Buy Nothing Day

[FRED]

Series of Buy Nothing Day videos.

[Guest]

Re: Buy Nothing Day

I'm all for frugality, saving for the future before blowing your money on foolish junk, and for not wasting resources or bespoiling the planet. I personally despise the rush to consume after Thanksgiving on "black Friday". I give to charity in lieu of buying presents for Christmas. But there is plenty to do to make a change w/o resorting to these insane pleas to not consume at all, or to portray someone who goes and buys a TV set as ruining the planet. Give me a break.

This type of 'movement' has one objective. Anti-capitalism. It's just wrapped in environmentalism because it would be rejected out of hand if they approached it head on with a socialist plea for spreading the wealth around.

The argument that 20% of us consume 86% of the resources may be true. I'm sure the guy in a mud hut in Africa isn't running a $500/month power bill with his air conditioner. But this guy interviewed on fox seems to be claiming that because we consume resources (many of which are renewable or in abundance), the other 80% can't. The truth is, they can't even if we don't touch the resources. They have no money, live substinance lifestyles, and the real trouble will come if they DO start consuming like we do.

I like something I heard on TV last week. "The easiest way to lose an argument is to overstate your case". I think this sort of commercial message is a waste of money. As a simple start, why not approach over-consumers with a logical argument to save for the future before consuming?

[zoog]

Re: Buy Nothing Day

I'm all for frugality, saving for the future before blowing your money on foolish junk, and for not wasting resources or bespoiling the planet. I personally despise the rush to consume after Thanksgiving on "black Friday". I give to charity in lieu of buying presents for Christmas. But there is plenty to do to make a change w/o resorting to these insane pleas to not consume at all, or to portray someone who goes and buys a TV set as ruining the planet. Give me a break.

This type of 'movement' has one objective. Anti-capitalism. It's just wrapped in environmentalism because it would be rejected out of hand if they approached it head on with a socialist plea for spreading the wealth around.

The argument that 20% of us consume 86% of the resources may be true. I'm sure the guy in a mud hut in Africa isn't running a $500/month power bill with his air conditioner. But this guy interviewed on fox seems to be claiming that because we consume resources (many of which are renewable or in abundance), the other 80% can't. The truth is, they can't even if we don't touch the resources. They have no money, live substinance lifestyles, and the real trouble will come if they DO start consuming like we do.

I like something I heard on TV last week. "The easiest way to lose an argument is to overstate your case". I think this sort of commercial message is a waste of money. As a simple start, why not approach over-consumers with a logical argument to save for the future before consuming?

I second that. These videos reminded me of the emails that go around periodically urging everyone to not buy gasoline on a particular day. "Yeah, that'll show those greedy oil companies!" Um, no it won't. I can appreciate the sentiment behind these calls for in-action, but it would be naive to think they have any meaningful effect.

I barely even left the house on Black Friday, other than to have lunch with a friend, but today I had to do some shopping (unrelated to Christmas) that included some big box stores. We'll see what the retail sales numbers say when they come out, but in my observation, there were lots of people out shopping. We may be heading towards recession, and Joe & Jane Consumer may be slowing down, but they haven't stopped yet.

[metalman]

Re: Buy Nothing Day

I'm all for frugality, saving for the future before blowing your money on foolish junk, and for not wasting resources or bespoiling the planet. I personally despise the rush to consume after Thanksgiving on "black Friday". I give to charity in lieu of buying presents for Christmas. But there is plenty to do to make a change w/o resorting to these insane pleas to not consume at all, or to portray someone who goes and buys a TV set as ruining the planet. Give me a break.

This type of 'movement' has one objective. Anti-capitalism. It's just wrapped in environmentalism because it would be rejected out of hand if they approached it head on with a socialist plea for spreading the wealth around.

The argument that 20% of us consume 86% of the resources may be true. I'm sure the guy in a mud hut in Africa isn't running a $500/month power bill with his air conditioner. But this guy interviewed on fox seems to be claiming that because we consume resources (many of which are renewable or in abundance), the other 80% can't. The truth is, they can't even if we don't touch the resources. They have no money, live substinance lifestyles, and the real trouble will come if they DO start consuming like we do.

I like something I heard on TV last week. "The easiest way to lose an argument is to overstate your case". I think this sort of commercial message is a waste of money. As a simple start, why not approach over-consumers with a logical argument to save for the future before consuming?

yeh the canadian socialist with the french accent isn't my cup of tea either. the idea of a buy nothing day is aimed at joe debt serf not us enlightened intellectual types :rolleyes: waste of time 'cause joe debt serf is too busy at the mall buying crap made in china to watch some dimwit tv news chick pick on some dimwit socialist.

let's get a new whip inflation now! thing going... don't drive big tucks, WIN! etc.