Forum Post: Black Friday - Another Wonderful Example Of Capitalism At Work
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 26, 2011, 10:51 p.m. EST by tackyjan
(46)
from San Diego, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
How can anyone watch videos of Black Friday chaos (or God forbid experience it first hand) and not be ashamed at our Capitalist system and how it lends to greed? When I worked in retail about 20 years ago the day after Thanksgiving was still called Black Friday but stores opened during modest hours and the crowds, although large, were for the most part calm.
Now look what has happened. Companies hype up this "biggest shopping day of the year" and people are more than willing, or ignorant enough, to fall for it. Have we as a society forgotten what the holidays are all about? I would rather give no gift nor receive a single item the entire holiday season than spend 5 minutes in a Wal Mart this morning.
Another fine example of our Capitalist system at work.
we have allowed them to take away our humanity, in the name of corporate profits. we used to love one another and use things.--now we love things and use one another. we have become consumers--nothing more- and its disgusting- ows is working to fix that problem
It isn't Capitalism that has led to this. It is the individual greed embedded in all of society and all of humanity. People are inherently greedy and materialistic. They will do what they can to get the object that they desire, but the urge is present in even Socialist or Communist systems; however, the means to acquire the desired object is not as readily present.
Personally, I would rather live under a system that allows me to want and eventually have, than under a system that simply allows me to want.
It demonstrates what this movement is up against. Corporate greed is just a reflection of human greed, people want as much as they can get for as little as possible. They charge more then they can afford, borrow with no way to repay, and demand government services without being taxed themselves. When they have dug a financial hole too deep to climb out of they demand someone else pay for their mistakes. You may have to change people before you can change the system.
People are as much a function of the society they live in as society is a function of the people it contains. We are on a slippery slope and I am afraid there is no going back.
Change can come, but it isn't as instant as a lot of activists want. A large group can gain credibility if it can get people elected to push it's goals. Start with campaign finance reform or banking reform, get people elected and keep growing. Stop wasting time with trying to build the end product without a foundation.
Unfortunately, I must agree with you.
I don't see things as hopeless, but all the talk of making wide ranging changes is going to take some kind of wizard to pull off. We need to focus on electing people to congress. The AARP, NRA, Tea Party, NAACP, unions, and many more groups are taken seriously because their members vote for certain issues.
Yea I guess your just a dirt bag if you don't buy something on a black friday LOL
If you don't like it, just stay home. There will be more sales as Christmas approaches. A lot of people have a lot of fun on Black Friday. To each his own.
They are sheep, mere sheep. Strike the sheppard and the sheep will scatter.
Maybe they like the rush of the doors opening and getting their stuff? Maybe they make an outing of it with their friends and family who are in town for Thanksgiving. Maybe they think the people camping out in parks and doing mic checks are the real sheep.
Too each his own.
Never forget when the Elders said, let thou Fridays not be blackened lest thine Mondays be the same. Wisdom past through the Ages!
This post clearly outlines why conservatives have a better understanding of the system than most on the left. Conservatives understand that corporations have not cheapened humanity. We cheapened the World with our technology. Mainly the information superhighway. The World hasn't changed. Capitalism is not the culprit. The way we see the world has changed. People have also learned to use technology to make bigger profits. Those who cannot learn or will not learn are beginning to feel left behind.
It's the technology! It's the government! It's the people! Seems those on the right have nothing but excuses and rationalizations, and they most certainly do not have a very good understanding of the system. If they did we wouldn't be in this mess. They've had 30 years of what they want, deregulation and privatization, and things are falling apart all around us ... and they insist it's because we just haven't done enough of that yet, the solution is more of what got us into the mess. That's not an understanding at all.
No sir. The Internet has taken over. It has changed business, and changed people's perception. The problem is, people cannot see this. They cannot see that it just them continuously having information from all over the World. It scares people. Conspiracies form. Eventually, humanity will recognize it's addiction to a false world and push to reconnect with humanity again. The quicker people realize this, the sooner we can regain our control.
Next week it will be taxes, or education, or Obama, or whatever.
Literally anything but what's staring us in the face.
We are addicted to a train wreck. The problem is we have taken our lives online. People are looking at their phones, not at the sunset. People are watching all the disasters in the news, and forgot what in life makes them happy.
Like I say, next week it will be some other gee-whiz rationalization, equally full of meaningless platitudes.
You might be the most intelligent, grounded person on this forum. Please keep fighting the good fight.
The funniest thing was the pepper spray incident.