No, I'm not talking about the Buy Nothing Day diary I wrote. I'm talking about the thoughtful and useful diary by Ellinorianne. She doesn't make any radical pronouncements, but she did suggest that we use our dollars wiser and for a better world.
She talked about an incredibly useful idea that perhaps doesn't get enough attention around here: voting with your dollars.
So go ahead - READ AND REC THIS DIARY!
Thanks for doing this and sorry for the short diary. Here's a small sample of her great diary:
But the message is far more complicated than just buy nothing. It's that we have to not just step aside for consumerism to keep chugging along, we really have to change the way we live.
The piece goes on to have suggestion from buy only green products, not just green but a composting toilet to thrift store items for presents, "unwrapped and unloved." That the change we need to make is beyond merely not shopping this one day and going on to spend our money the next three weeks in the exact same way we might have today. At least that's how I read it. But we have to change how we consume every single day of the year.
So here are some ideas for gifts this year that you can give instead of the junk that was made in China. I know that these are not gifts for everyone on your lists, you know your friends and family, you make the choice. Or you can give this list to those people you know that love to give and ask them gently to do this for you this year, that this is what your heart wants the most.