From…, oh, some progressive email list somebody put me on.
Eric,
Tomorrow starts the traditional holiday season, when Americans will spend billions of dollars.
Several Occupy groups and our friend Ed Schultz are urging Americans to use our shopping dollars strategically, to help repair our economy. They’re asking Americans to support local businesses, not big chains selling foreign products.
We’ll share the best ideas with fellow PCCC members (800,000 now!) in the near future — and we’ll share them with Ed Schultz, in case he wants to feature them on TV. Click here to share your ideas.
Huffington Post reports:
One group, known as Occupy Black Friday, is urging shoppers to bypass chain stores in favor of small and local businesses, while another group, named Don’t Occupy Walmart, is organizing a boycott of Walmart stores in protest of what it calls unjust and anti-union practices on the part of the retail giant.
On MSNBC, Ed Schultz said:
What can we do as Americans this holiday season to make things a little bit better in a tough economy?
I think as a country we should all focus on buying American. Instead of buying some cheap product from China that’s sitting on somebody’s big department story shelf — that will help build their empire — save a small business in our country this year and buy American this holiday season. May I ask you to do that?
Americans, we will spend $10 billion this holiday season. If we just make the effort, we can save a job. We can help a company stay in business and do something for our neighbor.
Happy holiday season — and thanks for being a bold progressive.
– Michael Snook, Stephanie Taylor, Adam Green, Forrest Brown, and the PCCC team
20 comments
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November 24, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Anonymous
MSNBC, did you see Chris Matthews bashing Obama?
What’s up with that?
Could you explain to me how buying locally vs the big nasty Corporation stores helps the economy MORE ?
November 24, 2011 at 10:51 pm
ED Denson
As far as Black Friday goes, the movement seems to be unclear on the concept. This is not a day when the nation goes shopping, consequently the big stores decide to put on a huge sale. This is a day when the big stores put on a huge sale, so the nation goes shopping. Going to your local merchant and paying a higher price because you’re going to shop somewhere, and it might as well be local, is off the point. Stay home.
As far as non-Black Friday shopping, or trying to boycott a big box due to its labor practices, the arguments could make sense. I would think the real radical move would be to buy nothing which you don’t need. Already got clothes? Don’t buy any more. Already got a TV? Don’t buy another one. Already got a car? Don’t buy another one. There’s a plan that would shock the big boxes (and the little boxes too, I suppose). If you only bought what you needed, then you could think of buying a product that was well made and which would last – even if you had to pay more for it initially. Quite possibly that product would be made in America and availablle from your local small business.
November 24, 2011 at 10:53 pm
FC
Our economic system depends on planned obsolescence, in the form of convincing you that you want to upgrade to new and better. If you buy durable goods, and repair them when they break, the economy falters.
Watch the documentary The Light Bulb Conspiracy, taking us from the Phoebus cartel (a global light bulb cartel formed in 1924 comprised of major manufacturers) to present day teaching in design schools about products and consumers.
November 25, 2011 at 10:32 am
tra
When Trends Collide: Pepper Spray Fever Meets WalMart Black Friday Consumer Feeding Frenzy!
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/day_of_spray_cops_shoppers_turn_to_pepper_spray_to.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
November 25, 2011 at 11:31 am
tra
Another Wal-Mart, Another Violent Incident:
Today’s lesson: if it’s Black Friday, stay away from Wal-Mart at all costs. Following multiple reports of robberies, brawls and pepper-sprayings at Wal-Marts across the U.S. comes this from Buckeye, AZ:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/2135.
The “Buckeye Brawl” at the Wal-Mart in Arizona featured a woman getting punched, a child being trampled, and the child’s grandpa’s face being slammed into the concrete floor by a police officer.
It seems that in his haste to extract his grandson from the trampling, the grandpa tucked a video game into his waistband, which is why the cop body body-slammed him, “shattering” his face on the floor.
As one witness put it, the way the shoppers were fighting over the box of video games, “you would have thought the cure for cancer had been in that box.”
