Somewhere along the line we simply lost our way

Black Friday has come and gone and still my email and letter box are filled with so many specials from “one day only,” to “25 percent any day of your choice,” to “friends and family” discounts and “lowest price of the season” that even if I was in a get-ready-for-Christmas mood (which I’m not, having just barely digested Thanksgiving), I am so thoroughly confused, I wouldn’t know where to shop for what.

One Target employee, Anthony Hardwick, who is a hero in my book, decided he wanted to spend the holiday with his family and not at work. He went to the Internet site Change.org, which was known for a recent petition to get banks to roll back debit card fees.

Thinking a few friends or family members might sign, Hardwick created a petition requesting stores to maintain normal business hours. He was surprised at the huge response. More and more people feel these should be holidays, not national shopping days.

Blue laws once banned shopping on Sundays as well as major holidays; now Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the last states to restrict shopping on Thanksgiving. A recent study that tracked prices found that contrary to what many believe, the best prices for many major household purchases was not on Black Friday, but during the January clearance sales.

A new website, so far tracking prices only for electronics, Decide.com, will pull prices from around the web and help you decide whether to buy now or to wait.

I find all of this “shopping madness” beyond my comprehension. People are sleeping overnight in tents, so they can be the first in line, not to buy food for the table, but in order to buy one of a handful of bargain-priced, large-screen televisions or hard-to-find video games?

This kind of behavior seems especially out of sync with today’s economic picture, which has determined a new and growing classification of Americans, the “near poor.” Especially interesting, was the fact that more than half of the 51 million in that category had fallen into that group from higher income levels due to taxes and unexpected medical expenses.

Still, our Congress is considering cuts to, or privatization of, Medicare and at the same time refusing to raise taxes on the very wealthy. Single-parent households and aging widows are especially at risk of falling into the near-poor category as prices and the cost of living rise, but their incomes do not.

Another disturbing indicator for our economic future is the fact that the difference in college graduation rates between the rich and poor has widened by more than 50 percent since the 1990s. Our nation and indeed the nations of the world are in a period of great change.

In last week’s column, I wrote about my efforts to set new, more realistic expectations for the holidays along with more fulfilling ways to celebrate. Perhaps as a country, we need to re-think some of our values. We were a country that valued thrift, rewarded hard work, had compassion for the unfortunate and offered equal opportunity for all.

In our rush to consume, to be valued for what we own rather than who we are, those qualities that made us strong are often forgotten.

- Article by Jean Cherni, founder of the retirement advisory service, Senior Living Solutions. Contact her at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 15 The Ponds at Hotchkiss Grove, Branford 06405.

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