Melville Cooke

Tis the season to spend money

Tra-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la

Spend it now, starve January

Tra-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la

Keep that debit card so handy ...

- Advertiser's version of the popular Christmas ditty

I thought I had heard the be-all and end-all of the enticements to spend money at Christmas, but the credit card adverts which invite cardholders to spend for the opportunity of 'winning' a zero balance have passed previous limits (pun intended). I, of course, have no problem with the people who advertise Christmas specials which are not special at all, much as I believe that every smoker has made a personal choice.

However, the tobacco companies have to work a little bit harder at getting their product out there than the Christmas advertisers, who have the terrific team of Santa Claus and Jesus on their side. I do not believe in either, but I must pay my respects to the persons who invented a fat white man with three hos who brings presents on the birthday of a man whose birthdate nobody knows.

It is an advertiser's wet dream.

I saw the purchaser's month-after nightmare about seven years ago, when I went into a popular furniture store in late January and saw a line about as long as the one that filed past Miss Lou's body (OK, it was not that bad, maybe Shorty Malcolm's), the persons in it shuffling towards a window. I asked if it was some sort of collection for a purchasers' competition and got a cynical laugh for my troubles. I was duly informed that it was the line for making higher ... oops, hire purchase payments.

So much for free gifts, dancing girls and colour catalogues.

A con game

Christmas is a con game. Like all con games, from the Jamaican tourism industry to the war on Iraq, it feels good for the people being sold a Jamaican $100 coin; but in the end the suckers and their money are parted.

However, for all my unshakeable cynicism about Christmas (why don't employers pay bonuses in June, so that people can have something put down for when school starts again?), I recognise that we do need a season of good cheer. In a world geared towards materialism, which means that waking moments are geared towards production (most of us are always either going to work, coming from work or at work) there needs to be a designated period of letting go. Even the slave masters (not the managers at the place you work, naughty people) recognised this, hence the market days and the (what else) Christmas breaks.

What I do believe, though, is that that period of relaxation does not have to be the time designated by a deluge of advertisement, which actually makes it a financial liability. I am not advocating a personal celebration of Christmas in January or June, although I have no problem (or have the right to criticise) with those who do.

We should, however, recognise the extent to which our lives are programmed to be profitable to those who actually make and sell things, as opposed to the vast majority who have only their labour to offer. Every time we respond to Easter and Mother's Day and Valentine's Day and cool summer sales - and Christmas and New Year's day - we not only increase the wealth of the already wealthy, but more importantly, reduce our chances of true financial independence.

It is something to think about as we count down to December 25, keeping in mind that we should hope to be better off at this time next year than we are this year.