Fast Company blames ‘Trump loyalists’ for Costco boycott, fails to examine actual reasoning
January 6, 2025
If we think that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives are a good idea, then we should spend our money with people who do that. If we think DEI is a bad idea, however, then we should deliberately avoid spending our money with those who impose such policies.
Not because we want to reward, or punish, but because this is how policies get changed. Companies want our money. So, spending our cash the way we want on people using the policies we want is how we get those folks who want our money to do what we want them to. This is why in a free country it’s us out here who have the power. We’re the people with the money everyone else wants.
So, keep this in mind:
Costco’s Board of Directors is standing up for its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program. As a result, Trump loyalists are vowing to boycott the retailer, while some are applauding the brand’s commitment to inclusivity.
It’s not just “Trump loyalists” who are against DEI. Anyone in favor of Martin Luther King’s idea of a racism-free society will be against it as well.
But there’s more to it than just this. The entire DEI idea was sold to corporate America by insisting that this diversity would lead to higher profits. That’s why companies – who want to increase their profits – are doing it. Because they believe it will increase their profits.
It might even have been true that it could have worked. A company with different ideas and different experiences in the C-Suite might be able to do better. But that’s not how DEI has actually worked out. Instead, we’ve got people being hired on the basis of their skin color, but only as long as they all agree on the basic ideas. We’re not getting the only diversity worth a dang, diversity of opinion.
DEI does not do what it promised, it does not increase profits. So, whatever we might think about it on ethical grounds it deserves to leave the corporate field.
Which, again, puts the power in our hands. Those corporations want us to spend with them. So, if we don’t like them doing DEI then we shouldn’t spend out money there.
And here’s the cute part. Even if the management insists on carrying on their bosses, the shareholders, will soon tell them to change – or change the management – as profits start to fall.
No, really, it’s your money. You spend it how you wish, on what you think is important. That’s the way you make the world closer to how you think it should be. By exercising that power of the consumer in the marketplace. If you don’t like DEI – as we don’t – then don’t spend your money where they do DEI.