Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com launched a boycott of Indiana due to a recent “religious freedom” law that allows businesses to discriminate against homosexuals (story). My Facebook friends are hailing Mr. Benioff as an example of the highest possible principles. But this Web page shows that Salesforce.com maintains multiple offices in countries (e.g., India and Singapore) where homosexuality is illegal (map and list). It doesn’t bother Salesforce.com to spend billions of dollars in a country where homosexuals are imprisoned but they won’t fund an overnight trip to a state where a gay wedding might have some different vendors than a straight wedding?
And what about a minority-owned or minority-run business in Indiana? Should the Salesforce.com Gulfstream pilots boycott B. Coleman in Gary, Indiana or make an exception for what is arguably the best fuel stop in the Midwest and certainly by far the best FBO in the Chicago region? Does spending the shareholders’ refueling dollars at a white-owned and white-run FBO in another state show one’s commitment to rights for the oppressed?
Should Indiana-based businesses unsubscribe from Salesforce.com in favor of a free open-source alternative (list) or SugarCRM (case studies of switchers)? And finally, does this unnecessarily distract American college students and staffers from boycotting Israel?
[Separately, our interviews for the family law book revealed some other areas where Indiana is out of the U.S. mainstream. The state offers no alimony, for example, to divorce plaintiffs. Child support profits are potentially infinite, as in most U.S. states, but an Indiana divorce plaintiff who can’t get custody of a minor child could end up without a recurring revenue stream. (If the couple has assets, acquired pre- or post-marriage, a judge could give the vast majority to a successful plaintiff, however. This makes Indiana potentially one of the most lucrative states for a short-term marriage to a rich person but one of the least lucrative for a long-term marriage in which the money was spent as fast as it was earned.) Should people who think that alimony is an important human right boycott Indiana? Check to see if an Indiana business owner supports changing over to a Florida-style “permanent alimony” system before becoming a customer?]
These kind of boycotts are rarely effective. This is just a type of self-righteous signalling by salesforce to other true believers that they are holy people. Holier than thou. The problem with this kind of signaling is that unless the vast majority of your customers happen to fall in your camp, you may end up alienating as many people with your posturing as you attract. Wouldn’t it be better for salesforce to stick to its business and leave politics out of it?
Symbolism over substance? Sure. Just like the law in Indiana.
Better than nothing? Yep.
Does it matter in any sense? Not really.
America used to have space for conscientious objectors. Apparently, nowadays you can opt out of fighting for the survival of the nation for religious reasons, but you can’t opt out of baking a cake for a gay couple.
I think the brouhaha is part of the triumphal march of the Left thru the institutions of American life. In such a triumphal sweep, no niche or vestige of the old culture is permitted to survive. All the shrines of the old cult must be desecrated and their idols smashed. If any backward corner of the land persists in the old ways, they must be humiliated to show them who is boss.
Boycotting is bad unless US government does it other countries.
Coup in Iran only happen after boycott by Oil Companies for two years
because CIA could torment a protest.
Indian law was written 500 years ago by British.
I am sure Singapore is the same way.
Now if there is rich gay lobby in India that buy off politicians than
the law will be overturned.
Apple CEO has spoken and even NCAA has threaten to never
hold Basketball championship in Indiana.
Couple of fashion designed spoke out against IVF, how quickly
did Elton John and others threatened boycott of them.
Thanks for this perspective. I actually had no idea this was still a crime in India, or that other states have had, for a relatively long time adopted some version of this law. Lately I’m finding it difficult to determine what is real news, much less evaluate the historical perspective of current events. One thing I can say is that at least this law expands freedom for some individuals, which seems to support the core of the main “USA is a free country” rhetoric. However, this week we’ve also seen an AZ senator propose a bill requiring mandatory weekly church attendance. (I guess every non christian is screwed- Schule is not church.) Again- I can’t believe this is real, but I’m told its being packaged in with a pro-concealed carry law so it is likely to pass.
Indiana is a manufacturing economy, and has been doing quite well in job growth with a gross state product of $294 billion. Its clearly not about the fiscal effect of the boycott. Its not about Angie’s list’s 1,000 jobs. Nobody cares. Sure- its posturing, even if its hypocritical.
What I enjoy about the posturing is that it helps people set expectations for who they want their employees, coworkers, neighbors to be. Perhaps there will be a homogenizing effect throughout Indiana- they will continue to become more religious. They can attract people who will happily take those abundant $28,000/yr jobs the state is so good at creating. Now, these jobs don’t require much vocational training beyond high school, and things like algebra have no practical value compared to say, studying how bad they had it in the old testament vs at the steel mill. So lets say one of these guys walks into a bar with a Sales Force employee named, oh I dunno, lets call her Linda- Linda Branagan. Lets further suppose that she happened to be wearing a FreeBSD T-shirt. She is instantly pegged as a satanist and denied service. How long before she and the rest of the people operating these “Devil Computers” move to Massachusetts, where an average income is more like $72,000, and a FreeBSD sysadmin probably makes more like $140,000?
Of course, any of you who read the FreeBSD handbook back in the day (1989 or so, apparently) know this is a true story. http://rmitz.org/freebsd.daemon.html
So sure, your great FBO will continue to exist because it is of strategic value due to its location. But, if its not already in the middle of a corn field, it will be in the middle of a food and culture desert- which maybe is OK in the case of a place you’re going to be spending only a few hours at, but would ya wanna live there?
Also, after reading the bill, and the definitions within it, all I can say is WTF?! How is it possible to write hundreds of lines of drivel without any clear definition of what a “a governmental interest of the highest magnitude” actually is. Its as if the whole legal system was written by some a-hole of a 1980’s C++ coder who wrote 100,000 lines of abstract classes with multiple inheritance, then said, yeah here’s your framework- we have no idea what it does, but you should only have to implement one concrete class now. This bill is all about symbolism and maybe a few wedding cakes until a healthcare practitioner decides they don’t have a duty to act and the DA agrees with them because, you know- they go to the same church.
Also- whoa B Coleman has great photos. Always wanted to do dusk aviation photos.
>Also, after reading the bill, and the definitions within it, all I can say is WTF?! How is it possible to write hundreds of lines of drivel….
These guys are mere amateurs – the Obamacare bill has MILLIONS of lines of drivel.