Why I don't buy into Buy Nothing Day
Nov. 25th, 2001 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWhoa. What a day. Only 5 hours, but I'd forgotten how hectic holiday shopping checking was. There was hardly any letup all day. Bang, bang, bang, one customer right after another. I guess all in all it was a good thing that I overslept, because if I hadn't, I might not have been able to hold up at all.
Now...I promised a bit of a rant on Buy Nothing Day, and so I shall deliver.
The other day, Friday, when I got up in the morning and went down to Best Buy to do a little shopping, I saw a couple of people sitting or standing on the grassy median edging the parking lot of the shopping center. One of them is a fellow I've seen around off and on several times protesting against Best Buy; he seems to have something against their warranty service. I keep meaning to ask him what his beef with them is, but I never end up being able to park near enough that it's worthwhile to walk over and ask him. My guess is that he bought some expensive piece of computer equipment and there was a problem with the warranty. He's been doing this for months, so whatever his problem is, it must be a pretty darned big one.
The other person was someone marching up and down with some sort of blocky mask that I'm guessing was a mockup of a building on his (or her) head. I couldn't tell exactly what, as I never got close enough to see. My guess is that this person was observing Buy Nothing Day.
For those of you who're not aware what Buy Nothing Day is, it's essentially a campaign by people who are trying to protest the rampant consumerism of the era by staging demonstration exhorting people to buy nothing on "Black Friday"--the Friday after Thanksgiving that is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. They have a public service announcement--an "uncommercial," as they call it--that they try to get aired every year--and every year, the major networks all turn them down. (Big surprise.)
Their "uncommercial" bombards the viewer with statistics that are, at best, taken out of context, and at worst, altogether meaningless: "The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, ten times more than a Chinese person, and thirty times more than a person from India." One of the first things my statistics class taught me is that there's no such thing as an "average person." And since when were Mexicans not North Americans themselves? For that matter, could it be that the reason Mexicans, Chinese, and Indians do not consume what we do is that their economic and governmental systems keep them from earning as much as we do? And that if they had free capitalist societies, they might be just as "bad" as we?
I'm a middle of the road sort of guy, politically, and I try not to condemn opinions or viewpoints based solely on whether they're "conservative" or "liberal"--preferring instead to think through the consequences and base my opinions on that. But this "Buy Nothing Day" thing strikes me as bleeding-heart liberal thinking at its most muddled, and simply doesn't make any sense to me.
1) What are they trying to protest? Conspicuous consumption is my guess. And I'm not saying that such consumption is always good...but it's part of the way our economy works. We're a bred-in-the-bone capitalist society, founded on the principle that everyone should be able to enjoy the fruits of his own labor.
2) What's the point? Our buying habits are ingrained. Giving and getting Christmas presents is a part of our culture, and save for people whose religion precludes celebrating it, there is an expectation on the part of our families and friends that we're going to buy Christmas presents. And if we're going to buy Christmas presents, we're going to buy Christmas presents. If we don't buy them November 23, we'll buy them November 24, or 25, or some other time between then and Christmas. Or perhaps we even already bought them. The only effect Buy Nothing Day would have is to make people miss out on the traditional Thanksgiving Friday morning sales. Big deal.
3) Boycotts never work. I have not heard of a single boycott against even a corporation that had any effect. Amazon.com is still standing despite the people upset over its patent on one-click ordering; the Harry Potter books and movie continue selling like hotcakes despite all the Fundamentalist Christians up in arms over their portrayals of witchcraft. And they expect a boycott aimed at an entire country to have some effect? Get real.
4) It's an especially bad idea this year. Since the terrorist attack on 9/11 threw our economy into a tailspin, one of the major messages coming down from the government is that buying things is the best way to help our economy. Now while I think that equating consumerism with patriotism is almost as silly as the whole Buy Nothing Day thing, it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people will feel they have a duty to shop, in order to help keep the economy healthy. Others will feel (and do feel, judging by some of the comments left on the Buy Nothing Day comment board) that to observe Buy Nothing Day is to collaborate with the terrorists, who were also trying to destroy our capitalist economy. People who have lost jobs as a result of the tragedy will probably have a few harsh things to say--let alone people who've lost friends or relatives.
Perhaps I'm a bit oversensitive, given that I work in retail. (Actually, according to a statistic I heard in Marketing class, 1 in 7 people in the USA work in retail. That's right, 1 in 7.) But if all this effort and money that are put into Buy Nothing Day were put into some more worthy cause, like charities to aid the victims of 9/11, just think of all the good that could be done. As it is now, no good is coming out of Buy Nothing Day.
