Just A Holiday Reminder: Black Friday Sales Are Utterly Meaningless

[FarCenter]

You know the economy and stock market are in deep trouble when the Mainstream Media elevates one essentially meaningless metric to "The One Meaningful Statistic" and then trumpets it slavishly. One such meaningless metric is Black Friday.

...

The MSM loves binaries: two parties, two final contestants, and if Black Friday is "good," i.e. sales exceed last year's consumerist bacchanal, then the economy is "healthy." Any weakening of the consumer's lemming-like drive to buy, buy, buy means the economy is "weak."

This is of course absolutely backward: consumers buying shiploads of poor-quality crap made overseas means the economy is is still on the slippery slope to implosion, as debt is being used to fund consumption while capital formation (savings) remains pathetic.

Since most of the crap (and it is crap--most Americans have either forgotten what actual quality is or they have never experienced it) is made overseas, the "boost" to the economy generated by rampant charge-card consumption flows to only one slice of the the U.S. economy: corporate profits.

http://www.businessinsider.com/just-a-holiday-reminder-black-friday-is-utterly-meaningless-2011-11

[lunatica]

1. Yup. All those extra jobs for the Xmas holiday will still go away

And all those jobs building more stuff will still be outsourced. Nothing will come back into our economy in the form of jobs or manufacturing. Absolutely nothing.

But consumers will pay more to the credit card companies and god help them if they're late in their payments.

[DrDan]

3. some of these jobs might have meant some toys under the tree for the kids

I for one, am thankful, that there was some holiday hiring.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. It's good tat there is hiring, but they are NOT permament.

That matters.

[DrDan]

8. of course it matters - but even a temp job might matter to some

I am still glad there was some holiday hiring for those in need.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. If this was like it used to be

Extra money for the holidays, sure. But it is becoming the new normal. The u-6 will go up once most of them are laid off. Then what?

[DrDan]

14. given a choice between a temp holiday job, and none . . . I would probably choose the former

You can only eat and pay bills on principle for so long.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. And you are missing the point

This is not a workable economy npeople can't live on six weeks of minimum wage income a year.

[DrDan]

32. good heavens - it's not that complex

Of course folks cannot work on "six weeks of minimum wage income a year"

Who made that claim?

Please read what I said - I never said anything like that.

[lunatica]

9. Will you be thankful when they get thrown under the bus again in a few weeks?

The attitude of being thankful for crumbs is all part of the brainwashing of the masses by the corporations.

Should people really be thankful to get crumbs from corporations who grow obese on lavish food which is taken from the mouths of those people?

That's not being humble. That's being shortsighted and useful to them.

[DrDan]

11. I suppose you would be more content not being thrown under the bus

because there was no temp job to begin with.

[lunatica]

13. I would be content if people were given decent permanent jobs

Not only selling retail but actually selling something manufactured in this country so the money goes to the people in this country.

What part of what I'm saying is so hard to understand?

[DrDan]

16. who wouldn't - and who said otherwise?

until those are back in abundance, I am happy to see some temp jobs being available to those who would like a few extra bucks during the holidays.

[villager]

2. Well, the silent unreccer here seems to have thought "it's a wonderful stat!"

n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. And they will be revised downwards by Monday

When nobody is looking. There is a psychology here. Heck, my local nooz channel played it perfectly with all the crap you missed if you did not go...aware of it, so it got a big yawn. Also my emergency plumbing supplies were part of those stats.

[taught_me_patience]

6. It depends if it's share shifting or the pie has actually grown.

I suspect we'll find out that a large portion of the sales growth this year was share shifting and sales will drop below last year's comps in the coming weeks. If the pie has actually grown, that's a good sign for the economy.

[tblue]

7. How "healthy" is it when people shove and pepper spray each other

and ignore a dying man so they can buy a cheap gizmo at Target? What does it say when we assess the day by the $$$ made and ignore the dignity and humanity it cost?

Everybody's shopping! They trampled each other to death but at least we turned a profit!

[progressoid]

10. Oh, c'mon.

The Walton Family is barely scraping by. We need to support them!

[bhikkhu]

15. I'm a non-shopper, but its not meaningless

2/3rds of the economy is consumer spending, and the majority of the people in this country depend upon "the economy" for their livelihoods. More shopping and spending means a larger economy, which supports a larger workforce, which puts bread on a whole lot of people's tables who really appreciate it, especially this time of year.

