Black Friday and American Debt

Each year Black Friday, occurring the Friday after Thanksgiving, is officially known as the start of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers tend to add Christmas decor and post up sales on their goods to entice shoppers to buy more. Stores tend to open up early in the morning and offer deals at the door to bring in the customers. Black Friday, itself, refers to when retailers start going back into the black profit-wise.

Black Friday may be a great day for retailers. The opposite can be said for many of the shoppers though. I would estimate that millions of Americans are spending money that can't afford to spend out of their wallet or from credit cards. They tend to buy more than they would all because of the illusion of the deal. The amount they purchase though negates the sale and many end up spending more than they can afford. The stores may be going into the black but in the middle economic bracket of the United States are left in the red.

If they use a credit card it makes it even worse for them. Yes, it is the fault of the individuals on a spending spree but for the retailers who take advantage of their open wallets, they must have no heart. In my opinion, this is not capitalism at all. This is greed and just a small part of the rising economic problems in this country. Making profit off of others' debts will only last so long until these retailers end up in a debt they'll be unable to recover from. This is a part of what is dissolving the middle class in this country.

What's worse is to see people nearly rioting over items in many cities. Hearing people fatally injuring each other over Xbox 360s, HDTVs, laptops and dolls is sickening. It's a reflection on how hyper-liberal, in social terms, materialism is another planted belief that owning the "best" first, the fastest and for the fast deal is a definite problem. All in all we've become more of a sick society and a simple retailer holiday brings out that sickness. The bad thing is that with every passing year those who come out to shop on Black Friday become more aggressive. In other countries, and our own in the past, people break out fighting for freedom and change. We fight over inept politicians, sporting events and retailer holidays.

Who have we become?