Big Business Wins Again

I'm back in Detroit this week, home for the holidays, and what would any holiday be without sales?

Yes, it is the time of year where we are expected to spend exorbitant airlines rates to travel home to see our friends and family. Spending time with family no longer includes well wishing and sharing fond memories; it is buying the newest and hottest toy or electronic as a gift. And of course, the traditional holidays - Thanksgiving & Christmas - have been replaced by bastions of consumerism in "Black Friday" and the 26th of December (which I like to call "National Gift Return Day").

And while you can argue that this rampant consumerism is all in good spirits, I'd like to point out a few places that suggest this trend isn't harmless.

Early Morning Chaos:

There have been deaths at the hands of Black Friday stampedes in the past few years. I have witnessed fights by old women at Target for discounted towels. Just this weekend, a women waiting in line at Walmart was arrested for pepper spraying a crowd in California. There was even a gunfight at Macy's. All for what: Door busters? A $300 42 inch Flat screen that doesn't have a manufacturer name and will fall apart in 18 months?

We've been trained to believe that the economy and big business are static and forces of human nature. They are not. They are decisions and choices that are being made by the business interest. We live in a world where big business is king and takes what it wants because we allow it to do so.

And its newest acquisition is the Occupy Wallstreet movement.

Over the weekend, my friend Christina ran into this rift on the Occupy movement designed as an advertisement for Black Friday shoppers to camp out.

 

The use of Occupy Wallstreet motifs is particularly ironic because one would argue that the Occupy's message of increased corporate responsibility plus the calling for an answer to the debt and wage crisis are the antithesis of Best Buy's attempt to drum up more frivolous holiday spending. And while this isn't the first time that the virtues of the Occupy movement have been appropriated by business interest as a marketing ploy, it being used during the holiday season - at a time when many Americans are still financially struggling - makes me question what are we really celebrating.

And unfortunately, the answer seems to be that we are celebrating the almighty dollar.