During this Thanksgiving vacation I did not do much, since Chinese families do not celebrate this holiday (at least not my family). I think that is mainly because it's more like an American holiday and because there isn't any real meaning to Thanksgiving. Most people say that Thanksgiving is a holiday to be thankful for what you have. But I do not know why you would need a holiday for that, and neither does my family. This holiday reveals that the American Way of Life requires some sort of reason or reward for doing anything. In this case, you would need a feast in order to appreciate the people and life that you have. The economic system and the lifestyle in America ties together almost perfectly: give in order to get. In America, it is a rare to have people doing something for the sake of doing it. There has to be some sort of self-satisfaction, whether it in shape of a gift, money, return-service, tax-reduction, etc.
Before Wednesday's class, I never heard of Buy Nothing Day. And honestly I think it will not have much of an effect. I think that people in America are far too greedy to participate in such an event. First of all, not enough people will know or care about this since it will not appeal to their interest. As mentioned before, Americans require some sort of reward in order to even listen. Another thing is that this event is telling people to not buy anything on the greatest sale of every year. Maybe if it took place at another date, perhaps there will be a few more participants. And even if there were more people that actually bought nothing on Buy Nothing Day, I still do not think it will help much. Eventually people will buy what they want and need regardless. Buy Nothing Day is just delaying the time that they buy it and increasing the amount of money they pay for it.
Black Friday is a very big event where every store in America has sales. Everyone starts camping out in front of the stores days in advance. Every year, Black Friday continues to reveal and emphacize on the greed of Americans. People would do anything to save a couple of bucks (which they're going to spend buying more stuff anyways). This year a man in Wal-Mart was trampled to death because people were rushing in the store. When there are sales that is the only thing that the people see. They do not notice the 6'5 man fall down and that they're walking all over him. It doesn't matter, as long as they get into the store the fastest. I think Black Friday takes off the good-guy mask off of everyone. The people are now willing to take that mask off because they are going to rewarded with a massive sale.
An extra thought I have about Black Friday: There is one thing I do not understand why people do not understand. There are 3 things that are being sacrificed during this event: money, time and the safety of any person. Money, you can always get back. But time, you cannot. Now if the person dies (which did happen this year), you cannot get that back either. So my question is, why are people willing to sacrifice 2 things you can never get back in order to save something that you can always get back?
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