People who think it's bad to want the world economy to grow probably haven't stopped to think about what economic growth consists of. Economic growth isn't just fat Americans buying bigger SUVs. It's also people in poor countries increasing their standard of living, and advances in medical care.
Is it just me that's sick and tired of all these extreme all or nothing causes? It's either no patents or leave it the same, it's either capitalism is all bad or all good, it's either we are saving the planet or burning it as we go.<p>You know we can just change certain laws in the patent system to get it fixed right?<p>You understand that the idea of someone being able to sale their hard work for a living isn't evil right?<p>Or that maybe just making a true concerted effort of a smaller carbon footprint is enough? We don't need to ban all gas lines, or coal and replace it all with solar wind farms.<p>Consider this, we are fighting other people's ideals with equally extreme ideals and then wonder why the world doesn't see our brilliance. They think all of torrenting technology is evil because it allows for easier "unauthorized" access of someone else's creative content. It's a tool people. Capitalism isn't bad, overly greedy people are bad, and they just happen to love capitalism.<p>It's called moderation.
“Today, humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save capitalism and ditch the planet.”<p>Move to North Korea, everyday is buy nothing day and best of all, none of that horrid capitalism.
Funny that this is so high up on Hacker News. The first quote on the page:<p>“Today, humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save capitalism and ditch the planet.”<p>There won't be too many startup accelerators or funding rounds when we ditch capitalism, folks. Funny how there was none of this talk on iPhone Launch Day, either...
Really, the American brand of capitalism isn't the same as European capitalism or Japanese capitalism. Even within America, there are many different types of capitalist economies.<p>While I share Adbuster's disgust with the hordes of zombie sheep lining up to consume in excessive quantity things that they do not need, I don't think this has anything to do with Capitalism as an economic philosophy.
The thinly veiled celebration of violence is disgusting. The image from this poster: <a href="http://www.adbusters.org/content/carnivalesque-rebellion-live" rel="nofollow">http://www.adbusters.org/content/carnivalesque-rebellion-liv...</a><p>seems to be a Reuters photo with this caption:<p>"AVIANO, Italy (Reuters) - A protestor throws a rock at riot police outside the Aviano Air base in northern Italy Sunday. More than 300 protestors took part in the demonstration against NATO's air strikes on Yugoslavia. Photo by Stefano Rellandini"<p>(found at <a href="http://home.hiwaay.net/~craigg/g4c/NATO-help.htm" rel="nofollow">http://home.hiwaay.net/~craigg/g4c/NATO-help.htm</a>)
You know, I wasn't actually thinking about doing any shopping today. But if Anonymous and Occupy have gotten on the bandwagon, I think I may just have to stop by my local Wal-Mart and take advantage of some of those deals.
You get to feel good about not buying stuff, and then the next day you still get to buy stuff!<p>Alright, alright, they do have better ideas for a "delay gratification" message. Credit card cut-up (pre-commitment) and zombie walks (exposure) sound like good ideas.<p>Don't make a day about not doing something negative, make it about doing something positive. Don't turn off your power for a day, spend a day installing better insulation so you need less power.
It's important to read any adbusters content with their context in mind. I think they produce a lot of interesting content, but their agenda (I don't mean that to be denigrating) muddles a lot of their arguments.<p>This article to me makes an important point -- Black Friday has pretty much descended into self-parody -- but couching it as an anti-capitalism argument (instead of an anti-consumerism one) ruins the message for me.