Buy Nothing Day

On November 25th it’s Buy Nothing Day where millions of people stop consumption for 24 hours, this regards to not buying anything, turning off your lights and electrical appliances and cellphones. The principle is that we over-consume so for this one day we should shut off all materialism objects. In doing so we’re showing the large corporation who’s the boss.

We’ve all grown up in a consumerism world where the economy strives off growth however that growth is unsustainable. The goal of infinite profit takes a toll on the earth as large corporations vastly use up resources in a short amount of time. This cycle of extracting from the earth, producing something, then consuming it revolves in a cycle where it happens again and again. Everything surrounding us results in us consuming such as television commercials and advertisements, this is the environment we live in.

Every item we purchase as consumers we should question the implications of the product. What’s the harm on the environment? Was child labour involved? At first when someone purchases an item, it is usually on impulse because it’s not a necessity. However there should be careful thought put in because globally there are people who don’t have enough money to even buy necessities. We take advantage of shopping, spending countless dollars on items without good reason. Products which harm the environment such as a pair of shoes which creates waste from the box and wrapping, the shoe’s glue is also environmentally harmful as well as the material and somewhere in a third world country child labour may have been involved.