Black Friday

Black Friday is the biggest retail shopping day of the year in the US. The malls are packed and everyone seems to be in a shopping frenzy.

Luckily there is an alternative event going on: Buy Nothing Day. BND for short. Join us. Today is the 10th anniversary of the Buy Nothing Day which hopes to put a moratorium on consumer spending for the period of 24 hours. It has gone international and is celebrated as "Día sin compras" in the Spanish-speaking world.

What did Shakespeare write? Much ado about nothing. I agree, we have to make noise about nothing - about buying nothing.

And if you are the visual person and want to "watch" Buy Nothing concepts have a look at these videos: Buy Nothing video submission. I particularly liked this one: Raj Patel: The Value of Nothing. This video is a promo for the book "The Value Of Nothing" (2009) by scholar, activist, writer Raj Patel, also the author of Stuffed and Starved (2008). The title is based on the Oscar Wilde quote: "Nowadays, people know the price of everything and the value of nothing." A lovely quote. The book is a good story on how costs are externalized and prices are distorted. The first chapter of the book is available here.