I do believe that extreme political views should be considered when deciding which vendor to use. However, I would want to be absolutely certain that the views attributed to said vendor are in fact accurately portrayed. While most decisions should be business-based (i.e. best value for the criteria selected), financial gain should never trump perverse politics.

I would cross off any company or product coming from a communist country. Sure, I am biased, I grew up in one. Yet, money matters so principles suffer.

In a world where so many items have been commoditized, it is up to the consumer to decide what is important to them. Is the person with the questionable background providing an indispensable good or service that is only available through them, or is this something that can be acquired through another channel at a competitive price? Ultimately, the decision is the purchaser's.

Personally speaking, I would not knowingly buy goods or services from someone I found to be reprehensible. Without getting too specific, I refuse to purchase goods from a certain warehouse-style retailer because of their policies towards their employees. It is my way of voting with my wallet, and while my decisions will not single-handedly make or break a company, I will not enrich an organization or individual whose views I judge as wrong.

This is a very personal choice, one that requires people to make informed decisions at both the business and private level. My only request to everyone would be to understand what their needs are, evaluate their options, and make an informed decision. Understand and own your choices, as it is your money to spend as you see fit.

I am a Purchasing Director for a multi billion corporation and I would not buy from any company that has supported Socialist policies, or hires sales personnel that are left wingers and supported Obama policies

For years people have been singled out and excluded for their beliefs, or their percieved beliefs. Years ago some jerk in labeled me on his "make money off the halocaust website" with all sorts of hyperbole that it has damaged my chanced of employment. People on the left complain and whine all the time, but, again, and again, its radical people in the hiring process, or vendor selection process that get their way. You would think the corporate culture would really lean away from this, but this one or two people in every decision making process create such a scene that they get their way. They rant and rave in a way no woman or straight man would get away with it. Down right "Bitchy". It's why this election went the way it did. extremeist individuals illegally voted in "battle ground states" to tip the close scales their way. These small group of extremists effecting this country in a disproportionate manner. Sean Penn's a self professed Communist, and that's Okay, but, Mel Gibson gets drunk, and these people want to destroy him. It is UNAMERICAN to discriminate based on a person's beliefs or you perception of their beliefs. Besides, any other factor than price, quality, and service, used to select a vendor does you employer a disservice. A fellow at Frye's Electronics was using a different factor, kick backs, and that's wrong in the same way. To deny your company a good deal because you have a need to fulfil a political or religious, or ANY person agenda if a failure of your fiduciary responsibility to the company that pays your pay check!!!

Jeff Dranetz
Weymouth, MA

Yes, I would cross them off my list. Most of the time I won't care but I would not consider making a purchase from a known neo-Nazi. I would first do a little research to make sure I knew the true story but once I was sure I would not be supporting such a company.

Of course the politics matter! When you spend your money with a company and its owners/ shareholders profit, your money will be used to further their causes and you are complicit in their actions (however tacitly.) You can spend your money for good or for bad, but as Thomas Tusser laid it out 500 years ago, "a fool and his money are soon parted." Americans pretend to not even notice how we let our own country be led down the highway to fascism (after all, it's just business, right?) OK, sometimes the choice of two evils is still evil, but if you care at all about your fellow human beings then at least lobby the lesser evil to expel the guys you don't like and elect more reasonable board members. Publish articles or blogs about the truth as you see it. Tell everybody you know. Stop being so damn lazy about your social responsibilities. And yes, ask yourself seriously if you REALLY need to purchase that product. I can guarantee your access to bit torrents won't be too good when your freedoms are gone.

Having a political litmus test strikes me as coercive and antithetical to freedom.

People should be free to hold whatever political views they wish. And people should be free to do business or not do business with whomever they choose for whatever reasons are important to them. I can only hope that people are enlightened enough to accept differing opinions.

Pirate Bay as I understand does not actually steal intellectual property. They provide information concerning sources through which people can acquire pieces of files, many of which do contain stolen intellectual property when eventually assembled. The website is essentially a search engine. It doesn't appear that they sell anything except some ad space and some logo items. A freely accessible database of torrent files which may or may not lead to stolen intellectual property.

If every search engine had to validate the lawful ownership and legality of the content of the websites that are indexed, the search engines would lose their utility and the internet would become far more difficult to use.

The main reasons I would cross a company off of a vendor list are poor customer service and poor product quality.

The politics make a difference, but only to the extent that they represent a valid business risk. If the KKK were running a server farm business, and they were actively encouraging other racist organizations to utilize their services, I would probably hesitate to use their service (even if it were considerably cheaper) because of (1) an unacceptably higher level of risk of service disruption because of a physical attack on their server farm, and (2) an obvious marketing risk of being listed as a client of a service that is trying to market to hate groups.

To try to say that (1) I don't like socialism and (2) I believe that Obama is a socialist and (3) the President of Vendor X donated money to Obama's campaign so (4) I can't buy from Vendor X because I would be supporting socialism, would be a bit crazy.

Of course, crazy people buy services too...

Why help enable failed isms. You need only to look back in recent history to see that these kinds of social engineering squandered human lives and treasure. Keep failure to yourself and leave me alone. Its called judgement we all need to use during the course of our business affairs. I for one would not go back to a poisoned well. Do not repeat history but learn from it.

I think more important here is WHO labels somebody "extreme" or "biased" or "questionable", rather thatn would you cross off a company from your list because of politics. Who has the right to stand as a last and true (?!) opinion and say this person/business is good and another person/business is bad? No matter of the great communication technologies we have today, it has become easier to manipulate and conceal truth. Ironically in the communist countries it is absolutely clear who is the last judge of everything, but who is the last judje in the other world that we hope is better?

My answer is do not trust blindly everything you read or hear from media and especially from politicians. Think yourself and make smart decisions. That means I cannot say and it is stupid to cross-off a company because of politics. Although I would like to do it most times, but it may be absolutely stupid.

Why don't we ban Microsoft or IBM, because thay pay taxes in US and finance the war in Iraq? Why not buy petrol from Venezuela if it is cheap?

It makes sense to vote with your dollars. Extremists do it all the time. We as informed, centrist citizens should do so as well. Money does come before social responsibility in the minds of some. It is not a black or white decision to place it there. It should be thoughtful and well reasoned and aligned to your own personal and social values.

Why support failed policies and politics out of a sense of financial responsibility? If you take a broad view of the financial impact of such policies, it is clear that they have failed both financially and socially.

Well Veteran,
Your generic criticisms against "lefties" would be more valuable if you were able to identify the company you represent since, as a so-called "leftie", I could make the decision to avoid your company altogether. As it stands, you simply come across as a mindless bigot.

It doesn't matter or so it would seem, whether the political leanings of any entity or individual matters at all any more.
The demoratic party is the largest neo-nazi group in the world and has seized control of the American Government with the support of the American people.
Does anyone think that this article is really relevant?
If the product works and is supported by the Manufacture is all that matters not what the political philosophy of the company happens to be.
MADE IN CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get the point?

I would never knowlingly do business with a compny that supports the violation of anyone's civil rights or spreads hatred based on bigotry.

It seems we forget that this country was founded to escape from oppression, the Boston Tea Party occured because we wanted to be free from taxation to support people who were not contributing to our infrastructure.

We need to understand that capitalism tempered with morality is what made this country great. Socialism supports the efforts of only the presious few at the top and everyone else is asked to work hard and conform so that the country functions and those at the top enjoy success while the remainder work only to survive.

Bottom line is that business does need to make money but not at the expense of oppression and discrimination, use your dollars to vote and you will change how things work.