Buy nothing today

My family does not really do Christmas, my dad was Muslim so we just get presents randomly over the month of December. I get alot of $$ from fam and damn i hit up the after x mas sales...

so much ill shit for soo cheap.
 
The funny thing is, you can find most of these deals online year round if you search hard enough. Sadly, most people are to dumb to figure that out and turn into crazy animals that can't live without feeling like they got a good deal.

 
I think I might buy some taco truck tacos, and maybe an in n out burger by day's end... I don't have a home to permanently store anything else except stuff in my belly.
 
Actually one of the biggest portions of the increasing GDP is consumption, which is why our country has one of the strongest economies in the world even in recession. What you said was just downright idiotic. The only way to keep the economy strong is to maintain high GDP.
 
Yes, I understand that....but it is still STUPID. Anyone who goes out today and purchases something is not evil, and your entire theory is contradictory to your goal.
 
I wasn't saying that these people are evil but this day is just another excuse to buy stuff that you may not need. BUT in some cases this day is good for the people that can't normally pay for ESSENTIAL goods at regular prices. Not really sure what to say about that last line though.
 
we dont disagree.

sorry for butchering the name:)

sounds like you just made a case for black friday if you ask me? i personally can see bailing out financial institutions, but IMO we are going WAY to far in the wrong directions.

i really dont think we are far apart if at all on this, you cant have Americans boycott spending much like the thread creator was talking... (i hope we agree on that?)
 
Touché! Very well said our generation needs to realize that all the shit we're brainwashed into wanting like overpriced clothing or a brand new iPod doesn't matter!
 
Shouldn't you be in a 100 level poly sci class preaching your bullshit, because your first year of college finally opened up your eyes to underlying workings of the world?
You have the most basic understanding of the economy and the U.S. as a whole, when you try to extrapolate your knowledge into real life applications you are completely wrong.
 
no i have a basic understanding of resources and inequality, and think we ought to get our priorities straight.
 
This and our economic downturn has shit all to do with those. Maybe help yourself to a textbook before you rehash whatever tangent your state school professor went off on in class last week.
 
are you suggesting that the recent turn of events was when i first jumped on this anti-consumerism bandwagon?

I'm not spewing any tangent from a professor of mine, i haven't read an economic textbook, i thought scholasticism died out in the 14th century -- i guess economics hasn't gotten the memo yet, it didn't work out too well then, why is it the case now?

regardless, my argument is not economic, it's ecological. The pattern of endless consumption, and disregard for the environment around you (or away from you) is going to bring an end to everything, no matter how many economy text books you've read.

perhaps you should stop jumping to the ad-hominem attack and stick to why the economic crisis takes precedence over the ecological crisis.

my belief is relatively simple, and i knew it long before i entered freshman year

my ability to live > my ability to live well

 
well, i think the basic idea behind the whole meltdown is that the economy was not sustainable, the reason we are failing is because everyone bought far too much - well beyond their means.

given this whole news media "buy or it gets worse scare" is influential on the market, dont fall for it. buying got us into this, there is less money going around and by putting off the eventual financial apocalypse that comes when it rights itself we are making it infinitely worse.

please, stop buying your killing us all.
 
Economic tools will be the only way to prevent an ecological disaster. I am not saying everything goes back to economics, but in this case it does. People's views aren't going to change and everyone has always and will always do what is best for themselves. We can't just shift to a Marxist society because it provides better average welfare for everyone.
The population's viewpoint:
my ability to live well > my ability to live
This will not change, ever. It needs to be accepted as a given and should be thought of as an identity in policy decisions.
 
That's so false though -- it's not the populations view, it's the corporate view. Perhaps with the past 70 something years of TV and corporate brainwashing has played a part in the perception that the public thinks that living well > simply living, but it's just not true -- you can't live well if you can't live at all.

I agree with you that we need some bit of an economic backbone to be able to even address any other problem -- as solving problems takes money; I'm not explicitly advocating for marxism, we just need a system that doesn't take natural resources for granted. (as i haven't' actually read an economic text-book and don't intend to, i'll let you tell me whether or not it's true that current economy scholasticism disregards the value of nature (ie how much it'd cost farmers if bee's didn't polinate their crops for them), and the finitity of nature.)

