If you boycott Amazon, you have to cut up your credit cards

Several people are now boycotting Amazon.com because of Amazon's decision to stop hosting Wikileaks on its servers. Amazon said Wikileaks had violated its service agreement.

But I have a problem with this boycott for two main reasons:

Reason 1: The effect that a successful boycott would have on low-level employees.

The Amazon warehouse workers, accountants, and clerical staff, for instance, had nothing to do with the Wikileaks decision. But, if a boycott is "successful" enough, those workers' jobs (and lives) could be adversely affected in this already-poor economy.

Reason 2: People tend to boycott selectively.

If you're going to boycott Amazon.com, I say you must also boycott Visa, MasterCard, and Paypal, since those companies also discontinued service to Wikileaks.

But I'm guessing that these people won't be cutting up their credit or debit cards any time soon. People don't boycott so quickly if it's personally inconvenient. And you can't do much these days without a Visa or MasterCard.

Also, as a friend pointed out to me, in the credit industry, lower transaction volumes can backfire on consumers and small businesses. If the volume is slower, the banks won't make less money, they'll just raise the rates for both the card holders and the merchants.

I think there are better ways to protest. We just need to look at the big picture, and do so logically, not hysterically, lest we look too much like the Tea Party.