Thanksgiving Shopping

The beauty of the free market is that it gives the customer what they want. The problem with the free market is that what we want is often not good. We may want to shop around the clock, but doing so undermines the integrity of the family.

This Thanksgiving countless individuals, many of them working low-paying retail jobs, will be uprooted from family gatherings to go to work. 

Many argue that they choose to work at these places, so we shouldn’t feel bad for them. It is true that no one forces them to take these jobs, but how many of us really have complete liberty to choose the location and conditions in which we work? