Black Friday, so named because it often puts retailers in the "black" (profit) from the "red", has become a de facto holiday itself. The exact opposite of my pleasant little Daylight Savings ritual, the day following Thanksgiving is now a call to action to not only visit a retailer, but to do so with gusto.
No doubt, retailers wished and hoped and crossed fingers that on November 28, 2008 Americans (who might themselves might be in the red) would justify spending money on this day as a way to "save" money on holiday gifts, forgetting ever-so-briefly that we're in a financial shambles.
That they did.
As you might imagine, I have many thoughts on what is fast becoming an ugly American tradition, but in this case CBS's Bob Schieffer says it best.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Blackest Of Black Fridays
Nov. 30, 2008
(CBS) Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
This was not the happiest of Thanksgivings.
A nation which was shaken by an economic crisis that no one seems quite certain how to repair was horrified by the awful tragedy that unfolded in India.
No matter how terrible, tragedy always seems more cruel on a holiday.
Against that background came news on Black Friday that an angry mob pushed in the doors at a Wal Mart on Long Island and trampled a sales clerk to death.
Bargain hunting on Black Friday has gotten dangerous in recent years - pushing, shoving, the occasional fistfight and injuries were reported at other stores on Friday - but the Long Island incident marked the first-ever Black Friday shopping fatality.
It made me wonder: What were they shopping for? Christmas gifts? They didn't show much Christmas spirit.
When store officials ordered the mob out of the store because someone had died, many called it unfair, because they said they had been waiting hours to shop.
The terrorist attack in India will cause us to redouble our anti-terrorist efforts, and economic recovery plans are already in the works.
But shouldn't the death of that poor sales clerk give us some pause as well?
If we have become a people so self-centered that we are willing to step over a lifeless body to get a bargain, we have problems that go beyond terrorists, a credit crunch and bad mortgages.
Surely we can do better than that.
----------------------------------------------------------
Let's hope, Bob. Let's hope.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Forgotten Holiday
Speaking of Gluttony...
Oh, the holidays- upon us, already they are.
Christmas decorations are up in Mid Town. I love Christmas lights- tiny lights in the cold air, little pieces of brightness in the pitch black.
But Thanksgiving isn't even until this Thursday, aren't we jumping the gun a bit?
Christmas is lovely but before plunging headlong into a holiday that, for most, is completely secular and without religious association and is now heaftily focused on obligatory exchanges of material goods, I'll take pause to examine the forgotten holiday- Daylight Savings.
Defiying the time-space continuum, every year we are gifted an extra hour. An extra hour to sleep, an extra hour to our busy days and the reoccuring wave of relief all day long to look at our timepieces and mutter, "It's only..." Nothing to be given, shopped for, stressed over, nothing to hoard, only an ethereal gift with no giver. Both intangible and useful; the ultimate gift card, usable any way you want it.
Every fall my mother and I wish each other a happy Daylight's Savings and I advise many more to do the same. As I look ahead to this Thursday- my previous Favorite Holiday- I am happy for the simplicity of an hour. Thanksgiving, with a name that should really say it all, has become another opportunity to hyperbolize what could easily be nuanced. Giving thanks shouldn't be tied to obscene gluttony, but for a majority of Americans (those lucky enough to have so much) it seems that overeating is the de facto way to celebrate. The question plauguing me is, how is my being thankful for having too much food making it any better for those who don't have any?
While anyone would say that statement is an error in logic, I don't know that everyone celebrating is thinking logically at all. That's not what it's all about, but that seems to be what it's become. Just as Christmas didn't start out as a time to feel guilty over not being able to afford very specific items on your loved ones wish list, it is becomming an unfortunate reality.
With economisery rampant this holiday season, I hope we can take it easy on ourselves to give or give thanks for that which is truly important- be it a dinner, a personal token or even just an hour.
Oh, the holidays- upon us, already they are.
Christmas decorations are up in Mid Town. I love Christmas lights- tiny lights in the cold air, little pieces of brightness in the pitch black.
