So long, Casper. Hello, Blu.

Does it really matter?

Our consumer choices in a capitalistic society, that is.  Are we voting with our dollars? 

Nothing is perfect.  No product, company, person, culture, government.  How then should we choose?  Quality? Local? BIPOC/LGBTQIA+/women owned?  Pro-Union? Livable wages? Political donations or leanings?  Our own needs vs wants?  Essentials vs perks? 

Our wants vastly outnumber our needs.  Compared to much of the world, we are very fortunate to have this conundrum.  

The beer of choice in my youth was Busch Light Draft party pack—a special 30 can case for a ridiculously low price.  One of our friends in the dorm was part of the Progressive Student Organization (PSO): a very politically correct, anti-corporate group who, in the early 90’s, were prone to protest more than attend classes.  Some of them used to order random vegetarian pizzas (think mushroom, green pepper and pineapple) from Rocky Rococo in Dinkytown. They would have them delivered to an address where they knew nobody was home, then dumpster dive for them when they were tossed, still in the box, at the end of the night.  They had morals and standards.  They informed us about which beers were mass produced by which anti-union evil empires, and that the only truly acceptable beer was Rolling Rock.  From Old Latrobe, PA, in painted green glass bottles.  It was at least better tasting than Busch Light Draft.  Of course, now they are both under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella.   

We had no internet.  We didn’t know that Schell’s was the second oldest family-owned brewery in the US (after Yuengling), and brewed right down the road in New Ulm, MN.  We thought we were doing the “right thing” by our beer choices.   

We still try to frequent the smaller microbreweries. We try to give the dollar love back to those that are owned or operated by :  

• LGBTQIA+ (Urban Growler, Lady Justice),  

• Women (New Belgium, Odell), and/or  

• BIPOC (severely underrepresented: La Dona, Du Nord Distillery [okay, a distillery. This community is definitely underrepresented]).   

We’re not going to consume a crappy product BUT we may be more willing to try it if we know it can help a marginalized group.   We don’t NEED beer or whiskey.   

I will never NEED craft supplies, so I can opt to never patronize a craft store that won’t cover contraceptives for its employees.   I try to avoid "always" and "never"; this is one case I feel it's justified.

I do need household items, and most of the time love going to my local Target for both wants and needs.   Am I a bad person if instead I order from the online behemoth?  Or just lazy?   Rarely am I desperate enough to support a big box that doesn’t pay its employees a living wage or cover their health care.  And then usually only when we’re traveling and it’s the only one we can find.  

I can get delicious fast food fried chicken sandwiches at Popeye’s or Wendy’s, so I don’t need to support one that until recently had openly homophobic policies, and still reportedly has a toxic corporate culture.   But do their involvement and donations to the schools outweigh this?  The kids love it.  Nothing is all good or all bad.  

The irony that migrant children might be assembling food kits so that we can theoretically eat healthier is mind boggling. Guess I'll have to figure out which grocery store is the moral choice. Does it make sense to burn gas to go to a local co-op? Are $9 grapes worth it so that we have fruit in the house?

We saved for our children's college education, and were clear from the start that those funds weren’t going to support schools that didn’t support families like ours.  As some states have become pockets of danger for pregnant women; failing to support their reproductive rights OR the doctors who care for them, we factored that into discussions-- about why none of us wanted to live in such places. Even for a few years for college.  Particularly for state schools—we did not want our dollars to support their policies.  Fortunately, we were all on the same page.  There isn’t a school out there, anywhere, that is worth living in fear that you may bleed to death if you miss a pill.  We love our family and friends who live in these states. We choose not to live there.

Someone posted this month about a Tesla trying to cut them off.  They accelerated, thinking, “not today, Elon”.   

Four years ago, when we bought our Tesla, there weren't a ton of affordable options for affordable, fully electric cars.  Casper (the car was white, quiet, and friendly like the ghost),  there was a distinct culture among Tesla owners.   They give each other a nod when driving, an “I see you, and I get it”.  Most of us chose to buy the Y or the 3 because it was an affordable way to trial an electric car, to see if it was a good fit, and yet to have the perks of a sports car.  It wasn't dorky looking (I love Nissans, but sorry, the Leaf is not it). It accelerates like a dream.  It hugs the road and is fun to drive.  There are superchargers at SuperTargets (a brilliant move—shop a bit and stretch your legs for 20 minutes while you cheaply “refuel”.  And you know how I feel about Target).   There’s a large online community of Tesla owners on Facebook. 

We were those people.  With two upcoming teen drivers, we could hand down an older vehicle and justify a new car.  We test drove the Y and fell in love.  Our kids discovered the toybox within a nanosecond of commanding the front seat.  Everyone played with the emissions testing.

With the stories of a long backlog (it was 2020) and potential wait for the car, we ordered it.  We didn’t anticipate that it would arrive before my driving restrictions were lifted AND the eldest would get her license.  For a few months, we had 3 cars and one licensed driver.  My wife dutifully took turns driving all 3 cars, when what she really wanted was to drive her new, shiny car with all the bells and whistles.   

We didn’t know. Yes, he's always been weird.

Over the past year, we have fallen out of love with the car and the corporation.  The final straw was when it suddenly lost power for no known reason, flashing this message: 

Note the song playing.

We decided to give Elon the middle finger not by cutting off another Tesla, but by trading in ours for the Mustang Mach-E.  

The Mustang enchanted us when we rented one this fall, and the Tesla in our garage was increasingly starting to piss us off.  A constant reminder of supporting the richest man in the world and certified MAGA nut.    We wanted to get rid of it, or at the least get a sticker: “I didn’t know he was crazy when I bought it.” 

Does it matter?  One less Tesla on the road is certainly no hit to his profit margin.  (the Ford dealer did say it was the third Tesla trade-in for an electric Mustang in a week).  We don’t get queasy when we see Blu in the garage.

Yes, there's debate about electric vehicles, the grid that supports them vs emissions from traditional vehicles. We can't suddenly create a mass transit infrastructure like the one in Europe.

for the record, I thought we should name her Sally. Mustang Sally.

We look forward to driving it, to not feeling like we are supporting a movement that seeks to export people, not cars.  One that buys votes via lottery in swing states.  

Are we environmental turds for trading in a functional vehicle?  Financial fools?  Does it matter? 

Call it a midlife crisis if you want. Blu is a sports car. And I neglected to clarify the spelling of her name with her person...I would have gone French myself: Bleu.

Four years ago, we didn’t know.  Those buyers of the fugly cybertruck have no excuses.