November 25, 2011 at 11:31 am
tra
And on and on it goes:
Taser Makes Appearance In Wal-Mart Black Friday Chaos
After a pair of pepper spray-related incidents at Wal-Marts across the country, a police Taser has finally made an appearance. From WAFF-TV in Alabama:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/2137
November 25, 2011 at 11:55 am
Ernie's Place
Meanwhile at the local Radio Shack, customers have been polite, unhurried, and there has been a lot of people in the store today, a day that most people head north. Sales have been good, and we apreciate it. Most of our products are made in China. People really have no choice anymore. People are required by ecomonics to get the most for their family’s money that they can. It’s up to our government to fight the world trade wars. We are a local franchize, and all of our employees live locally. I like small towns and small town people. In spite of what the people up north think of us, I think that SoHum people are a cut above the rest.
November 25, 2011 at 12:17 pm
tra
It’s up to our government to fight the world trade wars.
Unfortunately, our government essentially surrendered when we ditched tariffs and went for NAFTA and WTO. Check and mate. If current policies continue, it looks to me like the number of manufacturing jobs in America will continue to decline, and wages and working conditions for American manufacturing workers will continue to drop until they are equal to those in the lowest-wage countries.
Some say that a beneficial economic equilibrium will be reached when rising wages in the low-wage countries meet falling wages in the high-wage countries, at which point wages will no longer be a major factor that drives decisions about where to locate manufacturing facilities. So that’s the theory.
But in practice, it seems like wages in low-wage countries are still rock-bottom, while manufaturing jobs and wages in the U.S. continue to plummet. In other words, not only do we still have a long way to fall, but the floor that was supposed to be moving up to meet us — well that floor seems to have barely budged.
November 25, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Anonymous
The backbone of retailing— desire,appeal,function, price. The four touchstones of consumerism. Obsolescence is not the ruling situation when it comes to consumerism. People understand obsolete, we have lived with it for so long, some think, cool, this will be replaced with a newer,cooler item. What fills the shopping cart, the 4 touchstones.Those Wal-Mart ads are like pornography for the shopper. DESIRE. Otherwise, who needs a full-page glitzy ad? Those people camping out in front of Wal-Mart are not there because of obsolescence, their DESIRES have been whipped to a frenzy. Gotta have IT, can’t live without IT. And a credit card makes it so easy. Don’t even have to pay for it now.
November 25, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Jane C.
Oh Eric, how I miss doing all my Christmas shopping in so hum at the Winter Arts Fair at the Mateel! Handmade belts, soaps, candles, and “shots” of herbal remedies from Western Botanical Medicine. Those were gifts I was proud to give.
Greetings from Jane (and Jason and Geneva) in Canada!
Great healthcare, not so great craft fairs.
November 25, 2011 at 6:56 pm
FC
Black Friday is for suckers. Many deals are for old or discontinued products. Many deals only bring prices down to Amazon levels.
November 25, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Ernie's Place
TRA said: Some say that a beneficial economic equilibrium will be reached when rising wages in the low-wage countries meet falling wages in the high-wage countries, at which point wages will no longer be a major factor that drives decisions about where to locate manufacturing facilities. So that’s the theory.”
Tra,
Sadly, that won’t happen as long as we allow other countries to manipulate the value of their money to keep our money flowing their way, and when we run out, we print more, and charge it to our grandchildren.
It’s complicated, but the big problem is nobody tries that hard to understand that we are being screwed by every country in the world. We aren’t being outworked, we are being outsmarted.
November 25, 2011 at 9:23 pm
mresquan
Ernie,other countries aren’t screwing us.You can thank U.S.’s top CEO’s,unfair trade orgs. and their collusion with the IMF for that.
November 25, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Anonymous
tra x 5
November 26, 2011 at 6:59 am
moviedad
I call bullshit on that whole Walmart affair. A grandfather sees his grandson, a child; being trampled, but it’s all about the “Video Game”? What a load of nonsense.
Don’t you ever get tired of forcing yourself to believe that water runs uphill, just so the reports of abusive police makes sense?
