Today, America celebrates Black Friday, yet another uniquely American tradition that pits citizen against citizen in a frantic and frenzied rush to purchase items they do not need in an attempt to find some sort of self-affirming affirmation. I have only ventured into this post-Thanksgiving melee once in my life and having done so vowed that I would never do it again. It is a craziness that does not measure well with my recovery.
One of the tools of Debtors Anonymous is awareness. "We maintain awareness of the danger of compulsive debt by taking note of bank, loan company and credit card advertising and their effect on us. We also remain aware of our personal finances in order to avoid vagueness, which can lead to compulsive debting and spending" (DA pamphlet). I have been more aware then ever before of the serious illness that affects our nation in regards to money, debt, and the serious 'evil' associated with advertising: "You must have this! You must have that! You cannot live without this product!" etc.
I have buried more people in my vocation as priest than I can remember and I am struck by the fact that in every case I have never placed in the ground a person's body with their "stuff". And yet, a majority of Americans live as if they cannot survive without the latest electronic gadget, designer clothes, or $19 women's boot currently on sale at Macy's today (heard about that on the Today Show this morning).
And how is all of this stuff being paid for? While there may be individuals who have planned ahead and secured cash to make their purchases today. The vast majority of Americans will fall prey to that the evil of credit cards. The false reality is that credit cards provide us with some toxic sense of “instant gratification”. The ability to get something we want right now without having to wait and save for it. I am just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to instant gratification. But instant gratification goes away about as quickly as lunch in a Chinese restaurant. One hour after your purchase – you are hungry again!
Americans often rationalize or more like fool themselves into thinking that we can pay-off credit card balance in the next billing cycle but it seems it never happens. I know this is true for I have heard countless stories of this way of thinking at support groups. Here is an alarming fact: in the United States the average household credit card balance is $14,750 (RebelCapitalist.com). The truth on this Black Friday is that we are not doing a good job of paying off those balances and we are paying a heavy price for instant gratification. And the retailers simply play into the dysfunction in which many of us live.
Here is another reason to boycott Black Friday.
Robert Reich is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and served as the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. Yesterday in the Huffington Post, Reich wrote the following article:
“A half century ago America's largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today's dollars, including health and pension benefits.
“Today, America's largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart's employees work less than 28 hours per week and don't qualify for benefits.
“There are many reasons for the difference -- including globalization and technological changes that have shrunk employment in American manufacturing while enlarging it in sectors involving personal services, such as retail.
“But one reason, closely related to this seismic shift, is the decline of labor unions in the United States. In the 1950s, over a third of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today fewer than 7 percent do. As a result, the typical American worker no longer has the bargaining clout to get a sizable share of corporate profits.
“At the peak of its power and influence in the 1950s, the United Auto Workers could claim a significant portion of GM's earnings for its members.
“Walmart's employees, by contrast, have no union to represent them. So they've had no means of getting much of the corporation's earnings.
“Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), the lion's share of which went instead to Walmart's shareholders -- including the family of its founder, Sam Walton, who earned on their Walmart stock more than the combined earnings of the bottom 40 percent of American workers.
“Is this about to change? Despite decades of failed unionization attempts, Walmart workers are planning to strike or conduct some other form of protest outside at least 1,000 locations across the United States this Friday -- so-called "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day in America when the Christmas holiday buying season begins.
“At the very least, the action gives Walmart employees a chance to air their grievances in public -- not only lousy wages (as low at $8 an hour) but also unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, excessive hours, and sexual harassment. The result is bad publicity for the company exactly when it wants the public to think of it as Santa Claus. And the threatened strike, the first in 50 years, is gaining steam.
“The company is fighting back. It has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to preemptively ban the Black Friday strikes. The complaint alleges that the pickets are illegal "representational" picketing designed to win recognition for the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Walmart's workers say they're protesting unfair labor practices rather than acting on behalf of the UFCW. If a court sides with Walmart, it could possibly issue an injunction blocking Black Friday's pickets.
“What happens at Walmart will have consequences extending far beyond the company. Other big box retailers are watching carefully. Walmart is their major competitor. Its pay scale and working conditions set the standard.
“More broadly, the widening inequality reflected in the gap between the pay of Walmart workers and the returns to Walmart investors, including the Walton family, haunts the American economy.
“Consumer spending is 70 percent of economic activity, but consumers are also workers. And as income and wealth continue to concentrate at the top, and the median wage continues to drop -- it's now 8 percent lower than it was in 2000 -- a growing portion of the American workforce lacks the purchasing power to get the economy back to speed. Without a vibrant and growing middle class, Walmart itself won't have the customers it needs.
“Most new jobs in America are in personal services like retail, with low pay and bad hours. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average full-time retail worker earns between $18,000 and $21,000 per year.
“But if retail workers got a raise, would consumers have to pay higher prices to make up for it? A new study by the think tank Demos reports that raising the salary of all full-time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1 percent price increase for customers.
“And, in the end, retailers would benefit. According to the study, the cost of the wage increases to major retailers would be $20.8 billion -- about one percent of the sector's $2.17 trillion in total annual sales. But the study also estimates the increased purchasing power of lower-wage workers as a result of the pay raises would generate $4 billion to $5 billion in additional retail sales.
“This seems like a good deal all around.”
(Huffingtonpost.com)
And finally, dear reader, I will leave you with this reflection which a friend of mine living in Vienna, Austria posted on Facebook early this morning. Yet another idea to ponder about finances and how we handle our money and life choices. There is much to consider here today at the John 13:34 Blog - but then again, I did not go shopping.
Love One Another - Brian
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