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20 Nov 2008

Buy Nothing Day...

Posted by: Ed Gillespie

Buy Nothing Day...

Economy in trouble? Financial stability on the rocks? Scrabbling for solutions? I know! How about we try and spend our way out of the madness! In the same vein as 'Dubya' and Tony urged us to right after the planes hit the towers on 9/11, it seems that rampant consumer spending is the solution to the credit crunch and to get our economy back on track. As Woolies is up for sale for a quid and even M&S kicks off a 'guerilla sale' with 20% of sensible knickers for the Silverback in your life (and so much more - there is no Plan B remember?) the High Street is flailing desperately to get us out and parting us from our rapidly evaporating cash...

There's just one problem. Long term, an economy baed on ever increasing consumption of materialist 'stuff' is ultimately and inevitably doomed to faliure in a world of finite resources. Instead of basing our productivity on the volume of disposable goods we consume we need to return to those halcyon days of making things last. As 'Do the Green Thing' suggested with 'Stick with what you've got' something's got to give. A truly sustainable economy will be about people. Trading services and using skills to extend the life of TVs, washing machines, cars etc. This Friday is 'Buy Nothing Day'. I suggest we all take this up. The transition will not be swift or indeed painless. But we've got to start somewhere and the time I suspect is now..before the 'Shopocalypse' is upon us!

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