But Thanksgiving isn't even until this Thursday, aren't we jumping the gun a bit?
Christmas is lovely but before plunging headlong into a holiday that, for most, is completely secular and without religious association and is now heaftily focused on obligatory exchanges of material goods, I'll take pause to examine the forgotten holiday- Daylight Savings.
Defiying the time-space continuum, every year we are gifted an extra hour. An extra hour to sleep, an extra hour to our busy days and the reoccuring wave of relief all day long to look at our timepieces and mutter, "It's only..." Nothing to be given, shopped for, stressed over, nothing to hoard, only an ethereal gift with no giver. Both intangible and useful; the ultimate gift card, usable any way you want it.
Every fall my mother and I wish each other a happy Daylight's Savings and I advise many more to do the same. As I look ahead to this Thursday- my previous Favorite Holiday- I am happy for the simplicity of an hour. Thanksgiving, with a name that should really say it all, has become another opportunity to hyperbolize what could easily be nuanced. Giving thanks shouldn't be tied to obscene gluttony, but for a majority of Americans (those lucky enough to have so much) it seems that overeating is the de facto way to celebrate. The question plauguing me is, how is my being thankful for having too much food making it any better for those who don't have any?
While anyone would say that statement is an error in logic, I don't know that everyone celebrating is thinking logically at all. That's not what it's all about, but that seems to be what it's become. Just as Christmas didn't start out as a time to feel guilty over not being able to afford very specific items on your loved ones wish list, it is becomming an unfortunate reality.
With economisery rampant this holiday season, I hope we can take it easy on ourselves to give or give thanks for that which is truly important- be it a dinner, a personal token or even just an hour.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Amex Attack
(Warning, this is a rant)
Just so you're aware...
I've noticed the troubling trend at some of my favorite neighborhood (that's Nolita, NY for those of you keeping track) restaurants not taking MasterCard, or in some instances anything other than Amex.
(Them's fighting words.)
MasterCard happens to be my Washington Mutual debit card. (Read: plastic cash, not plastic-pretend-I-have cash)
Amex and cash-only eateries are posing a threat to my "life without CCard payments" lifestyle. Cash-only places usually have a prominent sign so that we know what we're getting into and if not prepared, have an ATM handy. But when my MasterCard is rejected with a faux sympathetic smile from the waitstaff at the final moments of the meal, it seems easier to just switch cards and lay down the Amex. Ok, yes I should have cash on me and live off a cash budget of what I have in my wallet, but I'm not yet self-actualized enough.
Jeez- I go on a business trip to Manchester, UK and no one, not event the Starbucks equivalent, takes my business Amex and here they're trying to enforce it.
I'm reminded of my (loud, Texan) father's comments after Christmas shopping at Neimann's for what must have been my mother's favorite perfume at the time (either 24, Faubourg by Hermes or Panthere by Cartier). Something to the effect of "They only take check or American Express. This is my money, that I am paying them and they are going to tell ME how to give it to them?"
The man has a point. And usually does, though I often find a way to disagree with it.
His rant was warranted. In his case he wanted to use credit, but who's to say how he can pay for a purchase, when it's clearly a retailer who could physically accept any form of payment?
Surely there's economic motivation for an establishment to be exclusive with one card or inclusive of only some. I don't know what those details are but certainly they have some reason for restricting my payment options.
Is this really the economy where purveyors of luxuries (dinners out, anything sold at Neimann's) should be restricting payment methods? Methinks that would explain why the waitress bent the "No MasterCard" rule quickly after informing me that there was one. I would think that if this state of affairs continues as long as we hear it might, providers of goods and services will be happy to accept payments of any kind.
Moving from what might be the plight of the payment recipients to the plight of the payment givers, in this "credit crisis" (as NPR remindes me daily) should enforcing the use of credit be deemed negligent behavior? Ok, no, probably not but I'll say it's contributing to potentially negligent behavior. As we're seeing, many American citizens and American companies are leveraged out the whazoo, so I don't see it as too harsh to assign some blame and accountability.
