New Haven Independent

Actually as far as I can tell the Christmas shopping season officially got underway sometime in August. I went into one of those “big box” discount wholesale stores (you know the ones where you buy mayonnaise in the ten-gallon jar) and saw fake Christmas trees for sale. Any moment I expected Burl Ives singing “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas” to come blaring through the store’s speakers. But it was summer and thankfully the Beach Boys.
There was a time when retailers held to the unwritten rule that Christmas sales didn’t get underway until at least after Halloween. Not any more, and with good reason. By some accounts, department, discount and toy stores do upwards of 20 percent of their annual sales in November and December . It is the season not only for joy and goodwill to all but for sales and profits. Consider that according to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend upwards of 450 billion dollars shopping for family, friends and in some cases people they really don’t like but are terrified of not having something for just in case they stop by to say “hello.”
Even just the forecast of a weak shopping season might put the jobs of tens of thousands of part-time just over minimum wage employees who have absolutely no clue where anything in the store is actually located in jeopardy. Consequently they wouldn’t be able to go out and buy their presents and in what can best be described as a “shoppers death spiral” pretty soon there would be nothing but coal in the stockings of children across the US…assuming anyone could afford the coal. A lousy Christmas buying season would mean a lousy first quarter for the economy which might ultimately mean a recession. Buying stuff at Christmas time, even if you can’t afford them means that you are a real American.
Thankfully there are the Chinese. They are controlled by a ruthless dictatorial Communist government with levels graft and corruption that makes Chicago in the ’30s look like a Nunnery. They’re paid poverty wages and will happily produce whatever products Americans would like at what appears to be an ever decreasing price. It doesn’t matter that in order to produce “Barfing Barbie” for next to nothing the Chinese must lay waste to their environment to keep costs down. Environmental protection laws cost money and a good part of the reason why American companies have moved to China and Mexico (to name but two) is the dearth of environmental laws. It is just now being reported that some of the rivers in China are so polluted that you could probably throw a nickel into them and watch it float.
And there is that pesky little problem of safety. How many toys have manufacturers had to recall because of high lead levels in the paint used on them? Gee..who would have thought that a three year old would put everything he could lay his hands onto into his mouth? Realize that over 80% of all toys sold by Mattel are made in China and that the toys are a 22 billion dollar industry and the 20 or so million toys recalled by Mattel seem like nothing more than a blip on the radar.
All of this puts Americans in a bit of a quandary. Do we continually buy potentially dangerous stuff from a Communist country (weren’t the Chinese Communists part of the axis of evil once, or was that some other Communists?) that enslaves its people and trashes its environment so that we can buy stuff for less than we paid last year? Or do we just say, “stop”? Is there an absolute necessity for everyone to own everything they want when they want it for the absolute lowest price regardless of who got hurt or what got destroyed in the process?
When do we have the courage of our convictions? Last time I checked we’re all for freeing those who live under the rule of dictators and whose governments maintain stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Democracy is a direction say the neo-cons and we must sometimes intervene and or invade sovereign nations to protect ourselves and free others from the rule of dictators. That is why we invaded Iraq. Interestingly, I don’t remember buying a whole lot of things that said “Made in Iraq” at Wal-Mart before we invaded. Probably explains why we will not be marching to save the Chinese anytime soon.
Merry Christmas…early.