Economic Blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference?
Economic Blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference?
A grassroots organization is encouraging U.S. residents not to spend any money on Friday. The People’s Union USA describes it as an act of “economic resistance” to protest what the group’s founder sees as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the
The planned blackout is scheduled to run from 12 a.m. EST through 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday. The activist group advised customers to abstain from making any purchases, whether in store or online, but particularly not from big retailers or chains. It wants participants to avoid fast food and filling their car gas tanks, and says shoppers with emergencies or in need of essentials should support a local small business and try not to use a credit or debit card.
Depends on how many people actually do it.
Even if everyone did it what I really don’t understand is how it makes a difference. Everyone can buy before or after the event no?
Sorta. It's generally understood that luxuries and services suffer the most while necessities of course are just purchased later.
Think of it like this: you cancel your date night and have dinner at home.
The movie theater doesn't get ticket sales. The restaurant doesn't sell some meals and liquor. The gas station sells one round trip less of gasoline.
What does happen is a grocery store makes a fraction of what those sales would have been the next day, but they also paid the same wages for no sales the day of.
Etc etc.
Imagine all your little money vats suddenly dont give you money for an extended period of time in unison. Concerning, no?
Yup, if the countries comes together and does it, it would do some damage.
It ain't gonna happen
It's a first move. It's to show people they can act together. It's not supposed to have a massive impact on its own. The same with protests. These are ways to build momentum for a popular resistance.
Agree that the success of the small protest is a good starting point for something bigger. My concern is that if there isn't a charismatic leader, a modern day MLK jr. then I don't see it going very well.
I don't know, let's find out.
It's also telling that I wasn't even aware of this until 11:38pm eastern on Thursday so I'm not sure how many people are going to even know about it
It’s more to show the ability to do something widespread than the one day being the catalyst. Get people talking about it, bonding over it, and send a message that we have a cohesive communication network when needed.
I'm not American, but I get payed monthly and that was today. Might make it hard for some.
Also how do they report revenue, is it monthly weekly? Would have to time things so it shows up at board meetings etc .
Pretend it's Ramadan and you're Muslim.
Or that it's lent, and you're Catholic.
It is possible to go one day without consumption or purchases. It's not even as hard as fasting, because for a little as you may have in the cupboards, there's probably something.
Now, if today is when you pay your rent, or your credit card bill, or fill your gas tank, or something else you really can't delay without penalty; I suspect nobody is expecting you to incur a late fee over this. And they even make allowances for stuff like gas - get some cash from the ATM and pay with cash, like yo great-grammy did for decades.
Like everything movement actions, this is a "do as best you can" to send a signal. This one isn't even asking you to go to jail, only to forgo the cheeseburger for one day.
“I’ll just fill up my car the day before and then I’m technically an activist!”
Unless the net consumption is significantly less the powers you are trying to topple won’t even notice. This will do nothing.
Honestly it still helps with the message.
Some things won't see much of a hit but I'm not going to order out twice tomorrow because I skipped it today.
The point is you should be pushing to permanently boycott or at least severely limit your consumption of these things, and we should be pushing for THAT en mass if you want to do something meaningful.