Not One Damn Dime Day

[Pah]

From my inbox

Not One Damn Dime Day

Since our religious leaders will not speak out against
the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't
have the moral courage to oppose it,
Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20, 2005, is "Not
One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is
happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a
24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer
spending.

During "Not One Damn dime Day" please don't spend
money. Not one damn dime on gasoline. Not one damn
dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one
damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" please boycott Walmart,
K-Mart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the
local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast
food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the
retail economy down.

The object is simple. Remind the people in power that
the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are
responsible for starting it and that it is their
responsibility to stop it. "Not One Damn Dime Day" is
to remind them, too, that they work for the people of
the United States of America, not for the
international corporations and K Street lobbyists who
represent the corporations who funnel cash into
American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the
troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way.
Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate)
100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our
troops a plan? a way to come home. There's no rally to
attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing
agenda to rant about.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing
nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet
closed.

For 24 hours nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to
remind our religious leaders and our politicians of
their moral responsibility to end the way in
Iraq and give American back to the people.

 

[pensive]

For 24 hours nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to
remind our religious leaders and our politicians of
their moral responsibility to end the way in
Iraq and give American back to the people.

While I admire the sentiment, the realist in me has to acknowledge that this will likely not cause any real effect. Truth be told, from the corporate standpoint, this won't even register as a blip on the radar. It'll go completely unnoticed, and for the same reason that the anual "gas out" goes unnoticed.

The problem with these "24 hour boycotts" is that nothing actually gets boycotted in the greater scheme of things. People who participate in gas-outs simply fill up their gas tanks the day before or the day after the "big event." In effect, all they've done is shift the day of their purchase in one direction or the other. But from the economic standpoint, they've still bought the same amount of gas. They've paid the same amount of money. They just scheduled it on a different day. Likely, the same thing will happen with people during "not one damn dime day." They'll just make their purchase the day prior or the day after, thereby giving the company the same amount of money overall. This is why companies do not pay attention to daily trends. If you really wanted to make a statement, you'd have to schedule at the minimum a week long boycott. And even then, if the participants made up for the week of "boycotting" by stocking up ahead of time or performing a massive "restocking" purchase afterwards, the corporate perspective would be that a week of low sales was counteracted by a week or two of excessive sales.

In the end, if you really want to make a statement with your purchasing power, you're going to have to make a long-standing change to your purchasing practices. Because a one-day "blackout" will just appear as a glitch in the system if it's seen at all.

 

[Pah]

I believe you are right, pensive. It would take some targeted media coverage to make a difference.

Bob

 

[Ceridwen018]

Yeah man, we're really gonna show them! We're gonna shut down the whole economy! Woohoo!

Hehe, I don't think it's the best way to get a point accross either.

 

[painted wolf]

ah the grand tradition of "buy nothing day"... I celebrate this day with gusto. November 27th is the international holiday of 'buy nothing day"

http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/
http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/home.html

guess now I get to add another such holiday to my list.

wa:do

 

[robtex]

I think Pah's point isn't about shutting down the economy but about getting the media to spotlight the people's wishes which by and large have been ignored by the executive office of the USA. The problem is that this has been attempted many times before with buy no gas days and so few people partipate and no media coverage is given. It is a tricky game cause the executive office was so committed to getting troops into Iraq that it didn't matter what the people wanted and the executive office is committed to keeping a base over there to secure assests and investements.

Two things to consider in the next 20 years (I believe this is a long term miltary investment) is that:

1) china has and will continue to come out of the dark ages and has a population of billion. If they march into the middle east to secure the middle eastern assets we aint getting it back. Bush and executive office know this. Now while they have not been historically imperistic as a country they do have middle class wants and needs and to achieve those they need oil. Same as we do. The executive office has looked at this senerio before (its a hypothical since it has not happened yet) and have factored it into their decision.

2) America has a strong interest in protecting Israel (aka the holy land) and its other foreign investments in the middle east and a base has been historically their meathod of achieving this. We keep bases in Germany to this day to moniter eastern europe. We keep bases in Japan. We have no mitary bases in the middle east and Bush is setting one up.

I am still confused as to why he picked Iraq over say neogiciating with Turkey, Israel or some other more neutral country for one is preplexing but he did.

We can ask for a way out all we want but the executive branch aint listening. They are thinking long term and they are not going to talk to us about China, a base or even India which also has a population of one billion and woose economy is on an upswing right now. Actually ironicallly a retail boycott would really hurt China and India if the program was long run cause those two are manufactring giants in the retail industry today.

hybrid autos will be more and more common place as a contigency at this point but make no mistake about the this was an exuctive decision that didn't address the people' s wants (pro or con) and getting the executive office to acknowledge public opinion is going to be a war in and of itself.

 

[Doc]

I will participate in this day, but I agree that it must be long term to do any damage. Bush and his goons are responsible for those 1200 deaths. There was no need for it. They are fools in Washington to say it was just.

If the opposite of Pro is Con, then the opposite of Progress would have to be Congress.

 

[robtex]

I will participate in this day, but I agree that it must be long term to do any damage. Bush and his goons are responsible for those 1200 deaths. There was no need for it. They are fools in Washington to say it was just.

If the opposite of Pro is Con, then the opposite of Progress would have to be Congress.

1297 as of today are listed on the fallen heros memorial page. I posted the link in the prayers and meditation section. 153 in afghanistan.