News, Events & Comments

 ANYSTORE VALUES

As reported recently - "Ontario Farm Boy fans freak the heck out as tweet about maskless employees goes viral (blogto.com)"  - store fans who “love” a store are criticizing criticism of a store not mandating masks, though the requiurement for masks in Ontario has now been lifted in most locations. In our increasingly commercial world picking a store is, for some, like having a favourite racehorse. But there is more to this than innocent favouritism based largely on marketing. Criticizing critics of store critics is a steep  grammatical spiral but here we risk the descent for the greater/better good of firming up the level ground of values-based enterprise.  

Complaining about complaints when the complaints are in the name of public health at a time when thousands are threatened  is an unfortunate sign of our “sponsored”  times  but the topic of interest here is rather why anybody would get upset about raising the issue of optimal  social values for commerce.

We do not live by bread alone but we do live better by supporting the health of bread buyers and the workers who make bread and all  food, available. TorontotheBetter encourages engagement with the social performance of private enterprise. We think of it as socializing the economy from the inside out. If enterprises are not public or socially focused they should face and address principled scrutiny. If they do not adopt socially supportive values and methods public attention and alerts are important for guiding their paths to the better. A charter for social economics is a step we think that will raise the bar for enterprise. The day when stores accept social mandates as a business norm, just as they have learned to do over time with health and safety standards, will be the moment when the social economy is a fact rather than an aspiration. 

At a time when people are dying as a result of territorial aggression and children are being denied education because of their gender is it too much to ask for more commercial attention to public health and health and other social value? We think not, and encourage complainers about ethical complaints to reserve their criticism for failure to complain when values of health and community are ignored.

 ...is not necessarily my friend. For too long some in the West have gone easy on the current Russian regime for its longstanding, but now sadly baseless, political history of adhesions with revolutionary change and its reactionary enemies. If there was ever a reason for updating the common "folk wisdom" about enemies then the invasion of Ukraine by a fascistic regime should stand as a key instance. But no-one should forget the brave Russians who have stood for progressive principles of social inclusion and equality and have paid a heavy price. TorontotheBetter stands for social economics and there can be no civilized interactions at all when innocents are at risk for their lives. Ukraine has had its share of fascists, it's true, but supporting other fascists is not a route to progressive societies or economies.