There's a photo going around on Facebook, which I've included to the left, where the emaciated forms of African children are contrasted with the chubby, Michelin man-like figures of frenzied Black Friday shoppers. While I appreciate the sentiment and I certainly think that more westerners could stand reminders of how easy we have it compared to the people trapped in climate-related or geopolitical nightmares, I think that photo's a bit facile. It assumes a lot about the fat Black Friday shoppers. It assumes they have any money at all.
Wages in the U.S. have not risen in line with consumer costs; in the last year, consumer prices rose 3.5% while average wages rose approximately half of that. People are feeling a little pressure in the wallet.
The logical thing to do when you have a lot of month at the end of the money is to tighten your belt and reduce expenses. But people have been doing that for a while. And Christmas is coming up.
I don't doubt that stores on Black Friday are happy hunting grounds for bargain shoppers. But I also think that those stores are where people go to stock up on the clothes their kids need (or they need). Those sales are where people go because if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to have Christmas at all. And although people can, and do, waggle their fingers about how the income-challenged should cut out non-essentials and just be grateful they've got the chance to work part-time for less than a living wage ... who among us really thinks that the working poor don't deserve the pleasure of watching their kids' faces light up when they behold presents under a tree on Christmas morning?
Not all Black Friday shoppers are mindless greedbots. Many are people who know if they sit out the sales, they sit out Christmas. Instead of stigmatizing the people who are scrabbling for sales merchandise, we need to realize that they're one front in a class war that's pitting the middle and working classes against one another. And we need to ask, "Who benefits from tsk-tsking the bargain shoppers and scolding the workers?"
Maybe they're the mofos who should be on the other half of that picture instead.
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