CONSUMER CAPITALISM BRINGS VARIETY TO YOUR LIFE

It’s Q4 of the year, that time where you have no choice but to stress out about whether you get your dad that $700 camera lens he’s been bugging you about, or shell out a few hundred to get something special for your significant other. While all of this is happening, you feel like you want to take a break from the free market, maybe take a nap, but you can’t, because this special deal ends in 48 hours.

This is the time of year that influences young people to believe in a perceived problem with the capitalist, consumer culture that is celebrated in America.

Some of us were too young to go out to a retail giant when the clock hit midnight on the eve of Black Friday, but there were always those viral videos on the news about people throwing hands over a Nintendo console or a Barbie doll, and it always intrigued me why some people would do this to save money. I mean, we never paid for it, so it never mattered whether our parents or caretakers fought tooth-and-nail for that new gaming console.

That’s where the fallacy of “equity over capital” – a hostility to unapologetic shopping – shows itself. The biggest responsibilities of reaching adulthood are getting a job, opening a bank account, and becoming a financially stable person. Unfortunately, as we all get older, most of us have to get out of the spoon-feeding habit that has nurtured us and be on the other side of expectation. It can be a completely new concept for some.

To many younger people, there is this instinct to think negatively when it comes to the phrase “consumer capitalism.” It adds to this regrettable feeling to all the holiday shopping, like we’re just a cog in the machine. However, in reality, consumer capitalism is a reward, a privilege in this country.

As someone who works in retail, seeing the different types of people who come out for Black Friday shopping is enlightening. These are people who come to buy things they couldn’t get anywhere else, at a price that is nonexistent in most other places. These are the people that probably don’t dread holiday shopping.

For all we know, the reality of equity would take away these tedious holiday shopping chores for us and make our lives just a little bit easier, but the trade-offs could be as damning as wearing the same clothes every day and being funneled into a colorless world.

Let’s be honest: Will you really miss out on some of the fun and festivities of the holiday season if you don’t buy the KitchenAid mixer your mom wants because it is out of your budget? Or are you willing to shrug aside a small, pseudo-political trend (anti-shopping) that resonates with some people?

One thing that should be kept in mind with that dilemma is that no matter how people choose to do it, the holiday season will be there for them. Friends and family, whether they are related or not, will appreciate both the gifts that cost a fortune and the ones that won’t cost a dime.