Comments on: One Life: The Cost of Extreme Consumerism

By: asithi

asithi — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:20:20 +0000

I think Walmart is largely responsible for not having adequate crowd control. It is not as if a crowd is unexpected. Every year there are injuries on Black Friday at Walmart.

My family never have a Christmas tree (not being Christians). I plan to have a tree next year when we move into our first home because I like the festive decorations for Christmas. My husband mentioned that we should get some gifts for the tree because it would look empty. Just like I am adamant about not having a TV in any bedroom, I do not want any gifts under the tree. I just DO NOT want adopt the consumerism culture of Christmas. I rather spend the money on food and entertain my family and friends than to start gift exchanges where I end up with tons gifts I do not want and debt that I do not need.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:05:23 +0000

For a conviction, wouldn’t a prosecutor have to prove that the individual member of the mob saw that he/ she was stepping on somebody? And wouldn’t it have to prove that an individual person actually was THE person whose action resulted in the death?

I don’t think this is a very straightforward prosecution. I think the death is very likely to be the result of quantity of tramplers rather than the behavior of any one trampler. I think about this in comparison to my “pick-up” basketball games. In the heat of the moment, I may bump into someone pretty strongly… but with only 6-10 of us on court, no one usually is hurt very badly. But when there are a couple of thousand, a small careless action by any one person is often exacerbated many times over, so that cumulatively it injures someone badly– or kills him. This is a tragedy, definitely, but no individual has actually done anything any worse than the way I bump someone in a game of basketball. The death was a matter of quantity– i.e., numerous (hundreds, thousands of) people “bumping” the victim, even after the victim was on the ground. I really doubt there’s a genuine manslaughter case there– though, I’ll admit, I’m no lawyer, and I’ve always been amazed at the ability of the American legal system to find a way to blame people. Still, I think this one has no legs.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:39:23 +0000

A tragedy. My thoughts go out to the family of the victim.

By: scott

scott — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:46:21 +0000

ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL ! WAL MART SHOULD BE WELL ADVISED TO INTRODUCE COMPULSORY LOCAL BRANCH ONLINE LOTTERY LOG-ONS NOT TO EXCEED 950 PEOPLE PER AFTER THANKSGIVING SALE DAY. THIS IN CONJUNCTION WITH EXTREMELY TIGHT SECURITY MEASURES WOULD PUT A HOLT TO THIS SAVAGE BEHAVIOR.

By: PT

PT — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:45:33 +0000

I actually think Wal-Mart should be held responsible as well. They put on the sale and didn’t have proper security/barriers. And they had this poor maintenance guy out there trying to hold people back. The whole thing is just sad and one more reason I’ll never participate in this madness. Makes me sick.

By: CPA1298

CPA1298 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:37:43 +0000

My wife and I will never forget this.

We had already decided that we do not wish to participate in the pagan ‘Christmas’ but to teach our infant son the real meaning of the holiday.

Things like rampant shoppers killing each other and store employees is the perfect attack by Satan on the celebration of Christ’s birth.

By: Laurs

Laurs — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:39:43 +0000

I completely agree for getting charged. These people stepped on a human being and took part in killing someone.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:23:01 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ObKm4w9igM

They’ll never be charged b/c they were all African American. Trumpled.

By: Simon Zhen

Simon Zhen — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:39:42 +0000

Surely this was expected. It has exploded to such a day that from now on, we will probably see deaths on every Black Friday.

More likely to die from a stampede on Black Friday than ever winning the lottery.

By: Eden

Eden — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:39:16 +0000

I heard about this. Sadly, it’s not very surprising given our country’s consumerism-crazed culture. I hope some of these people can be held responsible. Perhaps credit card receipts could be used to track people down.

By: Miss M

Miss M — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:55:44 +0000

I too was horrified by this story. There was no deal in that store worth a man’s life, I hope they can find the people who trampled this poor man to death. Also the store needed to bring in crowd control before opening the doors, lesson learned I hope. There was also a shooting in a Toys R Us yesterday, madness.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:43:31 +0000

A Black Friday indeed.

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:19:06 +0000

I completely agree with charging these ‘people’ with manslaughter. Reports said when they were asked to leave they got upset because they had waited since the morning to be there.

A Sale vs. A Life

Seems cut and dry to me. This is why I no longer take part in black friday. it is an annual no spend day for me. I’ll wait. Doesn’t matter if I get charged more for items, the ideas put forward by Black Friday are absolutely appalling to me.

Nice Article Flexo, keep up the good work.

-Nate