The Tao of Black Friday

On first glance, Black Friday is about extremes. On the one hand, it is extreme deals, extreme bargains, extreme lines, extreme consumer overload. For others, it is about an absolute rejection of those things, as witnessed by the annual Buy Nothing Day. As a blogger primarily concerned with the conversation between business and social change, I have to believe there is a middle path.

It seems pretty clear that the path of ever growing consumption is ultimately unsustainable. From an economic perspective, we're seeing now how ultimately fragile a consumer economy based on buying often unnecessary things can be. From an environmental perspective, we're seeing how decades of maximizing efficiency and cheap fuel for shipping have upset the balance. Our broken food system is just one example of how out of whack things have become.

Yet at the same time, there is something preposterous to me about "buy nothing" campaigns. This sort of intellectual extremism is completely out of sync with an entire history of human social evolution which has involved the growth of communities to polities and basic exchanges to markets. "Buy Nothing Days" point a big nasty, shrill-screaming finger at everyone without taking the time to be come up with reasonable alternatives. It's activism as performance, and to the extent that no one shifts their behavior except the participants, seems to be relevant only for helping inflate the sense of intellectual superiority of the actors.

What is interesting to me is the growing conversation about the relationship between purchases and happiness. If people are utility maximizers, then it stands to reason that dollars should flow to those things which make us most happy.

The last few years has seen a lot of research suggesting that purchasing experiences - vacations, restaurant meals, etc - tends to produce more happiness and perceived value than material goods. I would imagine that one reason for this is that people tend to consume experiences in groups, and the value of something good becomes amplified by people agreeing it is good.

If that's one piece of the equation though, it does not solve the need to buy things. Running shoes are a great thing to spend money on. Having an appropriate number of clothes seems like a good idea. Cooking gear can be pretty good...For all of these purchases, berating consumers and implicating them in a global conspiracy to kill the earth just isn't going to work.

It's clear that we need to consume less stuff and enjoy and share more. That's a cultural conversation we need to have. The pathway to get there needs to be filled, though, with opportunities that make it easier for consumers to vote with their dollars.

To that end, here are some great resources from around Change.org and the web to help people do just that.

Where To Find Fair Trade Gifts (End Human Trafficking)

How To Help Human Trafficking Victims (End Human Trafficking)

GoodGuide - a website and application for finding safe, green, ethical products

(Photo: SqueakyMarmot)