After Black Friday

Except that it won't stop. There is never going to be an end of stuff that people will want to buy and money is what we say it is, so credit can be extended literally eternally.

Consider this possibility. For 300 million, a drop in the federal budget river, every American can be given a debit card with one million dollars deposited in it. You can jump start the economy really fast and not put any strain on the budget at all.

(And I can just see the looks on some folks' faces at the thought of that!)

A bouquet of bah humbug reality checks tossed in for bad measure as someone (that would be me) whose personal-professional ‘Vietnam’ was living through 16 retail Christmases. (Props to John McCain). Pointless points include:

1) 'Black Friday' is a media term created relatively recently, supposedly to suggest that retailers go from red ink to black on that day. Nonsense, no retailer worth their salt EVER called it that way unless they were failing prior.

2) The day after Thanksgiving was ONCE (long ago) the largest day of the shopping year, but in truth that is now a myth retailers are attempting to live up to by creating the specials, etc. But the day AFTER Christmas is often larger, and in some retail businesses, particularly fashion, the key month is September. FYI.

3) The sales on 'Black Friday' (which originally referred to the stock market crash in October 1929...oh well...that's what happens when a pundit has zero broad-based history to reference) are big in volume but because of the now desperate discounting (again following the myth of the day after Thanksgiving being THE day of THE retailing year) the profit margins are pathetic...if they indeed exist.

4) Love it or hate it, consumerism and shopping for holidays and in general is a driving force of capitalism. The last time I looked, the USA was to capitalism what Paris Hilton is to (has-been) trashy pop tarts. Therefore, if people did NOT shop in this nation...the economy would falter.

But then, come to think….after the last few weeks, that decline would be no more noticeable than silence at the morgue.
Happy Holidays, y’all.

Sorry, the last post ("Your Name") was me.

Thought-provoking post, Rod. Generally, I agree that our consumerist society is indeed out of control and that much of what happens on what we now call Black Friday is a prime example of that problem. And yet....

Our local station interviewed people who had lined up before dawn for a Black Friday sale at a Fred Meyer (our regional, one-stop-shopping chain). When asked what they were buying, many replied "socks." Yes, socks. Not flat-screen mega-TVs. Not Wiis. Not designer purses or Rolex watches. One woman explained: "we're keeping the thermostat low, so we need better socks to stay warm." This is consistent with my own family's experience. My wife ventured out mid-morning on Friday in search of good deals on necessities, and said she was able to land excellent bargains on underwear, socks and gloves. And yes, she picked up a few things just to put a smile on a family member's face. As a one-income family dependent upon a state employee's salary, Black Friday bargain sales are a godsend.

At the family Thanksgiving gathering the day before, my physician sister-in-law (who, along with my dear brother the law firm partner, pulls in a six-figure salary) was reveling in her role as Princess of Political Correctness, vowing to honor Black Friday as "Buy Nothing Day" and lauding the Black Bloc anarchist kids who harass Christmas shoppers. Easy for her to say, because she has no need to seek out bargains. She buys stuff, but online and from toney, upscale companies. Going shopping is beneath her. As she ranted on about the scum who shop on Black Friday, my wife the stay-home mom bit her lip.

My point: our critique of consumerism will not sway average Americans if we fail to recognize the reality that Astyk implicitly acknowledges in her piece. We all need to buy some stuff, and there is no shame in buying and consuming wisely. Plus, economic reality forces some of us to buy our stuff on Black Friday, in discount joints, etc. We exercise the morality we can afford.

I am not mathematician, but really.....

"For 300 million, a drop in the federal budget river, every American can be given a debit card with one million dollars deposited in it."

300 Americans, not EVERY American.

How much is 300 million million?

Charles, your math is indeed off. Three hundred million million is not at all a drop in the Federal budget it - it is many times the entire world's GDP, 300 trillion.

Bill, I agree we have the morality we can afford to a degree - and I'm not condemning people for shopping. But the people lined up early in the morning mostly weren't there for socks, from the advance sales. And I'm not convinced anyone needs a big screen tv or an iPhone.

I agree with you about the self-righteousness of "buy nothing day" - lots of people don't have a lot of time off, and they need the sales. But there's also a sense of shopping as sport, and the constant narrative that we have to serve the economy, rather than having it serve us.

As for saving the Zooplankton, the decline has only just been measured, and the primary culprit (to the extent anyone knows) seems to be the acidification of the ocean due to global warming. So if you want to save the zooplankton, reducing emissions is probably a good start, as well as reducing the number of dead zones by not buying food grown with artificial nitrogen and not buying plastic, which ends up in the ocean. Not shopping helps there too.

Re: As for saving the Zooplankton, the decline has only just been measured, and the primary culprit (to the extent anyone knows) seems to be the acidification of the ocean due to global warming.

