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Thinking Outside the Box
Author: BobR    Date: 12/26/2008 13:25:55

Happy Boxing Day! Today is the day in the UK, Canada, and other former British colonies when people box up the stuff they no longer need and donate it to the poor. No one is clear on where the name came from, but the intent is clear - it's a time of giving back, for showing appreciation for all that you have.

In the United States, of course, the day after Christmas is like Black Friday - another orgy of buying, this time all of the after-Christmas sales. Some retailers are probably hoping to salvage something from this holiday season since - due to the poor economy - retail sales are way down this year.

It's an interesting juxtaposition, the British tradition of giving away and the American tradition of buying more on this day. Americans buy for others before Christmas and for themselves after Christmas. Perhaps it's all those gift cards people now give as gifts...

But Christmas and the buying frenzy are all part of the American Experience, right? We love this time of year, right? We love getting all that stuff right?....

No, we don't:
...But what would make Chistmas merry, and New Year’s happy?

Good question. Two-thirds of Americans apparently dread the holiday season, because it will simply add more stuff to their lives. Christmas gifts have become the social equivalent of anti-matter. Far from delighting the recipients, Christmas gifts depress them.

I stumbled across this information in Bill McKibben’s provocative book Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. In it, McKibben asks a simple question: "Is more better?" Do objects and possessions really make us happy? If not, then why pursue "economic growth," which really means the creation of still more objects and possessions?
[...]
The proportion of Americans who say they are happy has slipped steadily since about 1950. In all the industrialized countries, increasing prosperity has been accompanied by decreasing happiness. Japan and the U.K. have seen huge increases in per capita incomes, but no increases in happiness.

The New York Times reports that people born in the world’s wealthiest countries after 1955 are "three times as likely as their grandparents to have had a serious bout of depression." Between 1955 and 1988, British national income rose sharply — and so did rates of crime and divorce.

And we have so much junk that a whole new industry has arisen to take care of it. One of the fastest-growing businesses in North America is self-storage.

I was one of those people. I used to have a self-storage unit that I rented and kept stuff that wouldn't fit in the house. I ended up emptying it when I bought a bigger house. I remember thinking "why do I need all this stuff?" when I was sweating gallons in the July heat (in GA) as we moved it into the spacious new house. A year later, there were still boxes of crap unpacked.

My parents grew up in the Depression, so reusing and getting the most use out of everything, and not wasting anything was instilled in them at a young age. I can understand their aversion to getting rid of something they might need later. That attitude was passed down to all of us children as well, which is why I tend to not get rid of stuff as much as I should. I think I've finally broken this one in myself.

It would seem like the Boxing Day tradition would be a perfect fit for Americans with so much stuff they need to rent a locker. In this economic downturn, there are more people needing help than ever before, and donations are down. Perhaps that junk in the attic or the storage facility or the basement or the back of the closet could help someone who doesn't even have a house anymore.

Perhaps it's time for Americans to think outside the box, and trade those Big Box stores and their post-Christmas sales for a box of stuff donated to their local Goodwill or Salvation Army. We could all end up a little happier.

Happy Boxing Day.

 

44 comments (Latest Comment: 12/27/2008 03:55:47 by livingonli)
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