Given this, you need this fundamental shift from the mind set that we are apart from nature to the realization that we are a part of nature. Only endless and meaningless consumption is my enemy. For example after the attacks on 9-11 we were told by our president that it was our duty to keep shopping. keep on buying crap. That is not the aproach you ought to extol.
 
Oh my God dude, your argument holds no water whatsoever. It's all over the place trying to link TV brainwashing, to corporate evil, to ecological disaster, to a Utopian mindset where no one wants to help themselves more than themselves. The simple fact that you are typing on a computer makes you a hypocrite! That's how ridiculous and transparent your theory is! People have been seeking a better quality of life through technological breakthroughs and consumption since the beginning of time, and to suggest that is wrong is two things: naive and foolish. This is not something you discovered after researching the economy since 1920. It's a simple fact that people want better for themselves and their families rather than accepting their state. It's the reason we have so much as a race, people are always trying to make things better. If we followed your strategy, there would be 1,000 people in the world living in caves right now.
 
No it doesn't it means we wouln't have 2/10 of the population consuming 8/10 of the worlds resources, and it would mean that 1/2 the population would be living off the chump change of the top 1/100th of the population

again I seem to be the target of the ad-hominem attack-- i'm hypocritical therefore my argument is false? credit to whoever made this analogy in another thread but just because i can't do a double flip doesn't mean i can't criticize or for that matter appreciate a bad one or a good one respectively.

I think i've realized the fundamental difference between us, perhaps you feel as if you must live for the betterment of yourself, and perhaps you can't imagine any other way to live, i mean i know you said living for your family -- but i can't tell if you're talking about those around you or those further down your linage.

My view is if you live primarily for your grandchildren's grandchildren -- If you're considering the implications of your actions 4 generations down the road (that's a century if you're counting) -- you've done your fair share living well. Your luxuries come secondary to the basics of your own future kin, but i haven't removed all entitlement to a better life.

Anywaysi hate to break it to you -- not every culture has been a culture of consumption -- and even if every culture has been as bad or worse in terms of excessive/pointless consumption that gives no justification for why we do not change today.

My view may not be close to the norm of what our culture is today, but it's in no way Utopian. I may be giving up the iphone but ihaven't relegated us to living in caves.

what is wrong with moderation and respect?
 
I don't know if you understand it or not, but when you say "living within our means" I think you are confused about something. People buy shit on black friday because they can afford it. Today's discounts are incredible. Plenty of people are living within their means, its not like people are using this as an excuse to buy out an entire store when they can't afford it. The point of today is to make things more affordable. If you are against this, throw your fucking computer away and go live in the woods.
 
stop skiing. seriously. you always talk about our obligations to those living with one dollar, yet you constantly live beyond necessary consumption. if you really felt this way, you'd do a lot more than just not shopping on black friday to help them, you'd make real significant life changes that can do real good.
 
like the 2000+ dollars you spend on skiing you NEED to be happy? fucking a you guys think your so fucking conscious not shopping on black friday, its just as gross as the throngs who wait in line to buy a bunch of crap they dont need.
 
The creators opinions here as as wild as Robert Kennedy's. I'm soooo happy we have such a numbskull in charge of one of the largest burocracies in the US (the EPA.) Fuck the kennedys.
 
i also bought shit today that i can enjoy nature with. I got a sick deal on crampons at EMS. 90 bucks down from 190..i should have waited til today to buy my mountaineering boots.
 
dude just shut the fuck up. nothing is wrong with moderation and respect. im just sick of your eletist bullshit about how your sooo moderate. not shopping at black friday does not make you some amazing person.. you live way above you means. you live life to live it well, not just to live.that little > bullshit you wrote is such a lie, get over it.
 
few things

1. sadly i havn't skiied in over a year and a half due to knee issues -- not by choice, yet perhaps that'll give you some sadistic satisfication

2. my actions has no impact on the validity of my argument, I can be as hypocritical as i want -- it means nothing to the point of my argument.

3. significant life changes occur over the period of one's life -- given the opportunity i'll implement changes, the change we're discussing isn't instantaneous.

4. with that siad the significant changes i'm doing now is the support of a new mindset which is a necessary pre-condition to any real changes that are going to take place. If it wern't for people to oppose you, you'd think you're always right. -- this opposition is reall good. - it breeds the change we're talking about.

