The Christmas Symptom

Christmas, Yule, or Chanukah – no matter your holiday – are not the problem in America but how most “celebrate” these holidays is certainly a major symptom of the pathology that is plaguing American society and, resultantly, politics.

Buy All The Things
Buy All The Things!

The disease or syndrome in question is, of course, rampant materialism and consumerism. It’s the root cause of almost every ill that torments America and it is a progressive illness.

Simply and sadly put, American society has not only forgotten what is important but has seemingly deprecated the importance and value of that which is immaterial. Worse, this disease’s symptoms become even more pronounced during the ever-expanding holiday season, which is now better- and more often described as the holiday shopping season, which accounts annually for 20% – 40% of the average American retailers’ total annual sales.

To put this is horrific perspective, The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects retail sales during the 2013 holiday shopping season to marginally increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion which is greater than the total GDP of 167 of the 188 nations tracked my the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So, in 33 days, Americans spend more on purchases than 166 countries make in a year. Only 20, other than the US, make more en toto per year than we spend during this time.

If this isn’t a symptom of a chronic and eventually lethal societal pathology I don’t know what is.

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