Why do people spend billions on Christmas?

Question

Most of it ends up in the bin while billions are owed and billions are in poverty. It seems a strange expression of the season of goodwill to waste so much when there are so many starving.

Answer 1

because they earn it and when u earn it u have every right to spend it the way u feel like spending it...........

Answer 2

Good point.

Most spending is done to keep up with the neighbours and in order to conform.

It is a terrible waste.

I hope you have a happy, waste free Christmas.

Answer 3

Guilt, people pay lots of money to show how much they care. I am not saying that all people are shallow, they are pressured into this by the big marketing drive.

Answer 4

I don't know, however, Karl Marx hated Christmas....he said, “the production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.”

Answer 5

Christmas has become a mainstream holiday. It's not anymore about it's true meaning but rather about keeping up with the latest trendy gifts of the season.

Answer 6

Good point well put.

Answer 7

because it is festival based on Jesus Crest and they are worshipping  Jesus Crest .and they are ready for doing anything for the lord as he has given them life and spending a lot of money for god is not a great thing .money is nothing in front of god.yes , you are right starving but even they might be spending the money they might be having and such people who dint mind about them self and think god is more than their life then god gives them the double of what they might have spent for the god.

Answer 8

Because they haven't read that great book "Unplugging the Christmas Machine".

Answer 9

I think Xmas is so a bad time of year, you put up lights that don't need to be up and on, you buy useless gifts for people and they never use it, people lie to kids telling them that their is a Santa and a Jesus just to find out when they get older their is no Jesus or Santa, that their mom and dad lied to them all their child life.

Answer 10

no idea

Answer 11

You will get little arguments on your statement my friend, it is spot on, This has been baffling a great number of people over many years,

Having stood in the supermarket cash lines with my wife and seeing volumes of food etc in shopping trolleys in the build up  to  the the Christmas festivities There does not seem any logical answer to this phenomenon, it just <does not> make sense for the two days holiday?

Answer 12

I just had this similar topic as a conversation with some people the other day and i asked the same question.

Thank You by the way zeitgeist was a very interesting documentary but it did try to invalidate religion in a way. But then again maybe they just wanted to inform us of the similarities. :) by the way how do u rate best answer or thank people for their comments without e-mailing or I'M them?

:)

Answer 13

It's a material world inhabited by a bunch of suckers !

Answer 14

its a pile of crock.....people should watch the grinch and realise its about family....the odd prezzie is a bonus mind hahah but its all materialistic isnt it

Answer 15

cause they are dumb. I only spend about 40 dollars on Christmas.

All I eat is a sandwich.

Answer 16

Polite answer:  It feels good to do nice things for others, like give them gifts.

Rude answer: A typical "Christian" can't even explain why there are twelve days of Christmas.  What do you expect from a religion whose followers don't even know their own religion?

Answer 17

This is my last expensive Christmas.

My family have always enjoyed a wealthy Christmas, and i have been thinking about the amount I spend on Christmas cards, paper, ribbons etc and the amount of waste they create.

So next Christmas i am going to buy people gifts that help the planet or other people.

I am not sending cards either.  I have a lot to think about but am definately not going to spend as much or create as much waste.

i am going to even make some presents!!!

Pippa

Answer 18

Because as a country develops and the economy expands, people become richer / more well off and require more and more to feel the same level of happiness, i.e. to be normal.

Answer 19

Sorry unrelated, o I could say how its in reflection to learned behaviors, to propitate the intagible spirt of christmas, or how it shows how we as individuals in family groups, see these problems as not being near as big as our own, but thats not why i tried to answer your question.

In another question you answered you mentioned a word I havn't seen used in sometime, "archetypes" I need to know if you've read Carl Jungs "Man and his symbols" ARE if you to understand the failcy of langunge, its shortcomings, its flaw. Because I've been looking for someone else that sees that!!!! Its one of the biggest things that hurts my own spirtual development because everyone spirtual I run into are so darn symbol depend, I know feelings that are represent by our words just like experiences ARE universal, but darnit why don't people keep them simple? Ether way thou you have no e-mail address, but I do! So would love, if you feel me on that, to know what you think.... or if you don't, what you think.... check the profile if your curious.....

Answer 20

Because we're at the mercy of a religion that celebrates the supposed birth of a savior to which three kings traveled to give a newborn baby whose traveling family was forced to sleep in a stable such useful gifts as gold, frankincense, and myrrh!

Useless Bling was built into this belief and control system from the very beginning.

Today you can't even go to a charity's giving tree and gift a poorer child than you with a present they wish for without being faced with a kid asking for a Playstation 3, a Wii or an iPod-  things I don't even have myself!  

I can't imagine what they do with the musical instruments I give instead but I hope it made a difference to at least one. Meanwhile, tons of broken and discarded battery-containing toys, shoes, and other c**p pour into our landfills and now we have to further worry about lead and hallucinogens!

There is nothing religious about this excess except for those who are gleefully anticipating armageddon and celebrating every natural disaster that comes around.