When I hear the name “Black Friday,” I think about how it perfectly shows what capitalism is really about. The name comes from accounting. Red ink means a store is losing money, while black ink means they are making a profit. So, this holiday is named after the moment businesses start making money. It is not about being thankful or being with family. It is about businesses making sure their bank accounts look good. I think this holiday hides some big ethical problems with how we buy things today.
The first big problem is how stores trick our brains. Black Friday is not natural. It is a panic created by companies on purpose. I see how they make us feel scared that we will miss out on a deal. They use short time limits to stop us from thinking clearly. We do not buy things because we need them. We buy them because we are afraid we will not get another chance. I think it is wrong to treat people this way just to sell products.
This trick leads to the second problem, which is waste. This holiday is built on buying things we will eventually throw away. The cheap items sold on Black Friday are often made poorly so they can be sold for less money. They break easily. This hurts the planet. We use up natural resources and burn fuel to ship these things around the world. Then we wrap them in plastic. Soon, these items end up in the trash. It feels like we are destroying the earth just to save a few dollars.
Then there is the cost to actual people. I know that low prices usually mean someone is being treated badly. It might be the person making the product in a factory for very low pay. Or it might be the worker at the store right here in America. Many workers have to leave their own families on Thanksgiving to get the store ready. We act like it is normal for workers to be tired and treated poorly so we can get a cheap TV. Sometimes people even get hurt in the crowds. This teaches us that owning things is more important than treating people with respect.
Finally, I worry about what this does to our hearts. Black Friday takes over Thanksgiving. We stop saying “thank you” for what we have and immediately start running to get more. It changes our focus from being grateful to just wanting more stuff. To me, Black Friday puts money over people. As long as we join in without thinking, we are part of a system that only cares about our wallets, not our well-being.
