All money is power

Money is power, a lot of people realise that. But they don’t apply that knowledge while spending their money. It’s not like, when you have heaps of money, you suddenly got power. It goes gradually. Small amounts of money hold power as well.

See your money as a vote. Elections are constantly ongoing and never stop. Because when you spend money buying, whatever really, you are supporting that company.

Let me use the following example:
Some people and I were in the Rotterdam CBD around 1 AM. We where getting a bit hungry but nothing urgent really, we could eat in the city or use our own food at school. We saw this small bakkery where you could eat simple sandwiches for the steap price of €2,50. I passed. Trading my €2,50 for a simple sandwich didn’t look like a good deal to me. My friends however, did buy several sandwiches, but they later admitted they were too expensive. So there you have it, they wern’t content with the service of the bakkery, but still voted for the company.

In a way I did vote as well. Not buying anything at their company is a way of voting no. No for it’s existence. So when you look at it like that, all money is power.

I hope, and this is probably in vain, that people, or, customers, use their money with more conscience. More intellectual purchases would lead to a better market. A market where good companies are rewarded and bad ones are punished.

Because even though we have a free market system practicly everywhere in the world, how can it be a free market if your purchases are not responsible intellectually?

Just my two cents…

Latest

A candle in Minnesota

A candle in Minnesota

It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m in Saint Paul, Minnesota, attending the morning mass at St. Bernard’s church. It’s about twenty years since I last attended a mass, and the first time I’ve ever done so voluntarily. I’m sure I’m drawn to this church near my Airbnb, compelled to go in, but I find it hard […]
June 14, 2026
Revisiting Columbine

Revisiting Columbine

Growing up in the Netherlands, it’s not immediately obvious (even to myself) that the history of the United States is also partly mine, but through TV series and movies — as well as the news — it’s also a country I lived in and grew up in. And unlike presidential elections or the September 11th […]
June 8, 2026
Rich People Park

Rich People Park

We’re in TaiKoo Li QianTan (前滩太古里), a brand new, high-end shopping mall near the Huangpu River in Pudong. It’s a beautiful complex with four levels, viewing bridges, walls of white steel and vertical gardens (the first I’ve seen that actually look like on an architectural drawing), and paths of bright bricks alternating with patches of […]
June 5, 2026
Torrential rain and colorful umbrellas

Torrential rain and colorful umbrellas

I was planning a bike ride, but then saw it was drizzling, so I carried Hasse outside — underneath an umbrella — to go get a coffee. Yet the rain was so heavy we just hid underneath the canopy in front of a supermarket to see some of the chaos unfold. I’ll miss these streets […]
May 25, 2026