I know what game you're trying to play, here

A local news station reports that retailers are beginning their Christmas sales early in anticipation of a "sluggish" holiday buying season. This, for the retailers, is a smart idea. As the authors of Unplug the Christmas Machine point out, "Advertisers discovered that the amount of money people spent was influenced more by the length of the advertising campaign than the length of people's gift lists" (p.19). So it doesn't really matter how many people we're buying for or how much money we tell ourselves we're going to spend. The longer the stuff stares us in the face, the more likely we are to buy it. This discovery was made during the first big US holiday advertising campaigns of the early 20th century.

Only here's the thing. Couldn't this year be a chance for people to realize that maybe they don't have to do the big huge debt-inducing celebrating they've been doing? And that it can be okay to simplify and the world won't stop?

It's been interesting listening to editorials about Our Current Economic Crisis, and how what really needs to happen is for Americans to get out there and spend. By being good little consumers, we can save the day, the country, AND THE WORLD.

Except that logic seems wrong to me. I mean, maybe it would help the GNP and the businesses who are making less this year than they're used to, but would it actually help us as individuals? Telling us to run out there and spend money on things we may not need and almost certainly can't afford? Because maybe I don't want to jump onto your Hamster Wheel of Disposable Crap, government. And yes, I'm sure all of our insatiable greed for whatever is newest, best, biggest, and shiniest has helped our economy. Until, you know, we saw the consumer debt amount climb and the bankruptcy and foreclosure rates rise. Because that's never bad.

I'm not an economist, at all. But I do wonder what would happen if, once Our Current Economic Crisis settles down, we started making smarter and simpler choices and blew raspberries at those who tell us it's our patriotic duty to be the World's Biggest Consumers.

Posted in: on my crap list,things that make me stare in disbelief