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11-23-2007, 09:18 PM
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#2
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,250
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Dang, I sprung for lunch for my family today....does that count?
__________________
Make no mistake, my friend, it takes more than money to make men rich. - A. P. Gouthey
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11-23-2007, 10:05 PM
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#3
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,375
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Sounds like an elitist's holiday...I understand the logic behind it, and many of us are out of control with their credit cards and consumerism, but a lot of people on the lower end of the food chain work selling people stuff...a lot of those people would end up without jobs and those people would definitely slow down their consumption....and pretty soon other people would out of work and on and on....
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11-23-2007, 11:14 PM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Hooverville
Posts: 22,983
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 Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny
Sounds like an elitist's holiday...I understand the logic behind it, and many of us are out of control with their credit cards and consumerism, but a lot of people on the lower end of the food chain work selling people stuff...a lot of those people would end up without jobs and those people would definitely slow down their consumption....and pretty soon other people would out of work and on and on....
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Not only that, but as a parasitic rentier class we ERs need all the buying that other people can muster to keep the merry-go-round functioning.
So encourage your friends to pawn their jewelry, take out HELOCs, and get their credit card limits increased. It's Christmas, get out and buy! 
Ha
__________________
"As a general rule, the more dangerous or inappropriate a conversation, the more interesting it is."-Scott Adams
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11-23-2007, 11:18 PM
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#5
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: near Canadian border and near Mexican border
Posts: 1,142
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Quote:
Originally Posted by haha
Not only that, but as a parasitic rentier class we ERs need all the buying that other people can muster to keep the merry-go-round functioning.
So encourage your friends to pawn their jewelry, take out HELOCs, and get their credit card limits increased. It's Christmas, get out and buy!
Ha |
I am all for that, as long as I do not have to participate.
__________________
Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. That's my story and I am sticking to it.
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11-24-2007, 07:09 AM
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#6
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: minnesota
Posts: 13,228
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Cool! I spent nothing yesterday and did not go anywhere. Now I can feel that I contributed to a cause.
It really bothers me that so much of our economy is built around Christmas. It isn't a religious issue, it is a pointless buying spree issue. People buying things for others that are not needed or wanted. People buying stuff for themselves that aren't needed or maybe not even wanted if they really thought about it. With all these dollars being spent, it would make far more sense if they were spent productively. What an economic waste.
Wonder how much money is spent on Christmas kitsch? Yesterday when I turned on HGTV every show was on decorating a house for Christmas. Fortunately, it was Star Trek Enterprise all day on another channel.
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No more lawyer stuff, no more political stuff, so no more CYA
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11-24-2007, 11:15 AM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 13,186
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martha
It isn't a religious issue
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I guess not...... since very, very little about christmas in the USA has anything to do with religion!
It certainly is a successful marketing campaign! Peoples' emotional strings (hedonism, sentimentalism, nostalga, greed, etc.) are plucked to the tune of profit. It's quite a spectacle!
A few years ago, I got to be in China for for their New Year celebration for the first time. Much partying, consumption, gifting, business shut down for a week, etc. Obviously, there were important differences between that and Christmas here, but many similarities too........ especially in peoples' attitudes towards the holiday.
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"I wasn't born blue blood. I was born blue-collar." John Wort Hannam
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11-24-2007, 11:59 AM
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#8
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 347
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__________________
USCG regulations say you have to go out. They don't say anything about coming back.
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11-24-2007, 12:25 PM
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#9
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
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We did our part yesterday, just played in the yard and ate leftovers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martha
Wonder how much money is spent on Christmas kitsch?
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Whatever it is, my MIL has a substantial pie slice all to herself. Its an illness. She buys us carloads of little statues and figures and decorations, absolutely none of which we use. Her house has so much stuff, holiday and otherwise, that you have to turn sideways in some passages to get through.
Three years ago I suggested she not get us any more of that stuff and just buy stuff for Gabe. We got a trunkload of crap anyhow and I drove it directly to Goodwill. Two years ago I flat out told her that we were throwing the stuff out or giving it away, so please stop. She looked at me like a deer in the headlights and said "I'm still getting it for you. Its what I do!". Another trip to goodwill.
I expect this year will be more of the same. What a waste.
Of course they have no retirement savings and are in debt up to their eyeballs, both in their 60's...
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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11-24-2007, 12:34 PM
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#10
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 10,125
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Christmas is Saturnalia with a new face. Even the wage slaves are allowed to have a good time.
I went to work so it was almost negative spending, I bought some books and the new Alicia Keyes CD for myself from Amazon.
__________________
Angels danced on the day that you were born.
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11-24-2007, 06:51 PM
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#11
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: North-Central Illinois
Posts: 3,228
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Same here. Spent nothing. Went nowhere. Did nothing. SUCCESS!!! 
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11-24-2007, 07:55 PM
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#12
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Gone but not forgotten
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,924
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I went to the grocery store and bought some marked-down meat.
__________________
"Knowin' no one nowhere's gonna miss us when we're gone..."
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