This past Friday, North American activists celebrated Buy Nothing Day (BND). The day after was followed by the international Buy Nothing Day. Buy Nothing Day is “a 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending.” It is a day to reflect on society’s over-consumption; it is to allow people to think about their consumption’s impact on the world. Twenty percent of the world’s population consumes eighty percent of the world’s resources. It isn’t difficult to see where you place in this global statistic. BND falls on Black Friday and it’s of no coincidence. A day where consumers line up in front of mega-marts and department stores, flyers in hand, to max out their credit cards and “save” on their purchases, to fuel the economy. Black Friday is notorious for less than light-footed shoppers being stomped on as floods of consumers rush into stores as they open. Fights were also reported in a food court in Los Cerritos and in a Best Buy in Burbank. Black Friday was coined from the assumption that from the day after the American Thanksgiving to Christmas, retail stores will make a profit. Black is often the colour of profit in banking ledgers. BND is a time of protest against capitalistic society and against the idea of making a profit on child labour and the destruction of global environment.
On BND, volunteers stood outside McDonalds with empty bowls depicting how many people would be fed if two beef patties were replaced with grain. They had almost twenty people. The average is about 7.5 people for one ounce of beef. Other activists put signs in front of stores saying “I’m locally owned” or “My money goes to (place).” Participants also stood in shopping malls with scissors and a sign. They offered to end mounting debt and towering interest rates with one quick snip by cutting credit cards. In Wal-Marts, people pushed around empty shopping carts without actually buying anything. On a day where stores are exploding with frenzied shoppers, this definitely caused mayhem. However not all participants went to such extreme measures. Some participants simply refrained from consumption for one day.
The aim was not to terrorize the local Wal-Mart or harass sales clerks. The goal was never to gain attention on the media. In some cities, the protests will be invisible. BND was about individual epiphanies. Epiphanies about how over-consumption is destroying the planet. Before making your next purchase, think. Think about how this will benefit you. Will it make you happier? Make you cooler? More popular? Now think about what it took to make that item, to create it, to grow it. In order to make one egg, it takes 120 gallons of water. Water is required for the vegetation the chickens eat, water for the chickens to drink, and even water for washing the eggs. We, as a society, are spending more now than we did 30 years ago. But are we any happier?
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