Fighting the good fight

The AdBusters Media Foundation takes a different view of Black Friday, they call it Buy Nothing Day. Their goal is to make people realize just how much of a consumerist society we live in and to try and get everyone to take a holiday from shopping.
Their credo: “For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate -- in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.”
While many think buying nothing for one whole day isn’t going to change the world, for some it is an impossible task.
Many people are addicted to shopping. In 1997 the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) came out with a one hour special, and later a book, called Affluenza, making a tongue-in-cheek term out of what is a serious problem in both the United States and Canada.
According to the book, on average we shop six hours a week shopping, and only 40 minutes playing with our children.
The book wants people to consider why they spend so much time shopping and found that people will go to the mall when they are bored or depressed and are looking for material ways to fill an immaterial void in their lives.
In a recent report by the Vanier Institute of the Family (VIF) spending is up on everything in Canada and bankruptcies remain near record levels. In 2004 consumer bankruptcies totaled about 84,000.
Even in a rich province like Alberta over 8,000 people filed for bankruptcy last year.
Counseling Supervisor at Credit Counselling Services of Alberta (CCSA), Marion Kelly, said they do see a number of university students who come in for advice.
“We deal with any people, students, seniors who can’t manage their financial situation,” Kelly said. “Anyone can call into our toll free line.”
One of the services the CCSA offer is a government sanctioned debt repayment program which prevents people from having to declare bankruptcy.
“We do run the Orderly Payment of Debts program – some people can go on and pay their debt in full and the interest is five per cent.”
However, the trick is to not get into debt in the first place, which can be hard for students.
“My word of advice is once they finish school they really need to stay on top of their student loans,” Kelly said.
“Lots of students, if they don’t have sufficient funds will consciously or unconsciously ignore their loans. If they are in a low income situation they would qualify for interest relief.”
Communications Coordinator for CCSA, Lily Nichols says they teach people how to keep track of their money which is often a problem students have.
“That is the biggest part of budgeting, to figure out where your money is really being spent currently,” Nichols said. “It is all the little expenses that you don’t count, the extra coffee.
“You can lose track really quickly.”
This year Buy Nothing Day is on November 25, challenge yourself by keeping your change in your pocket.

# posted by melanie : 10:08 PM