Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Buy Nothing Day

Tags: activism, economics, holiday, shopping
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  • 15 comments
stonetalker

BND

stonetalker

November 27 2009, 22:22:25 UTC 11 years ago

I also participate in the day after Thanksgiving as being Buy Nothing Day. I've never gone shopping on this day, and I never will (although I don't count throwing gas in the car while I picked up a prescription or a gallon of milk as 'shopping' but I suppose some die-hards would).

For me, the whole Thanksgiving / Christmas thing has got way out of hand, too representative of gluttony and greed and commercialism. Count me out. I'm not Scrooge; I just see no reason to go in debt and spend money I don't have on stuff I don't need. If we can't celebrate the blessings we have, if we can't share with each other the magic of the season without spending a fortune, shopping like madmen, and throwing away enough food to feed a small Bengali village for a week, then what indeed are we becoming?

And yes, I know there are exceptions to every rule. I just have a very bad intuition about the future of the society of over-consumption.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: BND

ysabetwordsmith

November 27 2009, 23:11:48 UTC 11 years ago

>> I've never gone shopping on this day, and I never will (although I don't count throwing gas in the car while I picked up a prescription or a gallon of milk as 'shopping' but I suppose some die-hards would). <<

I have before, which is partly how I know I don't like it. When people want to shop together, and that's the only time they have for it, then it's more understandable.

>>For me, the whole Thanksgiving / Christmas thing has got way out of hand, too representative of gluttony and greed and commercialism.<<

I agree. I enjoy the holiday season, but too much of a good thing is trouble.

>>I just have a very bad intuition about the future of the society of over-consumption.<<

The problem with that is, the whole system is unsustainable; you can't have infinite growth in a finite system. That should be obvious. But almost nobody seems to understand that, or be willing to consider alternatives. So we have economic crashes and we run out of resources.

I think about Easter Island and worry.
http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rapanui.html
stonetalker

Re: BND

stonetalker

November 27 2009, 23:15:54 UTC 11 years ago

Yea verily...
je_reviens

Re: BND

je_reviens

November 28 2009, 01:23:41 UTC 11 years ago

I do agree with you on over commercialism except I think in this economy staying home is unnecessary. Stores offer jobs to people who desperately need a paycheck. Manufacturers also employ large numbers of people -- even if the factory is in China the administrative offices are here in the US.

If one doesn't HAVE money then I don'[t advocate spending, of course! But in this very bad economy refusing to push money through the system just makes it worse, not better.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: BND

ysabetwordsmith

November 28 2009, 02:52:07 UTC 11 years ago

>>But in this very bad economy refusing to push money through the system just makes it worse, not better.<<

Maybe that will finally beat it through the fatcats' heads that people who don't have any money don't spend money on the stuff that gets made in those factories.