How in the world did the zooplankton survive other warm periods then? Relative to the entire history of the Earth we are actually in a cool era still. Back in the Mesozoic (among many examples) the average global temperature was almost 10 degrees higher than it is now-- palm trees grew in Alaska (which, yes, was about the same latitude it is now).

People need to exercise more fiscal self discipline? OK. People need to care more about human relationships and less about stuff? OK. People need to stop thinking of shopping as a sport? OK.

All fine, noble sentiments. But then there's this refried hippy nonsense:

"The truth is that our consumer culture needs us to be isolated, fragmented, alone, empty - or advertising wouldn't work, the nonsensical reasoning that we have to have this year's big thing wouldn't work. The primary project of consumer culture is to drive us apart, to make sure we do not share, we do not combine resources, or even consult on how ridiculous the things we are being told are. And it has worked magnificently."

This is the biggest load of droppings I've read this month. I mean, the whole point of the end-of-year shopping orgy is that its driven by GIFT GIVING. It may be misguided or over the top but the one thing it is not, definitively, absolutely, undeniably, is an attempt to "isolate" people. Damn near every Christmas oriented ad on TV shows people giving gifts to one another, laughing together, playing together, hugging family and walking through the front door of the Dear Old Homestead (tm) with wintery snows all about. To the extent that people are "isolated" or "alone" they are bad consumers and bad consumers are bad for business.

I got so excited writing my last post I forgot what I wanted to say.

Rod wrote: If you think the Black Friday bargains were good, just wait till you see what you can buy come February, when people start running out of money to buy crap

If a prediction I read in the WSJ this past September is correct, people wanting to buy stuff in February will be buying them at liquidation sales. The article stated that most retailers are postponing bankruptcy until after they get their seasonal infusion of cash. Mall owners are already in trouble, and we've seen some stores file BK already.

It will be interesting to see where the world as we know it stands after New Year's Day, 2009.

I wonder how much of this season's holiday buying is going to fueled by a "one last splurge" mentality?

If we do march toward another 'great depression' I imagine many people will start researching all the ways people made it in the original great depression. The things they did to save money, a la "use it up, wear it out; make it do, do without".

also, does anyone have any thoughts related to all that is happening here and the world over, and end times? It is worth a good discussion, I think.

Again, I don't see deflation as a bad thing unless it's cause is based on a loss of income as it was during the depression. If it's true that our economy is overextended due to credit then some shrinkage to reality is not a bad thing. IF.....

I personally am hoping to see a revival of a production based economy inside the US instead of an import based economy with goods being shipped in from mostly Chuina. That alone would help a little with global warming as all that fuel based transportation would shrink as well.

Perhaps getting off foriegn oil and looking to alternative energy options may be coupled with the realization that having a massive trade deficit and lack of manufacturing base is also a threat to our stability. I know this sounds isolationist, but I prefer the term local economy, as in a USA based economy. I cannot ever advocate the principals of true locovores because Alaska can't produce much. Plus trade has always been the lifeblood of flourishing economies. But getting off the China gravy train is in our national interest. Returning to USA production will give us jobs and local economies again that function. You cannot eat services, but a crayon factory can meet lots of needs.

I'm sitting here reading this in a palliative care facility in N. Carolina waiting for my father in law to die, my male partner's father for those of you who can't respect my family. I am quite struck, once again, as I was when I watched scores of friends die from HIV, and as I was when I watched my mother die, just how important relationships are, how important family and community are.

I won't be shopping for much this holiday season, being out of full-time work at the moment and also having a goal of returning to grad school this coming year. But I will make damn sure that everyone in my life who matters to me knows it. It will probably be from me telling them personally how much I love them or writing them a card, but it won't be with the "perfect" gift that costs a lot (or any) money this year.

Happy Holiday Season to all! Hug your loved ones.

My sisters and I walked out of the first electronics store with nothing. Overall, there just weren't that many good deals that won't be there this week and on into Christmas. Black Friday did seem to be the day to get a good deal if you were the type to get in line outside the store at midnight and spend $1000 on a singular gift, but if you were in the $100 and under range (or on a no credit card shopping order), you were out of luck.

And the lines were long. My job was to go stand in-line until my sisters were finished and then I would go looking around. Some of the cashier lines were more than an hour long, but over all orderly. There was also the opportunity to have a nice chat with a stranger with whom you were going to share close proximity until you got to the front of the line.

This is going to be a leaner Holiday for everyone in my family, but that doesn't mean it has to be thoughtless.

Happy Holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As for saving the Zooplankton, the decline has only just been measured, and the primary culprit (to the extent anyone knows) seems to be the acidification of the ocean due to global warming. So if you want to save the zooplankton, reducing emissions is probably a good start, as well as reducing the number of dead zones by not buying food grown with artificial nitrogen and not buying plastic, which ends up in the ocean. Not shopping helps there too.

Acidification can result from the oceans absorbing excess C02. Whether said C02 is causing global warming is a separate issue.