Shop Pay and the Slow Surrender of Control — Why We Keep Making the Trade
As if it wasn’t seamless and fast enough to order shit online now there’s a handful of companies like Shop Pay that have made a business out of storing your payment and shipping information so that it can be easily shared and populated when making online purchases. This is a business that (if separated from its parent company Shopify) is probably worth $10 - $20 billion. Despite the fact that it adds no actual value to anyone’s life or to society. Another business that adds no intrinsic value (see Amazon, FaceBook) but is somehow worth billions of dollars.
I’m sick of the way these companies jump in and create the illusion of a need. I’ve never had a problem entering my payment and shipping information before Shop Pay or any of it’s competitor companies (Stripe Link, PayPal Fastlane) came along. But now these platforms are everywhere, and I can’t seem to place an order without being asking if I want to be sent a link to automatically load all of my personal information. Remember when we were all shocked to find out that tech companies were storing and trading our personal information? I guess we don’t care anymore because well, isn’t it easier to not have to type? Especially with the amount of stuff that gets ordered online these days? Typing in our own information would just create too much friction.
Which is exactly the problem with our society. It’s so easy to get lured into something that makes our lives easier. The problem is that piece by piece we keep handing over control of our lives to these companies in exchange for an easier life, and we still haven’t figured out that it’s not a good trade. The “ease” they offer us is a drop in the bucket, and comes with strings, compared to what they receive. They make it easy to buy cheap shit, to scroll through useless, and often incorrect, information, and in essence control our time and money. They, by contrast, accumulate vast amounts of wealth and power that allows them to tighten controls. We don’t need it.
In life the only truth is nature. The only thing that is real is nature. The trees, the ocean, the stars, the moon, the fish, the mammals, the flowers, vegetables, insects, bees, and the mushrooms that break everything back down and bring everything back to earth. Everything else in front of us is bogus bullshit that is just another layer cast over the made up world we live in. Everything you see around you was made up by people just like you and me, said Steve Jobs, and he was right. Everything we see does not have to be and is not inevitable.
I’m sick of it (in case you can’t tell) and wish we would get back to a world of actual living. Escape from this fake world where the only motive is money and power that exploits the people and the land. I wish it would all collapse back own into itself and restart again, and hopefully the next time take off on the right foot with an emphasis on nature, people, and humanity. Creating a world full of abundance that everyone can share in instead of a world where we allow the minority to control the majority.
Most people are innately good and trusting, which is what makes it so easy for them to be taken advantage of. That’s the secret that goes unspoken. That’s the secret the they’ve figured out and use to take control. That’s the secret and they know that, so they actually convince us of the opposite. That the world is filled with dangerous people who hate you and want to kill you and want to destroy your way of life, and that they’re the ones who are trying to save you, protect you, and make your life better. But to everyone paying attention we know that’s not true. The ones who tell you your neighbor is evil are the evil ones.
Look around at all the people who are being made to suffer right now. People in Gaza. People in Sudan. People in Myanmar. People in Ukraine. People in the richest and most powerful country in the world who can’t get enough food to eat or clean water to drink, a roof over their head and pillow to rest it on, healthcare when they are sick. All these people suffering in more or less silence. Just taking it and wishing for it to end, but not taking out their pain on anyone else. Just trying to survive another day.
If the world was as dangerous and as unruly as we’re made to believe then no one would be safe. People would be out committing the heinous acts we’re told to be scared of. But for the most part, they don’t. Because people are innately good and are just looking for a better way.
If it feels like I’ve gone way off topic after starting talking about Shop Pay then you’re missing the point. Shop Pay cannot exist without the suffering of people and the planet. Their value is in manipulating and exploiting the market. They only have value in a society that values money and consumption over the natural world. They’re just another cog in the consumerism wheel that is one of the main causes of suffering and planet degradation around the globe. They’re just another business sucking money out of the system and placing it into the hands of people that don’t need it, but for some reason can’t seem to find anything better to do with their time than accumulate more and more wealth by taking advantage of the innate goodness we all posess.
Unlink from Shop Pay, Stripe Link, PayPal Fastlane, and the rest of them. Stop using Amazon for every purchase. Stop shopping at Costco and shop local. Stop drinking Starbucks and support your local barista. Delete your socials and start calling people you care about. Enough of these companies. We don’t need them and we don’t have to use them. The old ways were working just find before any of them came along. The world was a better place and people were happier. Stop giving these people the easiest dollars they’ve ever made when you have to break your back to make yours.