...and credit card debt has been looking better for some time now:

?5648b8

[unblock]

17. actually, black friday sales are taken to be an indicator of the health of the consumer

if consumers are feeling strapped, they buy less on black friday; if they are feeling flush with cash, they buy tons.

i agree that consumption of crap is hardly a wonderful thing, especially to the extent it flows to the wal-brats and to china, but if consumers are buying a bit more, that's an indicator that consumers are in better shape than they have been since this whole mess began.

on average, of course. some households are obviously doing better than others, especially the protracted unemployed.

[Odin2005]

21. Quit using the word "consumer", it's anti-progressive.

I am a citizen and a human being, not a "consumer".

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. In the business sense that is the propper term

[unblock]

27. we are talking about people who piss away their hard-earned money on cheap wal-mart crap, right?

i think "consumer" is the right word and it's pissing away your hard-earned money on cheap wal-mart crap that's the anti-progressive thing.

[Odin2005]

19. When an economy is based on the consumption of cheap crap it is done for.

Our economy is a hollowed-out basket case. Most manufacturing that is still in this country is for luxury goods for the 1%.

[Anatos]

20. boilerplate hipster cynicism

The "everything flows to corporate profits" shtick is exactly like the "all corporate taxes are paid by consumers" idea that the conservatives love to pull. It is a variation on the standard 'when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail'. It is bunk. EVERY statistic is just as much 'meaningless'; this one obviously has resonance, and any media (not just the dreaded "Main Stream" kind) will report it. None, as far as I know, have ever trumpeted it as having profound significance above it's bare numeric transcription, which nevertheless remains of interest from year to year as the world orbits the sun.

The second part of the piece makes it clear that this is just vapid kvetching. It's starts by condemning both the "MSM" and supposedly their (its?) love of "binaries". And then ends by declaring everything currently available in America "crap". Because somehow being over-designed or heavier than it needs to be is a kind of "quality" people are supposed to want to pay for, if only they weren't so barbarously non-hipster in the eyes of the author.

Essentially this piece is trying to substantiate its assertion that good retail sales are evidence of a bad economy because they are evidence of a strengthening economy and our economy is so thoroughly evil, it still being possible for someone somewhere to be taken advantage of, that it should not be strengthened. It is this "first, we must destroy the economy because it has (in some unspecified and unquantified way) 'gone too far'" approach to politics which is crippling us (I mean Democrats, in presenting a united and supportable economic plan), at the moment, even more than Grover Norquist. We need to return to the days of sane and rational government regulation of markets; we don't need to over-react and radically re-invent our financial system.

[Odin2005]

22. Opposing consumerist BS is "hipster cynicism" now???

:eyes:

[Anatos]

28. Indeed

Simply using the term "consumerist" is hipster cynicism, now. Though that is hardly the extent of the example.

[Odin2005]

33. Horseshit.

[Anatos]

35. the truth, it stings a little, I know

[uppityperson]

37. Just because a "hipster cynic" may use a term does not mean you co-opt it.

Hipsters are not the center of the universe, even though you may think you are.

[lunatica]

23. Sorry, you don't make any sense.

Reminds me of Newt, the pseudo-intellectual.

[Anatos]

29. I am aware

that people who aren't up to the intellectual level I write to are unable to perceive the difference. You remind me of Karl Rove: your one and only weapon is the subtle undermine.

[Odin2005]

36. Most people who brag about their "intellectualism" tend to be those insecure about their smarts.

[SomethingFishy]

25. Actually I think that what pisses people off most is the

attitude. "Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year". That is a bold faced lie. The biggest shopping day of they year is the Saturday before Christmas. And really, who fucking cares? Why the need for the media to create this moronic "event" known as black friday where people, apparently like you, can feed their need for a consumer driven frenzy.

You can defend this shit all you want, when I see people getting INJURED over a discounted Xbox it makes me embarrassed to be part of this culture. There is no reason for it, no need for it, and no point to it. You need discounted shit? Go to a fucking pawn shop. You need it so bad you bring Pepper Spray to injure people to get it? You are the fucking problem.

[Anatos]

30. What set of facts

enables you to believe that Black Friday is not the busiest shopping day of the year. Next are we going to hear how it is all a lie because not every retail store breaks even on that day? The media doesn't create moronic events; it just tries to make money off them. Shopping for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving is an American tradition, perhaps not of long standing, but certainly well embraced. I am not defending it, I don't even like it. I'm just not so self-involved to try to get hipster cynic cred by whining about it.

I'll presume you were directing your lament concerning who is "the fucking problem" to the hypothetical participants of Black Friday, rather than me. That way you won't get into trouble just for saying something dumb.

[bengalherder]

26. Lots of sound and fury there dude,

But the conclusion I reach is the same as Shakespeare's.

Pretty much the same conclusion the OP came to about BF.

[Anatos]

31. Right back at ya

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. thanks for the reminder.