Is consumerism harmful, and are gifts worth giving?

Axis: consumerism is harmful; give less or give differently ... buying and gifts are fine

John

date	change	position	video
2007-11-30	new	John says he dislikes the secular, commercial side of Christmas and suggests that gifts should go only to people who need them.	Nov. 30th: A CHRISTMAS RANT 00:02:36
2009-02-01	new	John jokingly calls Americans' desire to watch corporations sell them goods and services a weird collective mental illness.	Super Bowl Analysis from an Idiot 00:00:40
2010-08-17	restate	John says that many of our consumer choices (that handbag, that Starbucks) are unconscious but we remain responsible for them, after mocking an ad that orders him to lust for a purse.	Lust and Folly in London and Edinburgh 00:03:14
2011-02-14	restate	John holds that all gift-giving is economically inefficient and Valentine's Day is the worst, since people get things they would not choose to own.	CHUBBY BUNNY...blergh! 00:00:45
2011-02-14	refine	John allows that gift-giving, while economically inefficient, is also kind of an act of empathy: imagining what another person would want.	CHUBBY BUNNY...blergh! 00:01:45

date	change	position	video
2007-11-24	new	Hank argues that the people who love us want our time rather than our money or stuff, and that Americans want less stuff, not more.	November 23rd: BLACK FRIDAY! 00:02:07
2007-11-28	restate	Hank restates that Christmas should be less materialistic: people don't suffer for lack of gadgets, and he wants Christmas to suck less, not to take it away.	November 27th: Eagle's Nest, Blogger's Choice and Shopping 00:02:17
2012-11-24	refine	Hank finds it upsetting that the day after giving thanks we are barraged with ads for what we lack, but grants that shopping matters to the economy and that wanting to give gifts is no fault.	Black Friday: An Accident of History 00:01:44