A grassroots organization is encouraging U.S. residents not to spend any money Friday as an act of “economic resistance” to protest what the group’s founder sees as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans.
Changing your spending patterns for 7 years is completely different from one day of attempted boycotting. The reality is, people already aren’t spending money. Just a few days ago it was reported that the top 10% of earners are currently responsible for half of all spending. “Spending” isn’t leverage we have.
I would be more supportive of a movement to cut all subscriptions, and stop spending on anything beyond necessities until things are stable again. But anyone who’s worked retail during these months knows that bad days are just business as usual.
In a world where “line must go up infinitely”, the idea of people coming together to make that line go another direction is power. But sitting behind a keyboard and telling people to continue being small and helpless is not what we continue to need from the community.
There are a lot of people who have never participated in something like this, but these moments are our chance to get people involved. I love that you have an idea for subscriptions and only buying necessities. I need you to say “Yes, this is a good start, and now let’s take the next step together. I have some ideas.”
Every dollar we give to these people is another dollar that is used against us. I’m not ok with that. Inequality is at an all time high and only getting worse.
Lastly, you’ll have to forgive me for taking QZ, a website owned by a Private Equity Firm, with a grain of salt. “Rich people are now powering the economy” reads like rich people propaganda.
Uncalled for, don’t be like that, you know that’s not what I said at all.
So you agree the expected outcome of this particular venture is to not have any tangible impact. Are you concerned at all about people seeing that it had no impact, and as a result feeling deterred from future involvement?
I picked the first article in my search that wasn’t paywalled, but they’re all citing a study by Moody’s Analytics, owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Take it for what it’s worth.
I agree wording the headline that way is misleading, because it’s more accurate to say “rich people are creating the demand, poor people are doing all the work to fulfill the supply, but of course capitalism means the rich also get all those proceeds”.
But the entire concept of Wealth Inequality directly implies that one small group will have all the money to spend, and another group will not. I don’t see that as “pro rich people” I think most everyone would read it as “it’s a problem that there are fewer customers in our economy”. Even if you’re the embarrassed-millionaire-type, you have to concede that fewer people out spending money translates to fewer opportunities for you to make your millions.
I just think this sounds like an idea that some privileged person came up with, assuming that everyone is out there being irresponsible with their money every day. But we’re in a spot where not only are people not spending money, they’re putting necessities on credit. I feel like that public debt-to-GDP ratio of the is the bigger threat to businesses. That’s going to come crashing down on them, especially small businesses.
But a random bad day in Feb is also known to a retail business as a “Friday”. People don’t spend money during these months, even when the economy is good. Now if we did this any time between Thanksgiving and Christmas? THAT could send a message.