 
Its funny how people like this have to advertise their status as being above the consumer trend in life. I see trends like this everywhere ranging from hating on capitalism to global warming. You people love to act like you are one step above the rest of us in your "sacrifice". Get down from your cross...
 
i've never thought of my self as an elitist on a cross, perhaps you consumer whores are doing a bit of projection.

i've realized the problems with our culture today and have announced my willingness to step aboard a new train of thought, iv'e announced how the old train of thought is doomed to crash and that we can't perpetuate it forever, but i've never thought of myself as any better than the rest of my comrades (oh shit i'm a communist now) whom i'll have to work in a coalition with inorder to inact any sort of the positive change mentioned.
 
the US is closer to 4.5% (.45/10ths) of the world population. I think you're correct about the 80% consumption figure, just varies a little by which metrics you use. Hard thing to make sense of, seeing the world how it really is. No wonder we humans have such a strong tendency to delude ourselves.
 
i dont see how you think you have made a valid point.

your supporting over the top consumerism in a failing economy? excess by todays standards does not have to include skiing if you work to ski and meet your means. if you buy 10 passes a year and retarded quasi hipster raiders jackets, sunglasses and whatever 08/09 gear you saw while surfing newschoolers on your moms computer then your are buying in excess.

If you bought them on a credit card that you cannot pay off this is worse. If they are in your garage with countless other pieces of sports equipment you picked up after seeing on fuel tv then we are really getting down to the root of the problem.

I think there is a fine line between modestly funding the hobby that you situate your life around versus buying a shitload of stuff you do not need because the news told you that the sky is falling.

He wasnt trying to change anything, just making a valid point. you are clearly very very butthurt for whatever reason.
 
im not saying you need to be perfect in order to level criticism, but you really dont get it do you?

how many times have you flown on a plane? how many times have you filled up your gas tank? how many times have you gone on vacation? how many pair of skis do you own? how many Tv's do you have? how many cloths do you have?

if you cant live at least close, while making an effort to work towards the way you preach, then your argument holds VERY little water. all IMO.

"do as i say, not as i do" because so far you have provided very few examples as to how you live a green and non consumtion lifestyle.

be a leader, if people buying stuff on black friday bugs you so much, then practice what you preach, and live a non consumption lifestyle.

i myself am not overly consumption minded myself, because IMO. (im gonna get hated on) Americans are pretty stupid when it comes to how they spend thier money. but its just that "THEIR" money. when you buy something are you consuming? or are you making an investment? does any of this make sense to you?

o you really should take a college Economics class, its far from boaring, and if you get a good professor he will give very poinient examples as to how government regulation, and thinking of the greater good for all can be accomplished to a certain extent. so the brash comments of "never plan to read a econ book" really dont speak to your willingness to learn about the world around you, and how you can have a positive impact on the world...
 
then be a leader, man up and do something! live the way you want all the other people in the world to live! YOU CAN make a difference, and thats a great thing!
 
timetostopposting.jpg

no, but seriously.
 
if i had to spend 2000+ on skiing, i wouldn't be doing it. in fact, i'm not really sure that everything that i have spent on skiing in the past 8 years even adds up to that. i didn't shop today because i don't need anything, and don't have any money to spend on anything, and i went wednesday. i really don't care about any kind of fucking protest on black friday, i was agreeing that we just buy lots of stuff that isn't totally neccessary, and throw out a lot of stuff that could be reused instead of dumped somewhere.
 
I'm against black friday, personally. promotes consumerism. i'm against the entire system that we have right now, essentially. we can't work with such a massive nation with so little regulations. it's either less regulations, or more regulations. The national debt was kickstarted by the massive amount of laws and restrictions we have. the US spends more money as a government trying to prevent things from happening than allowing things to just take their natural course. However, because the US is buffering people in debt, they think they can buy these things on black friday in which case they're still fucking themselves over with cash they don't have (very bad idea if you're doing that).

Maybe black friday is helping the USA, maybe it helps parents in poverty give to their children and loved ones...or maybe it's just a ploy to get the people with money to come in and buy even more of what they already have and don't need? Who knows.

But yes. In foundation, we are both against the thread creator. However you are completely against, while I have some shared views. Meh. I'm pretty sick of this. I'm skiing today, and I feel like a kid on christmas...no more arguing!
 
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