The results are in, and according to comScore.com, holiday spending in the first 35 days of the November-December 2010 shopping season is up over 2009.
I have to wonder when we think that it’s a good thing that we’re spending more money on stuff we don’t need when unemployment is so high, foreclosures are commonplace, and poverty is rampant around the world.
We live in a consumer driven, disposable society. We buy, we use, we throw away, we buy more, we use more, we throw away more. And we celebrate the whole cycle.
Perhaps the most disturbing statistic this year is that retail sales increased 28% over 2009 on Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving Day? Aren’t we supposed to be gathered with family on Thanksgiving Day, giving thanks for health, family, freedom, and all of the other wonderful things we’ve been blessed with over the year? Instead, stores opened and shoppers headed to the mall to pick up bargains. Bargains for which I’m sure they were thankful.
But it’s not the same thing.
Notes From The Funny Farm 