If the Buy Nothing Day advocates wish to emulate the consumerist habits of Mexicans, Chinese, or Indians, perhaps they should consider emigrating there, and seeing how they like it.
Now...I promised a bit of a rant on Buy Nothing Day, and so I shall deliver.
The other day, Friday, when I got up in the morning and went down to Best Buy to do a little shopping, I saw a couple of people sitting or standing on the grassy median edging the parking lot of the shopping center. One of them is a fellow I've seen around off and on several times protesting against Best Buy; he seems to have something against their warranty service. I keep meaning to ask him what his beef with them is, but I never end up being able to park near enough that it's worthwhile to walk over and ask him. My guess is that he bought some expensive piece of computer equipment and there was a problem with the warranty. He's been doing this for months, so whatever his problem is, it must be a pretty darned big one.
The other person was someone marching up and down with some sort of blocky mask that I'm guessing was a mockup of a building on his (or her) head. I couldn't tell exactly what, as I never got close enough to see. My guess is that this person was observing Buy Nothing Day.
For those of you who're not aware what Buy Nothing Day is, it's essentially a campaign by people who are trying to protest the rampant consumerism of the era by staging demonstration exhorting people to buy nothing on "Black Friday"--the Friday after Thanksgiving that is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. They have a public service announcement--an "uncommercial," as they call it--that they try to get aired every year--and every year, the major networks all turn them down. (Big surprise.)
Their "uncommercial" bombards the viewer with statistics that are, at best, taken out of context, and at worst, altogether meaningless: "The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, ten times more than a Chinese person, and thirty times more than a person from India." One of the first things my statistics class taught me is that there's no such thing as an "average person." And since when were Mexicans not North Americans themselves? For that matter, could it be that the reason Mexicans, Chinese, and Indians do not consume what we do is that their economic and governmental systems keep them from earning as much as we do? And that if they had free capitalist societies, they might be just as "bad" as we?
I'm a middle of the road sort of guy, politically, and I try not to condemn opinions or viewpoints based solely on whether they're "conservative" or "liberal"--preferring instead to think through the consequences and base my opinions on that. But this "Buy Nothing Day" thing strikes me as bleeding-heart liberal thinking at its most muddled, and simply doesn't make any sense to me.
1) What are they trying to protest? Conspicuous consumption is my guess. And I'm not saying that such consumption is always good...but it's part of the way our economy works. We're a bred-in-the-bone capitalist society, founded on the principle that everyone should be able to enjoy the fruits of his own labor.
2) What's the point? Our buying habits are ingrained. Giving and getting Christmas presents is a part of our culture, and save for people whose religion precludes celebrating it, there is an expectation on the part of our families and friends that we're going to buy Christmas presents. And if we're going to buy Christmas presents, we're going to buy Christmas presents. If we don't buy them November 23, we'll buy them November 24, or 25, or some other time between then and Christmas. Or perhaps we even already bought them. The only effect Buy Nothing Day would have is to make people miss out on the traditional Thanksgiving Friday morning sales. Big deal.
3) Boycotts never work. I have not heard of a single boycott against even a corporation that had any effect. Amazon.com is still standing despite the people upset over its patent on one-click ordering; the Harry Potter books and movie continue selling like hotcakes despite all the Fundamentalist Christians up in arms over their portrayals of witchcraft. And they expect a boycott aimed at an entire country to have some effect? Get real.
4) It's an especially bad idea this year. Since the terrorist attack on 9/11 threw our economy into a tailspin, one of the major messages coming down from the government is that buying things is the best way to help our economy. Now while I think that equating consumerism with patriotism is almost as silly as the whole Buy Nothing Day thing, it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people will feel they have a duty to shop, in order to help keep the economy healthy. Others will feel (and do feel, judging by some of the comments left on the Buy Nothing Day comment board) that to observe Buy Nothing Day is to collaborate with the terrorists, who were also trying to destroy our capitalist economy. People who have lost jobs as a result of the tragedy will probably have a few harsh things to say--let alone people who've lost friends or relatives.
Perhaps I'm a bit oversensitive, given that I work in retail. (Actually, according to a statistic I heard in Marketing class, 1 in 7 people in the USA work in retail. That's right, 1 in 7.) But if all this effort and money that are put into Buy Nothing Day were put into some more worthy cause, like charities to aid the victims of 9/11, just think of all the good that could be done. As it is now, no good is coming out of Buy Nothing Day.
If the Buy Nothing Day advocates wish to emulate the consumerist habits of Mexicans, Chinese, or Indians, perhaps they should consider emigrating there, and seeing how they like it.
