Spend, spend, spend… nothing!
So, credit has crunched and the world is in recession. We’re all, apparently, doomed. But there is a solution: it’s easy, we can just buy our way out. Can’t we?
Well that’s what the governments are saying. The US has just chucked $200 billion at the ailing consumer credit market to get Americans to carry on borrowing. And carry on spending of course. A rather more tepid response on this side of the pond, with a VAT reduction of 2.5% which aims to encourage us to do the same.
Exciting, I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing. Perhaps the best response came as a vox pop from the streets of Leeds, broadcast on the Guardian’s daily podcast. “2.5% from a one hundred pound purchase,” the unimpressed interviewee said, “what does it come do? Less than a pound, does it?” Erm, no, not exactly – but perhaps he went to school in the pre- Education, Education, Education era? The rudiments of maths aside, he has a point. It’s going to take more than a 2.5% discount to send us off our trolleys and wild in the aisles, doing our bit for the economy.
Which is probably no bad thing. It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that we’re not going to save the world by dashing out to buy disposable plastic crap. This Saturday (29th November) brings a far better option: Buy Nothing Day.
Buy Nothing Day, popularised by the Canadian magazine Adbusters and now in its sixteenth year, is part of a movement which advocates a shift away from rampant and unsustainable consumerism on both social and environmental grounds. And its message is particularly poignant given it was that consumerism that got us into the messes we’re in now. Solutions will only come by a radical rethink of how we order our world, not by flogging a dead horse.
So this weekend, fuck the High Street. Go for a skate; get a book from the library; cycle to your mate’s house and catch up over coffee. Whatever. Just don’t buy anything.
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Spend, spend, spend… nothing! (text) by Olly Zanetti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK License.
Comments (9)
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Although such things are obviously about raising awareness, perhaps a better way to be is just become concious of what you are buying?
Spend money in a constructive way, don't buy sweatshop labour clothes from popular high street disposable fashion stores, buy organic, don't buy tacky disposable shit you don't need, etc.
Consumerism is unavoidable; the whole world is built on it. Its about whether to consume responsibly or irresponsibly. Not at all seems to be a bit of a dead-end and holier than thou. As the old adage goes..."man's gotta eat!"
..but man doesn't need to scoff his face bastard face on mcdonalds and then wipe his arse on a silk dress and flush the toilet with a magnum of champagne made from third world kids' tears, etc..
I think we're all guilty of buying stuff we don't really need and now the government is telling us we HAVE to keep doing that to keep the system going.
Have a old TV? Well you NEED an new flatscreen HD TV! Have last years clothes? Buy new ones NOW!
I'm not sure it really matters a huge amount whether these goods are ethical or green (can you even buy ethical electronics?!) but the fact that we as a capitalist society are built on the notion that we not only need to buy crap but we need to keep buying it in ever larger quantities.
Ever get the feeling the system is totally broke?
Yes, there is unnecessary consumption on simply stupid things - bottled water, and yes, brand new massive HD TVs.
Using buying power however to provoke a structural change in the economy is far more constructive than simply saying 'I want no part in this'. That's all well and good until you need something back from society...
There is a vast difference between “consuming less,” as Lisa puts it, and “opting out” as you say. Yeah, the day is an awareness raising thing – no one’s expecting anyone to starve themselves for the cause. But it is about making people think about what they’re buying. Perhaps your mate would like to go for dinner with you, go to a gig, visit a gallery; something to remember and enjoy, rather than an object to chuck away in a few years.
And anyway, isn’t Buy Nothing Day a perfect example of “using buying power however to provoke a structural change in the economy?” It’s about demonstrating that, while we’re often forced through lack of choice to buy unethically made things, we’re not at all happy about it. Those who care do the best they can, but we don’t often have much choice about what we buy – supermarkets and other big business have seen to that.
It’s totally unsustainable to continue to have an economy based on the unending consumption and disposal of stuff. The raw material of plastic, oil, is rapidly running out; and the social effects of trickle down economics where something akin to slave labour manufactures what is little but colourful and funny-shaped landfill, are unjustifiable.
So this Saturday, exercise your consumer right to make a statement. Buy Nothing.
Such a statement is ultimately meaningless if it changes nothing. Yeah, you can make a point and yes, a justified point at that - we are all consuming too much. But people choosing not to go shopping for one day is rather piecemeal and ultimately futile if it isn't backed up with a change in behaviour for the other 364 days of the year. Only long term changes in consumer spending that provokes change.
Also, aren't going to a gig, going to dinner, etc just another form of consumption? Service instead of goods?
I appreciate the sentiment of such an event, I just question the overall impact. I really can't see Phillip Green shitting himself at the thought of consumer drones not buying kate moss clothing line for one day...
But Ed's right: then what? How do you go about dismantling the architecture of the system? Can you? Do you really want to?
At the moment, the bastards are taking themselves down anyway. No one wants to see rampant unemployment, but the big three car manufacturers are in trouble...? Good. High street mega chains are going bust...? Good. There's been a drastic loss of faith in the global banking system...? Good. Let it all burn. I'm hoarding acorns for currency in the post-apocalyptic aftermath. Who wants to be in my clan?
I'm not actually that keen on this credit crunch thing. I like having a job, some security, and I think a strong economy is a good thing (as long as everyone in the world is benefitting of course). But from a social and environmental point of view, what and how we're trading is really important. (Hence the birthday present advice - spend money, sure, but spend it thoughtfully. A gig, for example, isn't going to end up in landfill in a couple of years time, it wasn't made in a sweatshop. Sure, it's not zero impact, but the impact is far less, and likely to be far easier to reduce further).
Also, I think just saying that an action is meaningless just because it's only a statement is a bit defeatest. I was at the excellent Climate Rush outside parliament a couple of weeks ago, not because I thought being there would actively soak up carbon dioxide, but because I wanted to make a point.
There are six billion people in the world. So statistically it changes very little if you live an eco/socially pious life or if you travel everywhere in a private 747 waited on hand and foot by slaves. But does that mean we should sit back and do nothing?
Have you read Hell and High Water by Alastair McIntosh? It's a great book that covers this stuff in detail. I recently used this book to help me write an article about this subject in relation to the snow/surf/skate industries.
Also, Not Buying It by Judith Levine is a good read too!!