Are Black Friday riots a preview of the civil unrest?

[Ross]

Are Black Friday riots a preview of the civil unrest?

If Americans will trample one another just to save a few dollars on a television, what will they do when society breaks down and the survival of their families is at stake? Once in a while an event comes along that gives us a peek into what life could be like when the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is stripped away. For example, when Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey there was rampant looting and within days people were digging around in supermarket dumpsters looking for food. Sadly, "Black Friday" also gives us a look at how crazed the American people can be when given the opportunity. This year was no exception. Once again we saw large crowds of frenzied shoppers push, shove, scratch, claw, bite and trample one another just to save a few bucks on cheap foreign-made goods. And of course most retailers seem to be encouraging this type of behavior. Most of them actually want people frothing at the mouth and willing to fight one another to buy their goods. But is this kind of "me first" mentality really something that we want to foster as a society? If people are willing to riot to save money on a cell phone, what would they be willing to do to feed their families? Are the Black Friday riots a very small preview of the civil unrest that is coming when society eventually breaks down?

Once upon a time, Thanksgiving was not really a commercial holiday. It was a time to get together with family and friends, eat turkey and express thanks for the blessings that we have been given.

But in recent years Black Friday has started to become even a bigger event than Thanksgiving itself.

Millions of Americans have become convinced that it is fun to wait in long lines outside retail stores in freezing cold weather in the middle of the night to spend money that they do not have on things that they do not need.

And of course very, very few "Black Friday deals" are actually made in America. So these frenzied shoppers are actually killing American jobs and destroying the U.S. economy as well.

The absurdity of Black Friday was summed up very well recently in a statement that has already been retweeted on Twitter more than 1,000 times...

"Black Friday: because only in America people trample each other for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have."

It has gotten to the point where it is now expected that there will be mini-riots all over the country early on Black Friday morning each year. The following are a few examples of the craziness that we saw this year...

-"Fights break out when stores open on Black Friday"

-"Black Friday madness at Georgia Wal-Mart"

-"Black Friday Frenzy: 2 Run Down in Washington, Man Pulls Gun in Texas"

-"Black Friday 2012: Rush at Victoria's Secret Pink at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kan."

-"Black Friday shoppers smash door at Urban Outfitters"

-"Black Friday Shopping Hysteria From Around The Country"

-"Disturbance leads to scare at Westroads Mall"

-"Teens In Custody After Woodland Mall Fight"

-"Boy Robbed During Black Friday Shopping At Arundel Mills"

-"Shoppers Were So Obsessed With Black Friday Deals They Left Their Infants Unattended"

In the end, it is not that big of a deal that people want to fight with one another to save 50 dollars on a cell phone.

But this kind of extreme selfishness and desperation could become a massive problem someday if society breaks down and suddenly millions of extremely selfish and desperate people are scrambling for survival.

With each passing day our economy is getting even weaker, and the next wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching. What are people going to do when the next spike in unemployment hits us and nobody can find work?

To get an idea of where things are headed, just look at Europe. In both Greece and Spain the unemployment rate is over 25 percent and civil unrest has become almost a constant problem in both of those countries.

So what kind of riots will we see in the United States when the economy gets much worse than it is now?

Already there are signs of social decay all around us, and most Americans are completely unprepared for what will happen if a major disaster or emergency does strike.

Sadly, the reality is that most Americans live on a month to month basis. Most families do not have any emergency savings to speak of, and one recent poll found that 55 percent of all Americans only have enough food in their homes to survive for three days or less. To me, that is an absolutely insane number.

We just came through a summer of extreme drought and global food supplies have dropped to a 40 year low. Our world is becoming increasingly unstable, and the global financial system could fall apart at any time. Most of us just assume that there will always be huge amounts of very cheap food available to us, but unfortunately that simply is not a safe assumption. The following is from a recent article in the Guardian:

Evan Fraser, author of Empires of Food and a geography lecturer at Guelph University in Ontario, Canada, says: "For six of the last 11 years the world has consumed more food than it has grown. We do not have any buffer and are running down reserves. Our stocks are very low and if we have a dry winter and a poor rice harvest we could see a major food crisis across the board."

"Even if things do not boil over this year, by next summer we'll have used up this buffer and consumers in the poorer parts of the world will once again be exposed to the effects of anything that hurts production."

When I watch my fellow Americans trample one another to get a deal on a television or a video game, it makes me wonder what they would be willing to do if they went to the store someday and all the food was gone.

Desperate people do desperate things, and someday if there was a major economic breakdown in the United States I think the level of desperation in this country would be extremely frightening.

[redcliffsw]

Lots of greed out there.  Reminds me of the wind power and ethanol, just can't do without
it; therefore the government financing to make it appear like it's profitable.

[Diane Amberg]

Red, for once I do mostly agree. Most of those folks were going nuts over stuff they don't even need ....  Our version of the running of the bulls I guess.
  But, blame the pounds of mail advertisements and TV ads that are designed to appeal to kids and convince you that you need and ''deserve'' something they make you think you want...very persuasive.
  People do have the freedom to be foolish. A preview of civil unrest?...I sure hope not.
Not sure why you switched the subject though. Retail marketing isn't the same at all. IMHO

[Bullwinkle]

        Their parents or family didn't teach them respect or civility. That is the problem here.

       The running of the bulls is a show of daring, like lion taming, not blind desire or want.

[Bullwinkle]

     What is going on is regulated by the retailer. The masses stand in line to get in ,they stand in line to pay. What the retailers create is the pandimonium of dropping a pallet of goods in front of them and watching what happens.

     Why not make them stand in line to get the item?