from a spinning centrifuge. The factory is dimly lit, and his work day lasts 12 hours, but his job provides an income to his family in one of the poorest regions of India. If he were to earn the same wages and benefits that westerners enjoy for comparable work this same light bulb would cost eight dollars. That's right eight dollars. Using a purchasing power parity comparison that's what this bulb retails for in India. Thank goodness five billion brown, black and yellow skinned people are willing to endure poverty and economic oppression, earning just pennies a day so that a few hundred million in Japan, North America and Western Europe can live the good life. It's a zero sum game; your wealth comes at their expense. As you bask in the soft white light of its incandescent glow, pray to God that this little boy and others like him never wake up to that fact."

Usually I'm down with you Jardinero, but here we disagree. It's not vandalism, any more than the British street artist Moose who washes walls in ways that leave messages in reverse graffiti is engaged in vandalism. The actual product isn't harmed in any way.

It's true that grocery stores operate on narrow margins, but they do so with huge volume, particularly if they are members of some of the mega-chains we have here in Southern California, which have actually gotten into trouble in the past for collusion against local labor unions.

I don't mean to troll; because I don't really care about the welfare of grocers, but to clarify. When you enter a business and alter a display without the permission of the owner, it's vandalism. Perhaps Prof. Bartow would weigh in?

vandalize...vt
to deface, destroy, or otherwise damage private or public property maliciously and deliberately...
many words to define here. many meanings that could apply or not. seems we need a meeting of the minds, but this is a non-issue to the effect that this form of expression is effective...

substitute "amount" for the word "effect" and the sentence may make sense. sorry for the redundancy...