Don’t buy American goods

[Davidhowarth29]

Stop buying American goods. The only thing Trump understands is money. Take it away

On the EVs, we should really have a sit down and reconsider moment. The metals needed, the weight, the amoint of energy needed.
Hydrogen powered ( hydrogen fuel cell technology), in my opinion, is far superior to electric vehicles. We are already using platinum in car catalytic converters and it is being recycled. We may not need massive extra amounts of mining to cover demand. They are much lighter.
The change into hydrogen power for vehicles and to store solar, wind and wave power is something I would really like to see happening. And in UK, particularly, the use of wave power, we have such a large ratio of coast to cities.
These are my favourites.

Personally I think it sounds like a massive amount of effort for a minuscule amount of impact - Trump is tanking the US economy without our help.

I mean trying to boycott US goods in general, not boycotting Tesla which has a much more direct impact on one of the worst people responsible.

I’d rather use the limited time and energy that I devote to consumer choices to avoiding companies and products which are directly harming the environment or exploiting workers. And within that you have to pick what seems most worthwhile. I don’t fly but I haven’t made any effort to reduce plastic; I buy almost all my new clothes on Vinted to avoid contributing to the harms of fast fashion, but I only have a half-arsed boycott of Amazon and will buy on there if the product is a lot cheaper or seems better than what I can get elsewhere. I like to buy Fairtrade but don’t always… etc. etc.

So I think you can’t make perfect consumer choices. If there are easy switches people want to make away from US goods, fine. But putting too much effort into it is probably a waste of time, when there are other things you could be focusing on which have more of an impact.

@GooseberryBeret I take your point but I don't think it IS a real effort to switch many things. Not choosing Heinz, for example. Avoiding Kraft foods etc. Not shopping on Amazon is actually pretty easy (although perhaps takes a couple of minutes more, when you're in the habit of it, it is much easier). Like any habit they are a little more difficult at first then become second nature.

Yes it should be done in tandem with other measures you suggest, but a small amount of research can mean easy choices that take no time. Your suggestion that it needs to be time intensive I think is in many cases untrue.

And you don't need to be perfect at all times.

@MushMonster You cannot buy a hydrogen car. The mandate is to replace petrol/diesel with electric by 3035 in terms of new cars sold. 2025 it's to be 28%. Most of these are not to private buyers. What is a car driver supposed to do? Wait for the technology you want? The main thing is avoid Tesla. That's really easy. Tesla sales are declining here as more options are on the market. I'm not keen on a headlong rush to buy Chinese cheep as chips cars either by the way.

Hey, speaking as an American - I agree!

For starters, I stopped using Google years ago.

And you could certainly think about not using Google or FB to log in to anything else. And you could think about trying an email provider not based in the U.S.

And it's certainly not a problem to avoid Amazon. They're only a middleman and you can buy most products elsewhere. Especially in person, if you live in a good-sized city.

For the record, I'm okay not using any of them.

You'd be surprised at how many Americans DON'T know what's going on. After all, there were 70,000,000 voters who chose him.

Excuse me, but I don't think she was calling voters fascists because she disagreed with them.

I think she was calling them fascists because they voted for a candidate with an open fondness for fascism.

I obviously mean for companies and governments to push through with the technology. EVs are too heavy for our infraestructure, for starters.

Some tech alternatives:

Email: Protonmail is really good. They’re a Swiss company with an emphasis on privacy (it’s kind of their USP). It’s also owned by a non-profit.

Search engines: Bing, Quant

Microsoft Office: Libre Office (although if you buy a laptop with MO already installed, you’ve already paid for it)

@MushMonster And when do you expect this to happen? Cars might be a bit heavier but we don't have an alternative at the moment. Cleaning up the atmosphere is not waiting for an alternative power.

Given it seems like you have good alternatives, could you share them? Which was my original question…

I gave some alternatives above, in case helpful

I am saying Europe and UK should expand their minds and sit and think on the long term, on being independant and fully separated from systems, suppliers, softwares or ideas that tie us to US, or any other really. And as part of this, we can re-evaluate the use of hydrofen vehicles instead of wasting more money on the EVs. There are manufacturers of hydrogen ones, but... novel idea here... we can make our own! It is the greatest opportunity to start making our own and never ever look back.
It is not a today action, but one for the long term future, starting it from today. There is a whole ministry dedicated to this and I think they should go for it. Both green and provides growth. Two birds in the basket!
Maybe this does not belong in this thread. It is just one of my beloved options for growth and development. I am not fond of the EVs, at all.

I'm not keen on a headlong rush to buy Chinese cheep as chips cars either by the way.

China has an authoritarian government, no freedom of speech and a very poor human rights record. Should they not be also boycotted?
Or are they ok because they are nominally left wing?

sorry If this has already been asked/answered but looking to cancel PayPal - anyone got a good Uk or EU alternative

Depends what you want to use it for?

There isn’t really another service at the moment with the same reach in terms of online checkout

Not 100% sure but I think Stripe is meant to be a bit better, but I think it is US owned but not entirely sure. It is widely used and internationally used as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/paypal/comments/qocuqv/whatsabetteralternativetopaypal/

someone on this thread recommends Wise:

www.reddit.com/r/artbusiness/comments/19axg97/any_good_alternatives_to_paypal/

I’ll check them out! Thanks so much

We don't even need to boycott them for a long time.

Doing this for 3-6 months will damage share price to such extend that those who brought Trump into power will rethink pronto.

Let's hope it works!

That said, in most cases, maintaining longer term boycotts for many companies continues to be beneficial for lots of reasons (e.g. avoiding Amazon and spending with small businesses).

Wise is really good generally – great if you work with clients abroad or need to convert currencies often (v low fees).

They also offer a good rate of interest on cash – close to 5%

that's useful to know, thank you!

Thanks for pointing out Wise.
I wish more companies had it as an option for payment.

Me too, I love Wise!