Call it what you want, but Black Friday is one of the major economic indicators used in the retail world. Dubbed the biggest shopping day of the year, it will give birth to hundreds of articles, wild speculations, and ominous predictions about our nations economy.
But what is it really?
To me it is one more indicator born by the machine of corporate and media manipulation. It is self perpetuating and unwanted.
It probably started as an above normally brisk retail sales day. After all a lot of folks have the day off, and with Thanksgiving behind us we start to focus on the next big holiday. So the retail giants sweeten the pot by having after T-Day sales, now mom & dad really want to get out there and save some money! Then they start opening up super early so they can beat the mom & pop toy stores to the punch and unload all theses products we have shipped in from 3rd world countries !
This is all pre-hyped by the distribution of millions dead trees touting brightly colored sales ads. Radio and tv ads endlessy hammer the airwaves telling us how much money we are going to save, but only if we shop Friday! Let's not leave out the articles and forums where any person who has taken an economics class now has a
valued opinion about growth indicators and spending trends. Blah, blah ,blah they drive me crazy! It is either ominous portents on the horizon, (usually caused by a politcal party), or the Gov is doing such a great job we can spend all of our spare cash, and even go into debt, to help fatten the coiffers of corporate america. The majority of that money will end up leaving the country to be spent in areas where labor and environmental protection laws do not exist. ENOUGH!
Yesterday my lovely bride got up early to start the long task of preparing an outstanding meal for our family and friends, She did the majority of this herself. After our friends departed she collapsed in bed and fell asleep. My son and I cleaned up some more and relaxed. This morning I got up and slipped qietly out of the room. I'll be damned if the woman who did all that work yesterday is going to get up at the crack of dawn again, just to go shopping! Sure maybe duck hunting I could understand, but have another exhausting day just to fill the stockings?
Join me! Take back control of your weekend. Stay home, go for a walk, watch a movie; just don't shop. There will be dire predictions spouting from every economic "experts" mouths. The Gov will sit up, their antennae bristling with re-election worries. Stores would have to have even more drastic sales to unload the inventory they fear they will be stuck with! We will drive the economy instead of it driving us into debt.
Think about it as another version of the tea party and remember what that led to.
