Dis Industries - 2025
Last modified: 2025-03-30 7:36:25 UTC
Economic Blackouts
by Dis is marked with CC0 1.0
Many people are asking what these short, 1-day or 1-week events could ever hope to accomplish.
In short, they're learning and teaching tools, with a side-order of positive proof and some impact. To their targets, they are warnings and harbingers of things to come.
There's a large amount of complacency and arrogance to most American Consumers. There's an absolute expectation to have everything, any time they want, served with a smile. If I desire a hamburger at 3:00 AM Tuesday - I expected it hand delivered to me, quickly, and with a smile. The frightning thing is - this is entirely possible in many areas.
Any durable and semi-durable consumer good is within a few clicks of my ordering, and having within 3 days. Many people get upset when the wait is 5-7 days, and will cancel orders if it takes longer than that.
What does that tell you about the actual wants of the American Consumer, though? It tells you they don't want an item long-term - but rather in that moment. Given just a few hours of delay from "I want" to purchase - such as a single day of not buying anything - will indeed result in goods just never being purchased in the first place.
To follow the American Consumer, most companies are just as arrogant and complacent.
First, it's best to understand that the focus of the corporation has shifted and is quite different compared to what they used to be, and how they are still seen in the eyes of a person. People see corporations as groups that make the goods and services they want to buy. They aren't.
Instead, look at it from the point of view of "Corporation-as-an-entity". The Corporation wants money - specifically, more money than last quarter as dictated by its "brain" (shareholders). How it gains that money is meaningless - just that the number this quarter is higher than it was last quarter.
As the corporation grows, the number must go up faster in order to satiate the hunger of its controllers. It quickly goes from "healthy competition" with those in its same market segment to seeing anyone else in their growth space as a threat. Diversification helps short-term, however as dominance is achieved in those segments, it quickly devolves to the same situation.
In the end, a dollar spent at a compeditor isn't just a dollar they need to work harder for - it's a dollar lost. The purchase of a single Burger King Wopper to McDonald's is a Big Mac they will never sell. In the extreme, a dollar spent buying some celery is a dollar that Samsung will never be able to get you to spend on a new smartwatch.
The Corporation's goal, therefore, is not just healthy growth, nor is it just all potential profits in its market segment - but every penny owned by anyone else ever. By definition - you must spent every penny with the Corporation. Every sale to a small business, or to a compeditor, or to a different market segment is failure.
Look at these small economic blackouts as learning expirences for people.
Generally, people are too used to how things are. Taking this day to stop - even just for 24 hours - is proof to onesself you can exit the consumption rat-race. It places a pause on what you're doing to reflect on things.
You don't need that pair of shoes. That new toy. You can wait a day on groceries and make something out of what you've got. Simple, small acts of slight inconvenience to you that - en masse - can have an effect...
A smart corporation would see the results of this, and realize that the consumer can learn to exit this system. They will suffer from this, but if they change things and re-focus, they could survive the change and...
Corporations - on the whole - are quite stupid creatures. You will see a bunch of think-pieces spring up over how this had no effect, will never have an effect, and this 'Forever Now' they've built is eternal. That's them - scared.
This is, of course, meaningless in a vacuum. A single day won't change the course of history, but the next year might. Slow, steady build-up of pressure as the working class learns its power, as the corporation realizes theirs.
It will get harder, before it gets easier. But, you've done it for a day, and you made it! Let's try a week, okay?
Dis Industries - 2025
Last modified: 2025-03-30 7:36:25 UTC
Economic Blackouts
by Dis is marked with CC0 1.0