Would you like a bit of capitalism with that?
By Michela Fiorido [Sports Bureau Chief]
You open your presents Christmas morning and, while outwardly happy and seemingly thankful, the wheels are turning in your head: “I wonder how much store credit I can get if I return this heinous sweater grandma got me? I’m gonna buy a new dock stereo for the iPod I just got. I’m also gonna buy all the other stuff that I didn’t get today. I might as well, it is going to be boxing day. I better make sure I get up early to get my first picks.”
There are so many things wrong with this picture, and whether or not you want to admit it, it is likely that you too indulge in this type of capitalist thinking. Is it not enough to be happy with what you’ve already received on Christmas? Must we be so concerned in getting not one of the latest gadgets, but ALL of them? Corporations prey on people who get caught up in this materialistic competition…. only, it’s a competition that cannot be won. Boxing Day “sales” are not in fact sales at all. The day is just bunch of a big hype created over a couple select items that people feel the need to compete for. If there’s an “insane” deal on a new Mac laptop, obviously this is going to cause a stir.
However, there’s only about five of these laptops available for purchase in the entire province and the main goal of corporations is not to sell you the laptop, it’s to get you to the store so that you can worship at the altar of consumerism. And even if you do manage to get your greedy hands on a Mac laptop, you’re not going to leave the store without purchasing a case, power cord, expanded memory, a mouse, games, speakers, and other various accessories – at full cost of course. Moreover, people get caught up in the competition and spend far more than they normally would. They even make impulse purchases on the spot due to the pressure of hundreds of people everywhere clawing at the same goods. Store attendants have even died in past instances when they have been trampled by an enormous crowd of people running into the store.
Another sickening point is that companies advertise for Boxing Day in November, implying that obtaining the latest commodities is of utmost importance during this time of the year. Christmas is a corporate scam, however, it actually attempts to indulge the concepts of peace, family, religion, and kindness. Boxing Day is nothing more than a nefarious, ugly entity that represents the worst aspects of North American society.
