Buy Charmin toilet paper.
It is superior toilet paper. It's made by Procter & Gamble in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania
American consumers can apply economic sanctions of our own.
Maybe Americans are ready to pay attention to who makes things they buy, and where it is made. If we did, maybe China would refuse to help Russia. It wouldn't be government sanctions that worried them. It would be consumers exercising their power in a capitalist marketplace. If Americans started demanding Made in U.S.A labels on products, businesses would adjust their supply chains. I can imagine American customers preferring I-phones clearly marked as being assembled in San Antonio or Cleveland to ones built in China. War changes attitudes. Patriotic feelings are aroused. People want to do something. We can. What was impossible two months ago might be possible now.
There are choices we can make domestically, too. I am a fan of Charmin toilet paper. In the ads, a blue cartoon mama bear describes Charmin's features--softness, strength. A toddler bear shakes his butt at us. We get it. A bear. The woods.
Charmin is a little more expensive than competitor brands, but it a better product, and it isn't made by the Koch Brothers. I don't buy Koch Brothers' products when I can identify them. They own Georgia Pacific, and it makes a competitor brand, Angel Soft and Quilted Northern. The Koch Brothers put hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns of candidates who support and enable Trump in his effort to overthrow the 2020 election. Koch Brothers don't buy my melons or buy ads on my blog. I don't owe them my business. Besides Charmin is soft and strong, like their ads say, and it is made in Pennsylvania by a company I am comfortable with, Procter & Gamble.
I have an alternative to Koch paper towels, too. I buy Bounty. Not Brawny. Brawny is the Koch one. The names are similar and easy to confuse. Imagine the brawny guy on the Brawny package to be a Koch Brothers congressman cheering the insurrection on January 6. He is the bad guy. Bounty is the good guy.
Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex suite of products used to be another alternative to Koch. I have owned stock in Kimberly-Clark for a decade. Although Charmin is the superior product, I have been tempted to support my investment "home team." Kimberly-Clark makes Huggies diapers, Kleenex for nose blowing, and Cottonelle toilet paper.
Kimberly-Clark is off my shopping list. They are one of the companies that announced they are continuing to stay in Russia and do business. They made their choice. They thought American consumers wouldn't notice or care. I noticed and care.
I will also sell my Kimberly-Clark stock. My selling doesn't change the balance of ownership. My tiny power is as a consumer, although I will write Kimberly-Clark and tell them I am disappointed in them. Someone in marketing there will notice and tally my letter. They will be alert to see if I am alone or part of a groundswell.
The brand names have come quickly, so let's review the "good guys," at least in my view.
Charmin
Bounty
Puffs
I have evolved in my thinking about global trade. I thought the efficiencies would make a tide that raised all ships. Global trade turns out to help some and hurt some. It raised a half billion Chinese peasants out of poverty, a good thing. It also bred a sense of hopelessness and frustration in the minds of workers here in the developed world, as value-added manufacturing moved offshore. Their distress is threatening our democracy. College-educated owners and managers in America were doing just fine in a globalized economy so they thought the system was working. They didn't notice or care what was happening to the people in America who were being displaced. The frustration of lower-skilled, lower-paid workers created an ethno-nationalistic populist revolt.
The war in Ukraine may have a positive purpose, if we survive it. Americans who want to "do something" may start shopping their values and their patriotism. Government can help here, with tariffs and with labeling laws that require prominently display of U.S. content of the things people buy.
Maybe consumers in America will start buying American. Indeed, maybe they will insist on it. That would change history.
Darn, I have used Scott Family toilet paper not because on the moniker, but because the paper isn't flimsy. I had to look it up and unfortunately it is a Kimberly-Clark product. I don't like the feel of Charmin, and find the ads silly
Great post Peter...I stopped buying anything made by companies owned or controlled by the Koch Brothers several years ago...Even small acts of resistance add up....