It seems like people are beginning to think that every consumption choice should be a political choice. If you don't agree with a particular company's politics, then you don't buy from that company. That all sounds fine, except that I don't actually know the politics of everyone that I might ever do business with, and I really have no interest in their politics. Make me a good chicken sandwich, and I don't care if you support gay marriage or not. I want a good sandwich, not a political discussion.
So, the new consumption based on political beliefs story involves a gun dealer who says Intuit cancelled a his merchant account because he sells guns. Forget about whether there are any missing facts in the story. We are being asked to boycott Intuit products because of the apparent political stance that Intuit has taken. But it doesn't matter to me whether Intuit does other things that I don't agree with or not. When I'm buying a product, such as TurboTax or QuickBooks, I actually don't care what the politics of the people behind those products are. I only care about the utility that I get from those products. I guarantee I won't be spending even a few minutes worrying about Intuit's gun seller policy, or whether they are pro-life, or whether they support gay marriage. In the end, it doesn't affect me, so I don't care. Even if it did affect me, I would make the decision to use or not use Intel products based on the value I got from the products.
I understand how the gun dealers in question might not want to continue using other Intuit products given that Intel has taken what appears to be a stance against them. And in doing a few internet searches, it certainly does appear that the policy in question is misguided since the gun dealers are FFL dealers, and only transact online with other FFL dealers. What I wasn't able to actually discern from my research is whether these dealers have actually tried to work with Intel to arrive at any kind of understanding. So, perhaps Intel's policy is misguided. Or maybe there is some other sort of misunderstanding between the dealers and Intel. Or, maybe it really is that Intel has some kind of political agenda. In the end, it makes no difference to me... I'll use Intel products as long as they serve my purpose, just like I'm sure any one of these gun dealers won't ask about the political beliefs of the owners of their favorite restaurant.
I guess what bothers me most about all of this is that the trend seems to be toward making decisions about others based on whether they have the same political beliefs that I do. So, it should be okay if an interviewer asks me about gun control, or abortion rights, or any other viewpoint and make the determination of my employability based on my responses. And I just think it's really none of their business, has nothing to do with my ability to do the job, and even has nothing to do with whether I'll make a good fit with the company. But, according to the logic of choosing what I'm going to consume based on political beliefs of the supplier, it would make perfect sense for every employer to ask those questions, since they are, in fact, deciding whether to be consumers of my labor. But, I can safely say that if that is the way a prospective employer is going to make the decision, I don't want to work there. Maybe Intel has the same outlook.
One thing is for sure, though: there are at least a few gun dealers that have gotten some great press coverage for free, which is potentially worth far more than if they had just tried to work with Intel. I could be wrong on this... maybe they did try. Or maybe they just saw the chance for some free publicity.
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