Consumerism Kills 1 on Black Friday

Wal-Mart temporary employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled Friday by hundreds of impatient Long-Island customers, according to a New York news source. * Four others were injured, including a woman eight months pregnant, when over 200 customers chanted “push the doors in” and proceeded to trample the suppressing human chain of Wal-Mart associates.

For a visual reference, just imagine gate 24 as one big lane with the ticket takers holding hands and yelling “red rover, red rover…” ninety minutes before kickoff.

Consumerism seem to be the watchword as a restless evil especially present around Black Friday, the day when the average American company breaks even and then shows profit for the annual reports. It is this profit that allows the entrepreneur to dream of the best products and services possible, which employs a massive amount of Americans, which fills the shelves of the department stores with colorful and high-quality products, and then evokes a massive desire for citizens to buy these wonderful things and then give them to their loved ones. The Friday the demand is greatest unfortunately resulted in the consumer’s freedom to obtain whatever they want (or to be happy) impeding on one man’s freedom to live in New York.

The dangerous human hype usually found at punk-rock concerts and global warming conferences but found Friday at the doors of Wal-Mart, is a situation where society usually pays. Often these are referred to as negative externalities, which are costs from production or consumption that accrue without compensation to someone other than the buyer or the seller. ** One cannot blame Wal-Mart for fairly providing goods at the best prices available in this situation, since the store was operating in complete compliance with the law, and even took extra safety precautions for that particular morning. *** On the other side, it is doubtful that any group of shoppers will face prosecution for stepping on Mr. Damour, since it would be much easier to blame Wal-Mart for the selfishness of human nature. Besides, Wal-Mart has more money.

The fact that America has goods that drive consumers to such lengths is truly a mark of this nation’s economic prosperity. This evil consumerism that has brought about one of the highest standards of living makes this rare commerce-related death a little ironic. While other countries are struggling to feed their people and to find clean water, it’s no wonder that there’s an absence of homicides from civilians rushing to toy sales. For example, when socialist Hugo Chavez gained political control of Venezuela, homicides in the country tripled annually.

Perhaps when a country has a superior economic system, less of her gainfully employed citizens are likely to kill each other because of their depressingly lower standards of living.

It is uncertain if businesses and OSHA will have to address instances such as the Long Island Wal-Mart in required training, since another stampede-like incident probably won’t happen for another 12 months. Although consumerism will continue to be thought of as a greedy dark entity that plagues the country, the country may want to reflect on the positive and overlooked effects of a strong economy.

And then go buy something.

[Written by Francis Mader, a UNL student publishing anonymously]

*http://www.dailynews.com
**Macroeconomics, McConnel Brue, 17th edition
***http://www.dailynews.com
****"Deadly Massage-How not to Tackle a Soaring Murder Rate", Economist.com, 17 Jul 2008

[The analog/paper version contains an error on the continuation page, where it is titled "Capitalism Kills 1", which should be "Consumerism Kills 1" since the killer was not capitalism, but consumerism. -----Editor]