It's not called the debit crisis. It's debt, it's credit, debt because of credit; debt because we don't know how to deal with the promise of owning more than we can pay for (coughsubprimemortgagescough).
I'm not even going to beat the subprime lenders further down in this rant but rather shift the spotlight to those card tables set up by credit card companies on college campuses, offering a t-shirt for new applicants. T-shirt? A t-shirt!? Drug dealers are put away for soliciting crappy crack all in the name of getting new users hooked and we're letting otherwise smart humans put themselves into years of debt, starting before their 20th birthday AND THAT'S OK?
Understanding the basic premise of using only what you have isn't rocket science and most of the population should be able to grasp the concept. But for the same reason Communism will never work on a large scale, this doesn't either. We want more. Yes, we're smart humans who should be able to manage our own lives, responsibilities and consequences, but the free will bestowed upon us allows for all sorts of errors. We choose to lie about our age, cheat on our taxes and spend more than we have.
This rambling stream of consciousness brings up an interesting question- is there a moral component to fiscal irresponsibility? Gluttony? I don't think paying off hospital-incurred debt could be considered so, if from an accident (not a face lift, then that's adding Pride to the equation), but living the life of a fund manager when you don't have any funds is (More, more. I want MORE). Paying student debt on a private school when your state school was just as acceptable? Maybe.
It's all perspective based on Background. And at the end of the day we justify our actions as they suit our purposes.
Just so you're aware...
I've noticed the troubling trend at some of my favorite neighborhood (that's Nolita, NY for those of you keeping track) restaurants not taking MasterCard, or in some instances anything other than Amex.
(Them's fighting words.)
MasterCard happens to be my Washington Mutual debit card. (Read: plastic cash, not plastic-pretend-I-have cash)
Amex and cash-only eateries are posing a threat to my "life without CCard payments" lifestyle. Cash-only places usually have a prominent sign so that we know what we're getting into and if not prepared, have an ATM handy. But when my MasterCard is rejected with a faux sympathetic smile from the waitstaff at the final moments of the meal, it seems easier to just switch cards and lay down the Amex. Ok, yes I should have cash on me and live off a cash budget of what I have in my wallet, but I'm not yet self-actualized enough.
Jeez- I go on a business trip to Manchester, UK and no one, not event the Starbucks equivalent, takes my business Amex and here they're trying to enforce it.
I'm reminded of my (loud, Texan) father's comments after Christmas shopping at Neimann's for what must have been my mother's favorite perfume at the time (either 24, Faubourg by Hermes or Panthere by Cartier). Something to the effect of "They only take check or American Express. This is my money, that I am paying them and they are going to tell ME how to give it to them?"
The man has a point. And usually does, though I often find a way to disagree with it.
His rant was warranted. In his case he wanted to use credit, but who's to say how he can pay for a purchase, when it's clearly a retailer who could physically accept any form of payment?
Surely there's economic motivation for an establishment to be exclusive with one card or inclusive of only some. I don't know what those details are but certainly they have some reason for restricting my payment options.
Is this really the economy where purveyors of luxuries (dinners out, anything sold at Neimann's) should be restricting payment methods? Methinks that would explain why the waitress bent the "No MasterCard" rule quickly after informing me that there was one. I would think that if this state of affairs continues as long as we hear it might, providers of goods and services will be happy to accept payments of any kind.
Moving from what might be the plight of the payment recipients to the plight of the payment givers, in this "credit crisis" (as NPR remindes me daily) should enforcing the use of credit be deemed negligent behavior? Ok, no, probably not but I'll say it's contributing to potentially negligent behavior. As we're seeing, many American citizens and American companies are leveraged out the whazoo, so I don't see it as too harsh to assign some blame and accountability.
It's not called the debit crisis. It's debt, it's credit, debt because of credit; debt because we don't know how to deal with the promise of owning more than we can pay for (coughsubprimemortgagescough).
