BND 2007
a friend of mine sent a link to this news story about a toy made in China that contains a chemical that turns into GHB when ingested (it’s not intended for ingestion, but kids eat things). she expressed concern that people are putting their consumer values ahead of their health and safety values. this news item is quite timely considering the holiday season is right around the corner, and so is BUY NOTHING DAY.
On November 23, we celebrate the fifteenth annual Buy Nothing Day. This year is going to be exceptional. The mainstream has finally woken up to the reality of the environmental crisis, and the responsibility that lies with us, the planet’s most affluent – the upper 20% that consume 80% of the world’s resources. Now’s our chance to do something about it.
i think that not only is buying american (or european, or canadian, or other places that have 1st world health and safety standards, not just for us but for them) is important, but more important than that i think is just plain NOT BUYING.
rampant consumerism is killing our environment, our children, our economy. it all just has to stop. whether it’s toxic toys from china or plastic disposable things made in the USA, we don’t need more crap – we need less. and the more people think they need, the more they’re willing to give up in terms of human rights and safety so that they can get cheaper and cheaper goods.
americans are so addicted to the instant-gratification response of consumerism (which is promoted and put into our brains by commercial marketing and the media) that we think it feels like “punishment” for american families to force themselves to stop buying toys and all kinds of cheap chintzy crap at Wal-Mart and instead save money for healthier, better things. WTF?
the money spent on material things we don’t need could be put to better use in our lives – better food, better homes, higher education, healthy activities, self-improvement, savings accounts for your kids … all kinds of things. for you AND your children. think about how much money you would save for your family if every time you went to the store you only bought things you really need, instead of things you think you WANT.
if we want to save our children’s futures, we need to stop feeding into a toxic economy NOW, and also be good role models to teach our children different and better consumer spending habits. there is just no way around it.
Filed in environment, things you can do | Tagged with adbusters, BND, economics, plastic | Comment (0)Leave a Reply
