I’ve been struggling lately with how to reconcile my intense love affair with Amazon with my intense dislike of its owner, Jeff Bezos? As a minor shareholder of Amazon stock and a major fan of Amazon’s online shopping service, I have a vested interest in its success. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t have their boxes or bags greeting me at my front door. But, Jeff Bezos with his “Let them eat cake” lifestyle and the political sucking-up of Bezos, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta/Facebook, Bill Gates, and other Silicon Valley honchos to the American President leaves me deeply conflicted. Watching an online video of a recent dinner at the White House  attended by all of the major Poo-Bahs of the tech world kowtowing to their Fuhrer was sick-making. How can I support such businesses? We’re not fooled; they’re not investing in making a better world; they’re investing in themselves.

My moral dilemma doesn’t stop with Amazon. I have an iPad, a PC laptop, Facebook and Instagram accounts, and numerous other consumer products associated with these firms. Their scope and influence are inescapable unless I go off the grid completely, which I am not prepared to do. And even if I opted out, it would not affect their business practices. I would ultimately only be punishing myself. I realize the obsequious fawning of the tech leaders is for their own financial gain, but I find myself wondering how they can be so blatantly unprincipled.

I suppose the easy answer is to do what they’re all doing—put myself first. I love ordering on Amazon, and as I get older and less inclined to drive to a store only to find it doesn’t carry what I’m looking for, I rely on online ordering more and more. My iPad is always within reach, and my laptop is the tool for generating BoomerBroadcast, my joyful retirement hobby. Facebook has put me back in touch with people I had not seen or heard from in years, and that’s been wonderful. I’m neither willing nor able to do without these modern conveniences.

On the bright side, Bezos’s ex-wife and the mother of their four children, MacKenzie Scott, has been lavishing various charities and worthy causes with the bounty from her recent divorce settlement. Scott has given away bazillions of dollars she scored in their divorce, and, to her credit, she’s not finished giving.

I don’t know what kind of monthly alimony Scott collects, if any, but I console myself with the thought that whatever my contribution is to Amazon’s bottom line, I hope it gets forwarded to her causes. At the risk of sounding bitchy and petty (which I probably am), Bezos’s current wife will still have plenty left over for more fillers and Botox.

It’s a challenge to be principled these days when there’s so much wrong with this world. Avoiding the evening news helps eliminate much of my stress and frustration, but the negative, disturbing messages still manage to penetrate. It’s reassuring to see so many Canadians scratching the United States off their vacation destination list, and opting for Canadian products over American ones. Maybe small steps do make a difference.

There may be a ray of hope, however. I recently heard that ChatGPT has partnered with Walmart to provide Amazon-like online service. Perhaps that move will prompt other major commercial businesses and retailers to hop on the ChatGPT bandwagon, and we will have an alternative to Amazon. Hopefully, the AI owners will show more integrity in their approach to managing their business. Time will tell.

I don’t have the answer to my current Amazon dilemma, or the other issues which I lack the power to fix or even influence. There are so many times I find myself thinking I’m glad I’m old. Most of life’s challenges are behind me, but the future is concerning. Given the choice, I prefer to do business with firms that have integrity and a strong code of ethics. All I want is to live what remains of my life in peace and with peace of mind.