I'm not even going to beat the subprime lenders further down in this rant but rather shift the spotlight to those card tables set up by credit card companies on college campuses, offering a t-shirt for new applicants. T-shirt? A t-shirt!? Drug dealers are put away for soliciting crappy crack all in the name of getting new users hooked and we're letting otherwise smart humans put themselves into years of debt, starting before their 20th birthday AND THAT'S OK?
Understanding the basic premise of using only what you have isn't rocket science and most of the population should be able to grasp the concept. But for the same reason Communism will never work on a large scale, this doesn't either. We want more. Yes, we're smart humans who should be able to manage our own lives, responsibilities and consequences, but the free will bestowed upon us allows for all sorts of errors. We choose to lie about our age, cheat on our taxes and spend more than we have.
This rambling stream of consciousness brings up an interesting question- is there a moral component to fiscal irresponsibility? Gluttony? I don't think paying off hospital-incurred debt could be considered so, if from an accident (not a face lift, then that's adding Pride to the equation), but living the life of a fund manager when you don't have any funds is (More, more. I want MORE). Paying student debt on a private school when your state school was just as acceptable? Maybe.
It's all perspective based on Background. And at the end of the day we justify our actions as they suit our purposes.
Debt and her sweet clutches. Hold me, Debt. Hold ME!
I've dabbled in debt over the years. Due, in large part, to living beyond my means.
(shocker)
I quite honestly remember a time not too long ago when the mention by a friend of "not being able to afford" some little trifle on the order of groceries- or was it gas? - was incomprehensible to me. What dost thou mean, not afford it? How canst one not "afford" anything? We have credit, Silly!
Certainly I've always understood financial limitations in the realm of say, not being in the correct tax bracket to house myself at the Dakota overlooking Central Park or even a lease on a BMW 3 series. But with my handy dandy Amex Blue or UT Alumni MasterCard or my Wamu MasterCard or, ahem, others, I could always find a way to pay for groceries. Heck, throw a martini or two on top of that (oh and I did). I won't have a problem paying for them NEXT month.
Oh, the sweet cycle of debt.
Its clutches were so soft, warm and welcoming before morphing into the haggard, cruel thorny bonds that they would remain for all of eternity. Or until I paid the balance.
Speaking with girlfriends recently and reminiscing over our wonderful mid-twenties, two great quotes stick with me as they nail the credit habits of many young adults (and evidently all of America) squarely on the head.
"Oh, yeah! That was back when we all had credit cards and no one had money."*
"You know, when I was a grad student and my credit card was my paycheck"**
I leave you with these, as no greater quantity of words will so accurately describe how and why a very significant portion of the population became credit ne'er-do-wells.
Thanks to:
*Bridget O'Gara
**Jennifer Souza
(shocker)
I quite honestly remember a time not too long ago when the mention by a friend of "not being able to afford" some little trifle on the order of groceries- or was it gas? - was incomprehensible to me. What dost thou mean, not afford it? How canst one not "afford" anything? We have credit, Silly!
Certainly I've always understood financial limitations in the realm of say, not being in the correct tax bracket to house myself at the Dakota overlooking Central Park or even a lease on a BMW 3 series. But with my handy dandy Amex Blue or UT Alumni MasterCard or my Wamu MasterCard or, ahem, others, I could always find a way to pay for groceries. Heck, throw a martini or two on top of that (oh and I did). I won't have a problem paying for them NEXT month.
Oh, the sweet cycle of debt.
Its clutches were so soft, warm and welcoming before morphing into the haggard, cruel thorny bonds that they would remain for all of eternity. Or until I paid the balance.
Speaking with girlfriends recently and reminiscing over our wonderful mid-twenties, two great quotes stick with me as they nail the credit habits of many young adults (and evidently all of America) squarely on the head.
"Oh, yeah! That was back when we all had credit cards and no one had money."*
"You know, when I was a grad student and my credit card was my paycheck"**
I leave you with these, as no greater quantity of words will so accurately describe how and why a very significant portion of the population became credit ne'er-do-wells.
Thanks to:
*Bridget O'Gara
**Jennifer Souza
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