A growing number of people are joining in the ‘Buy Nothing Day.’
While some shoppers throughout the nation will be frantically elbowing through stores today in their search for the best bargains, others will be taking a less frenzied approach.
What started as a grass-roots, anti-consumerism protest in the United Kingdom has evolved into “Buy Nothing Day,” an international event observed by a growing number of participants in more than 55 countries. In the United States, Buy Nothing Day is a one-day moratorium on the busiest shopping day of the year.
In Fulton, English professor Margot McMillen and her husband will host a “jam session” on their farm with about 60 people in attendance and a host of local musicians. McMillen’s family has been celebrating the event since 1995.
“It’s just important to think about how much we consume (at the cost of) people who don’t have a choice,” she said, referencing the notion that some third-world workers are forced to make products under deplorable conditions that often include child labor and meager wages.
For McMillen, the day marks a time to focus on family and friends, rather than rushing to retailers in search of the newest and latest.
“I’m very aware of all of those things,” she said. “But this is the day we set aside to really think about it.”
Others engaged in similar efforts say that a one-day shopping ban is not enough. Mid Missouri Peaceworks Director Mark Haim said that is more important to shop responsibly year-round rather than take a day off from the mall. The center focuses on the power of making personal choices that are both fulfilling and environmentally responsible. Educational efforts include vegetarian and organic cooking classes, promoting an alternative to fuel consumption and encouraging cycling and mass transportation.
Haim does not discount the importance and sentimental value of gift giving during the holiday season.
“We encourage people to put their own creativity and love in a gift rather than a product that is mass-produced,” Haim said. “When you do something like that, you’re in a position to not only reduce the cost to your own pocketbook, but the environmental cost.”
Peaceworks will offer a holiday gift making workshop from noon to 6 p.m. Dec. 3 to give people the opportunity to make environmentally friendly gifts. The non-profit store, Peace Nook, located on 804-C E. Broadway, also offers imports that comply with fair trade standards (items that were not made under child labor or low pay conditions).
The Washington, D.C.-based Center for A New American Dream, a national nonprofit aimed at teaching people to consume responsibly, suggest that a long-term educational campaign could alter people’s buying habits in the long run. Among other topics, the center educates on energy saving tips, fuel-efficient cars and encourages people to spend within their means.
“The way we’re consuming isn’t sustainable,” said Sean Sheehan, outreach director at the Center. “If everyone on earth consumed the way the average American does, we would need the resources for four additional planets.”
And as the holiday season approaches, the need to spend and consume can be particularly overwhelming, Sheehan said.
According to a recently study by the Center, 59 percent of Americans say they incurred credit card debt last year during the holiday shopping season alone, and yet nearly 79 percent of respondents said it is not necessary to spend a lot of money in order to enjoy the holiday. Most of those questioned cited an ideal holiday season as increased time with family, relaxation and time off of work.
“Yet people find themselves driven by the ‘more is better’ ethos, and not wanting to be a Scrooge,” Sheehan said. “The irony is that the things that represent an ideal holiday end up being lost and sacrificed.”
The “work-spend treadmill” of American consumerism, Sheehan added, causes people to spend beyond their means during the holiday season and lose family time by working incessantly to pay off their resulting debts.
The center used these findings and others to create its “Simplify the Holidays” campaign. The initiative encourages people to “decommercialize” the holiday season through different ways such as an alternative gift fair, or donating items in the name of family and friends to the causes they support.
As these various drives gain popularity and momentum, the question of the America’s economy as a result of anti-consumerism is becoming widely debated.
“It’s probably good for America and Americans, because we’ve lost soft power,” said economist Rachel Golden, the president of a Chicago-based foundation which gives small grants to global non-governmental organizations. Soft power refers to the skills of coercion and persuasion with non-military strategies. The effects could be far-reaching, Golden said, because such movements could actually increase soft power in areas such as foreign policy, she says.
“It puts Americans in a positive light globally because it highlights economical social justice and sustainable development,” she added, suggesting that the awareness raised by initiatives like Buy Nothing Day and Center for the New American Dream could actually benefit the American economy.
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“These are the issues of our time: poverty, inequality and sustainable development,” she said. “Capitalism will not survive unless it acquires a new ethic from groups such as these.”
Whether a day or a long-term educational campaign, participants view the awareness-raising as perhaps the greatest measure of success.
“The way that you make change is to be constantly aware of it,” Sheehan said. “It’s a very small beginning of an idea.”