Today across the country, cops shoot first; and only then check the ‘Scooby-Do” lunchbox for weapons.
Five year old child, or 80yr old grandma; they’re all treated like they’re threats.
The sad part is we only see a couple of isolated incidents, when it’s going on all over the place, and if it happens in a “minority” area, you’re not even hearing about that.
A police captain in New York a couple years after 911, said: “If they haven’t done at least one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan; then they’re wasting their time applying to law enforcement.” Now we see where that training ground has gotten us.
Constitutional Rights don’t mean a thing when you’re being jack-booted by thugs and killers.
Pepper spray today; live ammunition tomorrow.
“A shooting war in the streets of America; coming to neighborhood near you. Why should Iraq have all the fun.”
November 26, 2011 at 10:35 am
Anonymous
mresquan, you don’t know sqwat ! You just think you do.
November 26, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Ernie's Place
Actually Mrsquan does know squat, he is dead on. I was just trying to make the point that it was a money manipulation thing without giving the whole recipe, with all of the too many ingredients to understand.
November 26, 2011 at 4:48 pm
mresquan
Ernie,and others,I highly recommend that you read “Confessions Of An Economic Hitman” by John Perkins.
November 27, 2011 at 1:22 am
Eric Kirk
China and our foreign policy regarding them can be a very confusing subject. Even some of those who have all of the answers have difficulty with China. Check out this letter to DKOS in his hate mail edition of the week.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/26/1040010/-Saturday-hate-mail-a-palooza?detail=hide&via=blog_1
hello, markos, i have some new information. first of all, i have now mailed 15 copies of my letter to justice scalia, all from different post offices. it was especially fortunate that a work assignment took me out of state for a few days so i could actually mail several letters from an other state! i have a hunch that this approach will breach the jew blockade around justice scalia. however, i’m leaving nothing to chance, so i’ve already approached my congressman with the request that he would personally request justice scalia to take my case. i’ve not heard back from my congressman yet, but i checked that there are apparently no jews working at his office, so eventually my case will be heard. now, i also promised you some ideas about the possible transition of the usa from the current state of corrupt jew-controlled democracy to a more efficient national socialist system. it turns out that it’s not quite as simple as i thought. however, the first step, obviously, would be to outlaw both the democratic party and the republican party. second, we would need to found a new party, which i’m currently calling the american national socialist worker’s party, though this is just a working title. we could also allow well-meaning minor parties, like the falangists, to continue to function under this new system, so a one-party system is not a necessity and might not even be the best solution. anyway, this is where it gets tricky, because the party needs both leadership and accountability. hitler’s mistake was building a cult of personality around himself, which made him seem weird and the system quite fragile. this is something we need to avoid. i think the best solution would to have a committee running the party, the members of which would be elected much the same way as our current congressmen, probably also using our current electoral districts. however, we would not limit the number of candidates to two, as we currently do. instead, anyone interested in running could do so, as long as they subscribe to the basic rules and tenets of national socialism. and unlike hitler’s germany, we wouldn’t need to censor the media. all we would do is forbid jews from owning stock in any major media company (they would still be allowed to operate their local jew magazines and lesser jew blogs etc). probably the major challenge of the new system would be to eliminate speculative financial capital and replace it with real industrial capital. the simplest way to do this would probably be to just ban any business that doesn’t produce physical goods or services, with certain exceptions. also, jews would be forbidden from owning more than a 5% or 10% share of any company (unless it’s a very small business, like a jew food store or similar), to prevent them from ever again controlling the economy. and jews would be banned from all public office, of course. we would also increase taxes on the rich and cut taxes for working families. ok, that’s what i have right now. feel free to comment, markos, since i admit that the system is not yet quite perfect. i could use some constructive criticism. for example, what should our policy be towards china?
November 27, 2011 at 1:40 am
Eric Kirk
From David Cobb
“I think it’s safe to say at this point that violent shoppers have discredited the whole shopping movement…” –lifted from an unknown Facebook user
Alright. Time to fall back to sleep.