You can save money every day without fighting over TVs.
You can save money every day without fighting over TVs.
O n Black Friday, people flock to stores hours before they open in the hopes of getting a good deal on consumer electronics and Christmas gifts. Stores offer steep discounts to get people’s attention, and it works. Every year, we see videos of people fighting for that TV or Xbox that’s just too good to pass up.
Fortunately, civilization has advanced to the point that we don’t have to save money just one day per year. We don’t need to stand outside in the cold at three in the morning, or elbow strangers out of the way. Every day is Black Friday if you just pay attention and spend your money wisely.
There is no compelling reason to make a fool of yourself to obtain goods. Stores know this. They offer deals year-round to appeal to one of the most vital market demographics: normal people.
Normal people in developed countries don’t fight each other to get stuff. The whole genius of the market system is that we don’t have to. In early human history, violence was one of the primary ways to acquire things that other people had. Now, we exchange money for goods and services, and everyone is better off.
The move from violence to exchange is one of the key signals of progress in human history. An idea that Adam Smith stressed multiple times in his work is the four-stage theory of societal development. In his Lectures on Jurisprudence, he lists the four stages as the Age of Hunters, the Age of Shepherds, the Age of Agriculture, and the Age of Commerce. Civilizations pass through these stages as they become wealthier, and the advancement is driven by the division of labor.
In Wealth of Nations, Smith writes that one of the most important things about advancing through each stage is that violence becomes separated more and more from everyday life. He writes, “Among nations of hunters, the lowest and rudest state of society . . . every man is a warrior as well as a hunter.” The same goes for nations of shepherds. For agricultural nations, some men are not warriors, but they can easily become warriors if necessary. In those earlier stages of society, violence is commonplace, and defending your clan or band is paramount.
Once a society arrives at the Age of Commerce, however, violence is relegated by the division of labor to professional soldiers. As Smith writes elsewhere in Wealth of Nations, “Commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government, and with them, the liberty and security of individuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had before lived almost in a continual state of war with their neighbors.”
Every time someone punches someone else for a TV, Adam Smith rolls over in his grave.
There’s nothing commercial about the mad rush of people busting down the doors of a Walmart on Black Friday. Those scenes are a reminder of our heritage as a species — our violent, ancestral past. Our development into a commercial society makes such barbarism unnecessary.
“But it’s a great deal!” some might say, and they might be right. Getting a great deal is smart shopping, and it is to be encouraged.
But how many of these same people regularly use coupons on ordinary purchases? Stores have created a system that operates year-round whereby you can give them a scrap of paper or show them your phone screen and pay less. Yet according to advertising firm Criteo’s Shopper Story 2020 survey of consumer behavior, only 51 percent of Americans “often search for coupons online” and 53 percent “clip coupons at home.”
How many of these same people will put their Black Friday purchases on a credit card that they won’t pay off? According to data from Shift Credit Card Processing, average U.S. credit-card debt in 2020 was $5,315, by far the most of any advanced economy. It’s not such a great deal if you end up paying for it twice.
How many of these same people are buying stuff they don’t really need in the first place? The psychological effects of the hype around Black Friday make people behave in ways they never would otherwise. It doesn’t matter how cheap something is if you aren’t going to use it anyway.
With higher-than-normal inflation right now, the case is stronger than ever to use coupons and shop clearance year-round. You do know that all the clothes on the clearance rack were once on the regular racks, right? The clearance rack is just a worse-organized arrangement of exactly the same products. Plenty of them are not worth buying, but that’s true of the regular racks, too. When you wear the clothes, nobody will know the difference except you, and you’ll have more money.
It’s right to be a little discomfited by the behavior of some Americans on Black Friday. But the moron pepper-spraying someone so he can buy a new microwave does not represent our commercial culture. The true heroes are the little old ladies clipping coupons for groceries or the young parents searching for deals online to better support their family. For them, saving money is not something they do on a holiday. It’s something they do every day.