I'm never shopping at IKEA again

I don't care how cute our new bookcase is, I just won't do it.

And the reason why is this article in The Economist (which I'm not happy with either, but we'll get to that).

It turns out that IKEA is a mega-profit making (this bit I already knew) Behemoth (knew this too) not-for-profit organisation. Doesn't really make sense does it.

The Economist says:

What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous.

The "charitable" foundation that, in effect, owns IKEA is dedicated to “innovation in the field of architectural and interior design," but has, to all appearances, only given it's stated major beneficiary, US$1.7 million a year for the last few years, which is not even a blip on the radar of its estimated US$36 billion net worth.

Something doesn't add up here. Actually, it does add up - to enormous profits for the Kamprad family, especially since they pay a stupidly, ridiculously low amount of tax.

So screw IKEA. No more cheap (but good looking) Swedish furniture for us. Nope. From now on we'll be buying our household items from more ethical distributors, like, umm, might need to do a little more research on that front...

The reason I'm mad at The Economist is that they passed no comment on this obvious rort of the world. I know they tend to come down on the neo side of liberal, but seriously. You don't have to go that far.