[w1ntermute]

> Concern over these tax hikes are already holding shoppers back.

> During the holiday shopping season, between Oct. 30 to Dec. 24, shoppers spent just 0.7% more than they did last year, according to a MasterCard Advistors SpendingPulse report released last week.

Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe we should stop wasting so much money during the holiday season? I thought that Christmas was supposed to be about spending time with loved ones, not about blowing thousands of dollars on unnecessary gifts. All the consumerization of the holiday season does now is funnel more money to Chinese factories. Only a fraction of the revenue goes to retail workers in America.

Ideally, that extra payroll tax money would be used for constructive purposes, such as rebuilding badly worn-out infrastructure, which could also put countless unskilled laborers in America back to work. But we all know it'll most likely be wasted on killing more Arabs or on corporate welfare, thanks to constant lobbying and large campaign donations from big business and the military-industrial complex.

[noibl]

> I thought that Christmas was supposed to be about spending time with loved ones, not about blowing thousands of dollars on unnecessary gifts.

Did you really? I guess that means you don't have kids.

> Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe we should stop wasting so much money during the holiday season?

Actually lots of people, since before Dickens, and often with ironic reference to the basic moral tenets of Christianity. And yet here we are. Like the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, it is what it is.

> more money to Chinese factories ... killing more Arabs or corporate welfare

You seem to be saying that on the one hand, workers don't know how to spend their pay while on the other hand, neither does the government. So perhaps 'ideally' it's not such a bad thing to have the money end up in a part of the world where millions of people a year are actively raising themselves out of poverty on the back of export demand.

[w1ntermute]

> Did you really? I guess that means you don't have kids.

No, I don't. But I don't see how that's important. When I was a kid, I didn't receive extravagant presents, despite growing up in an upper-middle class family that could have easily afforded them without going into debt. I received useful presents, usually something that I practically needed or something constructive, such as new clothes or books.

> Actually lots of people, since before Dickens, and often with ironic reference to the basic moral tenets of Christianity.

Dense works of literature (or their film adaptions) clearly aren't an effective way of reaching the masses. Then again, perhaps most people are just too stupid to get the message, or too afraid of being the first to break social convention.

> You seem to be saying that on the one hand, workers don't know how to spend their pay while on the other hand, neither does the government.

Correct. But while people will (probably) always be stupid, I believe the government can and should be reformed so that it is more responsive to the needs of the people and less responsive to lobbyists and campaign donors.

[taskstrike]

From a human perspective. Money really isn't "wasted" during the holiday season. Most of money is spend on your family as gifts anyways. As a kid, Christmas + birthdays were looked forward to because that when you got the toys you wanted for the entire year.