Buy nothing day...

I didn't realize that, in my previous post on the shopping I did on Black Friday, I was also showing how stupid Buy Nothing Day is (via InstaPundit

In addition to the fact that not buying stuff means money isn't going to those "nickel and dimed" clerks at Wal-Mart, or to those in 3rd world contries who work in factories because it beats starving to death, which is what they would do if they didn't have factories to work in, there are a couple other reasons I can think of that Buy Nothing day makes no sense. First of all, there is the pointlessness of a one day boycott - as pointed out in Snopes' analysis of the one-day gas boycott.. A one day boycott doesn't change spending, it just shifts it.

The second thing is that Black Friday is a great day for sales, if you don't mind waking up at 4 in the morning and being shoved by people eager to get their hands on free CD-R's. If you are willing to put up with the lack of sleep and physical harm of Black Friday, but resist it to make a symbolic point, and then buy the same stuff you would have bought later at a higher price, how are you hurting the big evil companies? Aren't you just hurting yourself and giving them more money?