[Oe List ...] Fwd: Black Friday

[wangzhimu2031 at aol.com]

A bonus to the Saipan Tribune normal biweekly column.


Black Friday


 
I came to Shenyang Aerospace University in 2011 after I lecturedon developmental economics to Chinese and third world students, eliciting aninvitation to teach.  Most of theforeigners were from Africa where I went in the early 80s until I picked upmalaria in Ijede by Lagos lagoon in Nigeria, cutting short a scheduled trainingevent that was to proceed to Zambia, and then a prolonged stopover at a networkof development projects in Kenya.  
 
Halfway into the semester, the university wanted me to teachmore econometrics.  Having perused allthe algebraic equations students did not need to learn but are forced to studyand memorize because academics and the expensive textbooks say so, while the practicingeconomists do not even bother, I wanted to quit the gig.  
 
However, the school needed students to learn how to speakEnglish.   Most had sat through an average of 10 years ofEnglish training but were unable to speak. Having dug deeply in the pedagogy of language learning at the ruralvillage and urban ghetto level, I took on the challenge confident that I mightknow a thing or two on methods.
 
Now, I have Chinese students in the economics departmentmajoring in finance as well as marketing, with some in tourism, which requiresthem to learn how to draft ad copies for print and broadcast.  I do not teach any formal economic subjects,but I do use as a context the current situation of a new China that has turnedto domestic consumption to fuel and balance its robust export-oriented economy.  
 
Just for the sake of talking, I run an exercise with my classon what they would save if they found the price of an item of interest at thelocal department store lower by 50 percent than previous offering; say, aprevious bag at ¥100, now selling for ¥50. Students then come up with reasons and the students usually repeatphrases picked up from textbooks like "supply and demand","opportunity cost", "comparative advantage", and"incentives".  
 
The point is to get the students talking in English, and theshow-offs generally do.  I then push theminto the "practical and realistic" realm, and they temper their ideasa bit, but seldom does anyone raise the fundamental question of whether a"savings" in fact occurs.
 
Close to the tail end of the class, I then make mypontifical pronouncements.  If in thesupply-and-demand scale, a consumer needs the item but deferred previously frompurchase due to other priorities, or had wanted the item but thought it to betoo expensive, or has the money and thinks the bargain is a good deal, the consumerstill pays 50 RMB that s/he would not normally spend.  So, in the transaction, there is no suchthing as a "savings".  Theconsumer spends, s/he pays for an item! 
 
That's when we segue into the word of advertising andmarketing where the object is make someone feel they either suck if they do notpurchase an item, or if they do, made to feel inadequate when they purchase thebargain item rather than the "real" thing.  In either case, advertising makes you feelunfulfilled until you "shop till you drop!"
 
We recently witnessed where this ethos leads to; it islamentable.  In Honolulu, rental ofstorage places is a growth industry.  Notonly do folks haul their full garbage disposal bins once a week to the curb,they also rent places to store items they seldom or no longer use but are habituallyaccustomed to hoard.  In many suburbanneighborhoods, the garage is turned into an extra room, usually a storageplace, which is no big deal in tropical Hawai'i where the car can stay parkedoutside all year (unless the home owners' association says it is a "no-no")but in temperate zone, that congests city streets badly.
 
Consumerism being a stated policy in China since 2008, andgetting double downbeat in 2012, the admonition to be perpetual shoppers hasgone off the charts.  That's how"black Friday" got into our students' vocabulary.  It is a term coined not too long ago by U.S.merchants and it symbolizes the influence of American promotions and marketingpractices in China's economy.
 
Black firstreferred to the pandemonium in traffic that happened the first day of Christmasshopping on the Friday after Thursday's Thanksgiving Day, once a solemnreligious tradition.  It has sinceslipped from the Parson's guidance to the directors of many Chambers ofCommerce.  In some shops, it is thebeginning of their annual raison d'etrewhere merchandizing is profitable until shortly after New Year's day.
 
Bleak "black" became the desired "black"in accounting where an investment finally makes profit.  Black Friday sales' events in some departmentstores do not even wait for the sunrise. They stay open while the turkey is being deboned, and a mad rush occursshortly thereafter.
 
Since we in the United States have exported the lifestyle ofperpetual debt and easy credit access to be emulated by the rest of the world,allowing financial institutions and stock market gyrations to determine thedance steps of our lives, Black Friday is globally making the rounds 24-hoursthis day.  Fellow Americans dance to themusic with gusto.
 
I am staying home.



Jaime Vergara
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!



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