Of Black Friday, and other modern-day mythology
Here is a somewhat different story about shopping, and the relationship between consumerism and the economy.
Black Friday was a few days ago, the day when the shops in the US used to sell so much stuff that the standard red ink would soon run out and they would have to do their book-keeping with a pencil. This was the case in the late 19th century, at least according to the official version of the story.
The myth of Black Friday is a major cornerstone of the consumerist society, where people live in order to buy things. On this day in many countries around the world, the season of Christmas shopping discounts begins. It is the day of the big sales in business.
The Chinese have recently surpassed the US in terms of one-day consumerist fever - they have their own Lonely Hearts Day on November 11. But globally, Black Friday still retains its primacy in the hearts of the consumers. People line up through the small hours in the middle of the night and often sleep in front of the closed shops, only to plunge into the rampant crowd, scrambling to buy overrated products at crazy discounts. They storm the gates early in the morning, and fight with elbows and fists in an attempt to get their paws on stuff they barely need, before anyone else could beat them to it. We have all seen the shocking scenes, and we have met them with mild horror and amusement. Some of us may have even been part of this craze once in a while. That's the emotion of the magical Black Friday - it could probably be compared to attending a big sports final game, and being part of a brawl between the fans of the opposing teams. Like in the good times of old, when the mythical hool gangs used to thrive.
However, the truth about Black Friday is a bit different from the standard myth. The name was first used in the 50s of the 20th century in Philadelphia, and it has nothing to do with shopping. The local police came up with it, because of the people who were hurrying back home after Thanksgiving Day, and the multitude of car accidents and traffic jams on Friday. The consumerist myth was created only much later - by the PR industry.
It is curious to see how people used to view the world before the emergence of the consumerist society. In 1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that in result of the increasing productivity of labour, the automatisation and the "cyber nation", in other words, the digital revolution, Americans would be working for just 14 hours a week in 2000, and would be having 7 weeks of extra holidays. But it did not turn out that way. In 1991, the average US worker was already working 163 hours more annually, compared to 1973. And in many families, both parents were compelled to work in order to sustain the household.
We should note that the increased labour productivity was coupled with an increase in the energy consumption, and was in reality related to more work time, not just higher efficiency. The new technologies did allow the workers to do more work, and faster. But the work time was more exhausting, while the fierce competition at the labour market made this process even more stressful. The increased productivity also meant that the consumers could now do various tasks that had previously been offered to them in the form of services. From hotel bookings and purchasing flight tickets to pouring fuel at automatic gas stations.
So why hasn't America's work time decreased for the last half a century? During the 100 years after the Civil War, the American workers earned a number of privileges, including shorter weekly work hours. On May 1, 1886, half a million workers filled the streets of the big cities across America, demanding a 8-hour work day. During the Great Depression, the business introduced a 30-hour working week. Before WW2, the higher salaries and shorter work time were the main demands of the labour movement. But after the war, the threat of higher unemployment had drastically decreased. In the post-war era, aided by television and the focused efforts of the advertisement industry, the so called "consumer society" was formed. The expectation for ever larger homes and cars grew constantly. The easier access to loans led to an excess of goods that were readily available to the middle class.
In 1980 however, the average work salary began to lag behind productivity. And not just in the US. This process was observed everywhere in the world. But that did not discourage the consumers. They kept buying stuff, now at the expense of increased debt. During the economic boom of the late 90s, Americans were already working more than the legendary workaholics, the Japanese.
Meanwhile, the Europeans took a different course in the second half of the 20th century. Driven by powerful and active labour movements and social-democratic political parties, they turned much of the increased productivity into more spare time. Now they work just 80-85% of the work time that their American counterparts do. And in many European countries, people retire at a much earlier age, which makes the difference even bigger.
In the US, basic privileges that the European worker takes for granted, like paid leave for medical or family reasons, is something unheard of. For the American worker, the average annual paid leave has practically dropped to little more than a week. And the US is the only advanced economy that does not officially require employers to provide paid vacation time. Going on holidays is turning into an exceptional privilege of the elites. Paradoxically, the US experience has shown that the lower the worker's wage, the less likely it is that they would get a paid leave. Perhaps it is this imbalance that is the main reason for the long-term problems that have become embedded in the very foundation of the US labour market, and for turning many Americans into consumers of useless goods and mindless entertainment, who remain forever glued to the TV screen in the little spare time they have left between work and shopping - watching adverts telling them which is the next product they will want to buy.
And here the new technologies have a role as well. They not only allow people more spare time, but they also take jobs away from those who usually form the middle class. The cheapest labour is not worth developing roboticised systems to substitute it, which means the middle class is shrinking, and those infused into it tend to come from highly specialised professions.
But the consumerist society is already a fact. We live in it, with all the repercussions that this brings: the products with a very limited period of usefulness, the over-exploitation of resources, and the shrinking ethical values. A society, whose ideal and whose target is the consumer, despite the fact that this target individual is often soaked in debt due to the purchases of things they do not need, but which, according to the widespread notion, would increase their apparent social status among the other consumers.
The effects on the economy in the long term, let alone the environment, are catastrophic. The world's resources are being gradually exhausted in a constant attempt to achieve an ever growing consumption and production rate. In the meantime, a large part of what is being produced, is being wasted without ever being used - partly because it has been designed to last very short in the first place, or because people simply have no real need of it. The goal, the bottom-line of the production cycle is not to serve people's needs, but rather to create needs that it would then satisfy, and even more importantly, to keep the wheel turning without ever stopping. If it slows down or experiences a glitch, crises instantly occur. In such a society, people only compete with themselves, and it is a race with no true winner.
