I read in this morning’s paper that the Halloween and Costume business association has reported that the American people have wasted ten to eleven billion dollars this year on Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations. That’s $10,000,000,000+. If taxes were raised enough to bring in an extra $10,000,000,000+ that could be used for infrastructure, to relieve poverty, to improve health care, or education, these same spendthrifts would wail like banshees. 

What we might call the “holiday industry” has used cheap imported goods to pump up expenditure on holidays that have lost any meaning they once had. This has been facilitated by the out-of-control materialism of Americans, who must acquire, acquire, acquire, even though they are doing so for no reason, even though what they are acquiring is cheap and ephemeral. Next there’s money to be made from Thanksgiving decorations, cardboard turkeys, pilgrim costumes, and the like. And then comes Christmas. And will we be ready? The glut of container ships from the Orient that are backed up at American seaports might check the flow of presents and thus “ruin Christmas.” Indeed, I’m surprised that right-wing entertainers have not claimed that this interruption in the flow of stuff is part of the supposed War against Christmas!

Shouldn’t we have a “don’t waste your money on trash” movement? It may be too late, it may be that Americans are, by their own inclinations and indoctrination by business interests, so addicted to the uninhibited acquisition of things that they cannot stop.