This holiday season it seems that everyone has forgotten the recession and has just decided to pretend to not be broke. In the US, somehow the retail industry has hoodwinked everyone into celebrating a shopping holiday the weekend after Thanksgiving, with the recent addition of “cyber monday” to encourage both irresponsible spending and doing personal shopping on company time while at work. Far be it from us to stand in the way of this Juggernaut. I personally do most of my shopping online, and much of it at Amazon.com, who over the years have proven a dedication to low prices and excellent service. Cyber Monday or not, if you’re planning on shopping online this holiday season (or anytime), please consider using OSNews’ shopping page, which gives you a good launching point to browse for products and compare prices, and supports OSNews by kicking back a small percentage of your purchase price. It doesn’t cost you anything, but makes a big difference for us. So bookmark the page, and show the love all year round. We’d like to make some improvements to the OSNews Shopping launchpad. Please include your recommendations and suggestions in the comments.
Why would you equate cyber monday to irresponsible spending ?? not everybody is a shop-aholic unable to control what he is spending.
And then finish by – but if you have to – do it here… woo.
I’m not saying that you’re likely to partake in irresponsible spending. I’m saying that the retail industry is promoting irresponsible spending because it’s in their interests. But really I’m just goofing off, and not trying to make any kind of serious political statement.
I always like how in The Netherlands, we have our own historic national holiday where we give children presents, based around Sint Nicolaas (or colloquially, Sinterklaas) – exactly, which you guys stole and turned into Santa Clause.
Sinterklaas is December 5, so a little sooner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas
For me as a Dutchman, Christmas isn’t for presents – it’s for family and belongingness. As David said – this is not political statement, just a cultural difference between two countries!
EDIT: And obviously, SPEND MONEY through our launchpage. It makes sure we can buy presents and food for poor orphans. Do you really want to kill those poor orphans?
Edited 2009-11-30 17:49 UTC
Join me in the celebration of my newly minted holiday based around “Sanity Clause”. I and my fellow Sanity adherants refuse to spend one red cent on Christmas this year.
If our economy is somehow dependent upon people buying stuff that they normally would not then it is our economy which needs to be fixed. In drug recovery parlance, Chistmas shoppers would be called “enablers”. Businesses which depend upon Christmas to survive would be called “abusers”. Both could benefit from rehab.
Edit: Bah, humbug.
Edited 2009-11-30 18:28 UTC
sbergman27 intoned…
[s]Communist![/s] I mean racist!
It’s so hard to keep the talking points straight after elections…
–bornagainpenguin
PS: I really wish OSNews.com would add the strikethrough code to their bbcode so these jokes would make more sense…
Edited 2009-12-01 05:27 UTC
I thought OSnews readers were paying for the high class hookers for your world domination plan? Won’t somebody think of the hookers? D:
I figured out that people are more likely to shell out cash when you tell them it’s for orphans than when you say it is for an army of upper-class hookers.
Of course, I’m not a pimp, so my army does not actually have to perform any indecent acts. I offer them a way out, while in return I want their unquestionable loyalty to The Goal*, meaning they might get stationed anywhere in the world. They also receive combat training, etiquette training (quite important), and they must learn Dutch, English, German, Latin, and Scottish Gaelic. The only reason for all these languages is so that I could specifically not include French, and consequently, piss off the French.
*The Goal is well under way. It won’t be long now.
My second response to this, I know. But this sounds a little like our Halloween in the US. (Not sure how widely Halloween is celebrated.) But the presents (in the form of candy) is for kids. An adult going out to “trick or treat” would be considered in the same way as an adult walking around on the street in diapers, with a lolipop.
Of course, Halloween also generates a lot of revenue outside of the candy industry. Some adults spend *lots* of money on costumes for themselves. Party stores, in fact, bring in more income from the Halloween season than for all the rest of the year. New Years doesn’t hold a candle to Halloween for that industry. Not even close.
Still, Halloween doesn’t leave the bad taste in my mouth that Christmas does because people are spending because they want to, and not because custom impells them to. When was the last time you heard someone ask “Do you have all your Halloween shopping done yet”?
Christmas harnesses those twin pillars of motivation: “Cultural Mores” and “Guilt”, in order to drive people to spend, spend, spend.
For what it’s worth, my own family has long practiced customs similar to what it seems that you do in the Netherlands. We buy for the kids. And for my part, I’ve always just sent checks. Let them decide what they want rather than my wasting the money on something they don’t.
Well… all except for my mother. My turquoise article of clothing (whatever it will be this year) should be arriving any day now. And when it does, I will be required to veryfy that:
1) It arrived.
2) I like it.
And if I fail to respond in a timely fashion, more, and increasingly anxious and insistent queries are certain to follow.
We have our own version of Halloween too. It’s called Sint Maarten, and is a custom older than god.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin‘s_Day#Austria.2C_Belgium.2C_Germany_and_Netherlands