Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Politics

"Every day is 'Buy Nothing Day' in North Korea—and look where that's gotten them"

Nick Gillespie | 11.27.2013 8:22 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

In my latest Time.com column, I bravely take a stand in favor of shopping on Thanksgiving Day:

Just as you can't have Thanksgiving without a meal that fully no one actually enjoys (and a guest list that always seems only slightly less arbitrary, resentful, and ill-mannered than the manimals in The Island of Dr. Moreau), you can't have a functioning free-market economy without massive amounts of shopping. Every day is "Buy Nothing Day" in North Korea and look where that's got them….

And yet we encounter stories denouncing "the war on Thanksgiving." Haven't you heard, bellows Dean Obeidallah at The Daily Beast, that "thousands of [people] will be compelled to leave their Thanksgiving celebrations to go to work" because down-on-their-luck chains such as K-Mart are opening as early as 6 a.m on Thursday. "Stand up for the real meaning of Thanksgiving," opines T.J. McCormack at Foxnews.com, and "skip the shopping on Turkey Day." Facebook pages such as Boycott Black Thursday and Boycott Shopping on Thanksgiving Day are easier to find than the cans of jellied cranberry sauce you bought last year after worrying the supermarket would be sold out by the time you remembered to get some this year.

Enough already. The only thing worth getting bent out of shape over is that it took the nation's retailers so long to move the nation's biggest sales day, Black Friday, up by 24 hours and give us all one more reason not to watch the Detroit Lions get shellacked on TV. We've already been going out to the movies in greater and greater numbers over the years, so why not also pick up a Star Wars Trooper T at the Gap (open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at most locations, by the way)?

Read the whole thing.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Some Guantanamo Prisoners Were Released as CIA Double Agents

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

PoliticsCapitalismWorldCultureCivil LibertiesEconomicsPolicyHistoryLibertarian History/PhilosophyMedia Criticism
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Show Comments (42)

Latest

Florida Applies for Federal Reimbursement for 'Alligator Alcatraz' Costs Despite Court Warning

C.J. Ciaramella | 9.13.2025 7:00 AM

This Protein Powder Is Made Out of Air and Uses 600 Times Less Water Than Beef

Jeff Luse | From the October 2025 issue

FBI Blunders and Internet Panic: How the Search for Charlie Kirk's Killer Went Off the Rails

Matthew Petti | 9.12.2025 5:14 PM

The Standard for 'Vicious' Speech Trump Laid Out After Kirk's Murder Would Implicate Trump Himself

Jacob Sullum | 9.12.2025 3:45 PM

U.S. Plan To Disarm Hezbollah Is a Diplomatic Dead End

Lora Karch | 9.12.2025 3:31 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2025 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Take Reason's short survey for a chance to win $300
Take Reason's short survey for a chance to win $300
Take Reason's short survey for a chance to win $300