Buy me nothing for Christmas. I mean it.
Dec. 2nd, 2003 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaThis started as a response to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cullent's post about Buy Nothing Day, but I realized it was a good enough rant to go in my journal.
For me, "Buy Nothing Day" has nothing to do with being "überhip." I'm one of the most terminally unhip people you will ever encounter. I'm so unhip, anything I touch instantly turns 'so fifteen minutes ago.'
The reason I espouse this has little to do with third-world sweatshops, although that is never far from my mind. That is an issue that will require far more work than simple boycotting, since it is now endemic in our standard of living. Some of the Democratic presidential candidates are talking about adding international labor standards to trade pacts. I think this is a step in the right direction.
No, for me "Buy Nothing Day" is about refusing to play compulsory conspicuous consumption games.
If you look at the numbers (which numbers are hard to even find because there's been a deliberate campaign to discourage you from adding this up), even the "boom years" of the late 90's were artificially inflated by the amounts ofmoney credit consumers spent during November and December. Towards the end of the 90's this season literally made the difference between "expansion" and "recession."
Conspicuous consumption has a downward pull on the quality of goods and services. Companies are encouraged to make cheaper, more disposable products. Going down this road has made America insanely overworked -- we work longer hours to make cheaper products, so that we can buy more, not just because we are programmed to want more, but also because we have to buy more to replace things more often.
The average American spends between $800 and $2000 on this season alone. This is not cash being spent, but credit, which adds up and never seems to be completely paid off. There's a good reason why our forebears thought of debt as a vice. When the economy was buzzing along, and people had no trouble meeting their minimum credit card payments, this was like a big happy party. Look at the bankruptcy figures now. A lot of this is credit card debt, and a lot of that in turn is Christmas shopping.
Furthermore, credit card companies are evil incarnate, almost as bad as the pharmaceutical companies. Many states have laws defining interest over 10% as usury. (Look it up, I dare you.) Somehow the credit card companies have managed to get around this. Even with the prime lending rate feeding from the bottom as it is now, people still feel privileged to have a credit card that charges less than 10% annually.
In the movies, whenever you see slaves in a ship galley being forced to row, they have this big shirtless guy beating a drum, to set the rhythm the slaves are supposed to row to. The Christmas season has an equivalent, and you'll start to see it in a couple of days. Every other day, there will be some item in the news about how much consumers are spending compared to last year. This is ALWAYS a negative appraisal, accompanied by the words "retailers are worried that people are not spending as much this year." If anyone can remember these appraisals EVER being positive, please let me know. The message of these reports is obvious as hell -- if you're not doing your part to fuel the economy, then you are being a bad citizen!
In closing... I hope no one buys me anything for Christmas. I hope no one expects to receive anything from me for Christmas. I hereby give you permission to spend some money on yourself instead. Buy something you really want for yourselves. Encourage everyone around you to do the same.
cullent's post about Buy Nothing Day, but I realized it was a good enough rant to go in my journal.For me, "Buy Nothing Day" has nothing to do with being "überhip." I'm one of the most terminally unhip people you will ever encounter. I'm so unhip, anything I touch instantly turns 'so fifteen minutes ago.'
The reason I espouse this has little to do with third-world sweatshops, although that is never far from my mind. That is an issue that will require far more work than simple boycotting, since it is now endemic in our standard of living. Some of the Democratic presidential candidates are talking about adding international labor standards to trade pacts. I think this is a step in the right direction.
No, for me "Buy Nothing Day" is about refusing to play compulsory conspicuous consumption games.
If you look at the numbers (which numbers are hard to even find because there's been a deliberate campaign to discourage you from adding this up), even the "boom years" of the late 90's were artificially inflated by the amounts of
Conspicuous consumption has a downward pull on the quality of goods and services. Companies are encouraged to make cheaper, more disposable products. Going down this road has made America insanely overworked -- we work longer hours to make cheaper products, so that we can buy more, not just because we are programmed to want more, but also because we have to buy more to replace things more often.
The average American spends between $800 and $2000 on this season alone. This is not cash being spent, but credit, which adds up and never seems to be completely paid off. There's a good reason why our forebears thought of debt as a vice. When the economy was buzzing along, and people had no trouble meeting their minimum credit card payments, this was like a big happy party. Look at the bankruptcy figures now. A lot of this is credit card debt, and a lot of that in turn is Christmas shopping.
Furthermore, credit card companies are evil incarnate, almost as bad as the pharmaceutical companies. Many states have laws defining interest over 10% as usury. (Look it up, I dare you.) Somehow the credit card companies have managed to get around this. Even with the prime lending rate feeding from the bottom as it is now, people still feel privileged to have a credit card that charges less than 10% annually.
In the movies, whenever you see slaves in a ship galley being forced to row, they have this big shirtless guy beating a drum, to set the rhythm the slaves are supposed to row to. The Christmas season has an equivalent, and you'll start to see it in a couple of days. Every other day, there will be some item in the news about how much consumers are spending compared to last year. This is ALWAYS a negative appraisal, accompanied by the words "retailers are worried that people are not spending as much this year." If anyone can remember these appraisals EVER being positive, please let me know. The message of these reports is obvious as hell -- if you're not doing your part to fuel the economy, then you are being a bad citizen!
In closing... I hope no one buys me anything for Christmas. I hope no one expects to receive anything from me for Christmas. I hereby give you permission to spend some money on yourself instead. Buy something you really want for yourselves. Encourage everyone around you to do the same.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-02 01:35 pm (UTC)However, needless to say, I have no children.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-02 01:45 pm (UTC)