Black Friday by far has to be the most popular capitalist celebration in the U.S., though it was originally conceived as a shopping ritual in the spirit of Thanksgiving.
Americans spend billions of dollars in order to make purchases ranging from everyday lifestyle goods to top-notch luxury products at malls like Macy’s, Wal-Mart’s and others. However, if you stopped to think how many millions of people would benefit from the orgiastic spending that takes place on Black Friday, you would be quite surprised. An anonymous infographic reveals the amount of money that is spent by Americans during Black Friday, and also how the money could have been better spent to create a White Friday.
An estimated $45 billion shall be spent this year, and that is enough money to provide clean water to 1 billion people at the price of $20 billion, ensure elementary education to children everywhere at the price of $10, feed 100 million hungry children until next Thanksgiving for just $9.1 billion, save 3,000 children per day from Malaria for another $5.1 billion and last but not the least, encourage 5 million entrepreneurs in developing nations for $1.5 billion. Of course, this is a rather moral-loaded way to promote 5 websites where you could spend money in order to turn Black Friday into what is being termed as ‘White Friday’. The idea is to get people to spend on things that matter more than your average 3DTVs and iPhones.
Kiva.org is a community in which you can ‘lend’ money to budding entrepreneurs in developing countries, and you would get your money back. MalariaNoMore.org works towards fighting the dreaded disease by providing medicines and care for children in affected areas. ActionAgainstHunger.org is an organization that has been fighting steadfastly against starvation. Pratham.org is working towards achieving the UN goal of Universal Primary Education which must happen before 2015. This is to ensure that boys and girls across the world get to receive compulsory elementary education.
Last but not the least, CharityWater.org is a website that has been working towards providing access to clean water for almost 1 billion people who do not have access to it. It is up to you to decide if you want to turn your Friday black or white. If I had my way, I would turn it into various shades of grey, buy contributing a bit to one of these sites, and also buying what I wanted at a svelte mall.
