Speak For Yourself

When weighing up our ethics with how we choose to spend our money, the vast majority of us are either a) Hypocrites, b) Ignorant or c) Lazy.

One thing guaranteed to piss me off is some self-righteous arsehole projecting his own inadequacy on the rest of us. When shopping, I am none of the above. I make my decisions based upon what I want and how much I am prepared to pay for it. They are all the ethics I need.

And these are just examples. Once you’ve carefully trodden through the minefield of avoiding everything that makes you an evil human being, you look up only to see the field stretching all the way to the horizon, where a cold, hungry and miserable wreck of a being is huddled up in a cave, scared to break wind for fear of accelerating the Earth’s demise.

That’s a rich seam of sanctimonious humbug there. I don’t tread carefully anywhere not least because I don’t wring my hands over the pious piffle that seems to cause anguish among the Islington set.

However, the evolving tax avoidance scandal surrounding Amazon has finally put us in a position where it’s inexcusable to sit back and do nothing, considering that all the action that’s really required of us is to sit back, and perhaps be forced to click our mouse buttons several more times than we’d normally like to.

Ah, yes, once again we are to be regaled with how awful are these businesses that avoid tax are and we should boycott them.

Well, the response to that is “fuck off!” I will continue to buy from Amazon –  they provide a service I want at a fair price. That they keep swathes of cash out of the harm’s reach the government’s coffers is a bonus as far as I am concerned. Consequently, I’ve no plans to punish them.

Steps have been taken.

Oh, indeed, they have been. I have been ordering stuff online from Amazon and have every intention of doing so again –  and I do so with a conscience that is clear as crystal.

But if all we need to do to avoid a gross tax injustice occurring is browse a few extra websites that perhaps don’t offer quite as intuitive an experience as Amazon, or which make us sign up to their newsletter, or even those sites which waste a good 20 seconds of our precious lives by making us look for those account activation emails, then perhaps we’re willing to take those few extra clicks.

Tax injustice here is what those of us who are self employed recognise as managing one’s affairs efficiently. If Amazon do it, they are being a responsible business and I applaud them for it. I am perfectly happy to continue to use their business even if Robert Zak thinks I am lazy for doing so. If it pisses the likes of him off by doing it, then that’s another bonus.

Tax avoidance is not illegal, it is not immoral and it is what any sensible person should be doing anyway. Amazon have a fiduciary duty to minimise their exposure to tax for the benefits of their shareholders, customers and employees, not the exchequer and not the cretins at UK Uncut.

Robert Zak wants to boycott them. Fine, that’s his prerogative. I choose to use them and I do so knowing that they are doing something that annoys him and the economic illiterates who believe in mob rule. That is mine.