Black Friday was a few days ago, the day when the shops in the US used to sell so much stuff that the standard red ink would soon run out and they would have to do their book-keeping with a pencil. This was the case in the late 19th century, at least according to the official version of the story.
The myth of Black Friday is a major cornerstone of the consumerist society, where people live in order to buy things. On this day in many countries around the world, the season of Christmas shopping discounts begins. It is the day of the big sales in business.
The Chinese have recently surpassed the US in terms of one-day consumerist fever - they have their own Lonely Hearts Day on November 11. But globally, Black Friday still retains its primacy in the hearts of the consumers. People line up through the small hours in the middle of the night and often sleep in front of the closed shops, only to plunge into the rampant crowd, scrambling to buy overrated products at crazy discounts. They storm the gates early in the morning, and fight with elbows and fists in an attempt to get their paws on stuff they barely need, before anyone else could beat them to it. We have all seen the shocking scenes, and we have met them with mild horror and amusement. Some of us may have even been part of this craze once in a while. That's the emotion of the magical Black Friday - it could probably be compared to attending a big sports final game, and being part of a brawl between the fans of the opposing teams. Like in the good times of old, when the mythical hool gangs used to thrive.
However, the truth about Black Friday is a bit different from the standard myth. The name was first used in the 50s of the 20th century in Philadelphia, and it has nothing to do with shopping. The local police came up with it, because of the people who were hurrying back home after Thanksgiving Day, and the multitude of car accidents and traffic jams on Friday. The consumerist myth was created only much later - by the PR industry.
It is curious to see how people used to view the world before the emergence of the consumerist society. In 1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that in result of the increasing productivity of labour, the automatisation and the "cyber nation", in other words, the digital revolution, Americans would be working for just 14 hours a week in 2000, and would be having 7 weeks of extra holidays. But it did not turn out that way. In 1991, the average US worker was already working 163 hours more annually, compared to 1973. And in many families, both parents were compelled to work in order to sustain the household.
We should note that the increased labour productivity was coupled with an increase in the energy consumption, and was in reality related to more work time, not just higher efficiency. The new technologies did allow the workers to do more work, and faster. But the work time was more exhausting, while the fierce competition at the labour market made this process even more stressful. The increased productivity also meant that the consumers could now do various tasks that had previously been offered to them in the form of services. From hotel bookings and purchasing flight tickets to pouring fuel at automatic gas stations.
So why hasn't America's work time decreased for the last half a century? During the 100 years after the Civil War, the American workers earned a number of privileges, including shorter weekly work hours. On May 1, 1886, half a million workers filled the streets of the big cities across America, demanding a 8-hour work day. During the Great Depression, the business introduced a 30-hour working week. Before WW2, the higher salaries and shorter work time were the main demands of the labour movement. But after the war, the threat of higher unemployment had drastically decreased. In the post-war era, aided by television and the focused efforts of the advertisement industry, the so called "consumer society" was formed. The expectation for ever larger homes and cars grew constantly. The easier access to loans led to an excess of goods that were readily available to the middle class.
In 1980 however, the average work salary began to lag behind productivity. And not just in the US. This process was observed everywhere in the world. But that did not discourage the consumers. They kept buying stuff, now at the expense of increased debt. During the economic boom of the late 90s, Americans were already working more than the legendary workaholics, the Japanese.
Meanwhile, the Europeans took a different course in the second half of the 20th century. Driven by powerful and active labour movements and social-democratic political parties, they turned much of the increased productivity into more spare time. Now they work just 80-85% of the work time that their American counterparts do. And in many European countries, people retire at a much earlier age, which makes the difference even bigger.
In the US, basic privileges that the European worker takes for granted, like paid leave for medical or family reasons, is something unheard of. For the American worker, the average annual paid leave has practically dropped to little more than a week. And the US is the only advanced economy that does not officially require employers to provide paid vacation time. Going on holidays is turning into an exceptional privilege of the elites. Paradoxically, the US experience has shown that the lower the worker's wage, the less likely it is that they would get a paid leave. Perhaps it is this imbalance that is the main reason for the long-term problems that have become embedded in the very foundation of the US labour market, and for turning many Americans into consumers of useless goods and mindless entertainment, who remain forever glued to the TV screen in the little spare time they have left between work and shopping - watching adverts telling them which is the next product they will want to buy.
And here the new technologies have a role as well. They not only allow people more spare time, but they also take jobs away from those who usually form the middle class. The cheapest labour is not worth developing roboticised systems to substitute it, which means the middle class is shrinking, and those infused into it tend to come from highly specialised professions.
But the consumerist society is already a fact. We live in it, with all the repercussions that this brings: the products with a very limited period of usefulness, the over-exploitation of resources, and the shrinking ethical values. A society, whose ideal and whose target is the consumer, despite the fact that this target individual is often soaked in debt due to the purchases of things they do not need, but which, according to the widespread notion, would increase their apparent social status among the other consumers.
The effects on the economy in the long term, let alone the environment, are catastrophic. The world's resources are being gradually exhausted in a constant attempt to achieve an ever growing consumption and production rate. In the meantime, a large part of what is being produced, is being wasted without ever being used - partly because it has been designed to last very short in the first place, or because people simply have no real need of it. The goal, the bottom-line of the production cycle is not to serve people's needs, but rather to create needs that it would then satisfy, and even more importantly, to keep the wheel turning without ever stopping. If it slows down or experiences a glitch, crises instantly occur. In such a society, people only compete with themselves, and it is a race with no true winner.