1) Americans expect to spend about $850 on Christmas this year. 2) Americans historically put over $1000 on credit cards every year. 3) Three quarters of respondents say they failed to properly budget for the holidays. 4) Same link - fully a quarter of those responding said it would take more than six months to pay off the balance. The argument of the article is that the phenomenon of "Black Friday" is an engineered device designed to prompt consumers into over-spending. I'll say this - the guys I know who sweat money the most are also the guys I know posting about Black Friday crowds on Facebook. I mean yeah - Park Place sent me an email this morning letting me know they've got a "Black Friday Special" on a used McLaren 650S. But ain't nobody training McLaren dealers how to deal with shopping riots via muthafuckin' VR.
People being dumb enough to put themselves in debt over things they don't really need is what i was getting at. Thats not a economic issue in my opinion. More of a lack of managed expectations even though thats a bit cruel to say. Im not really sure why your response was at me though. I dont see where it adresses anything i said. I admit to consistently being a bit daft though.
What's your dumbness threshold though? You're making the standard mid-20s I-got-mine argument: "I'm too smart to be fooled by this claptrap, caveat emptor, JohnGalt4EVR." But if it requires more smarts to avoid predation than it did 20 years ago the level of predation has gone up, QED. And if more of your society is falling victim to that predation, there will be more strain on society, QED. So even if you're too clever to blow three paychecks on a flat panel you don't need, you're living in a society where there's less money to go 'round 'cuz too much of it is in unnecessary flat panels. At the end of the day, retail has become more seasonally predatory. It's probably because it works. Your argument is that this is not an economic issue; bankruptcy laws are such that companies only have nine months to emerge from Chapter 11. With 80% of retail receipts coming between Thanksgiving and New Years, the very timing of corporate lending is now predicated on Black Friday. And people don't really think about that. Thus, the reason I posted the article.
I dont see what kind of smarts it requires to be fiscally responsible after a certain point. I dont think atlas shrugged is the pinacle of truth either. I have a hard time seeing it as predation when people are willinging throwing themselves to the wolves. What changes would you like to see? I can see the necessity for shoes and clothes that are cheaper but what should be done about that?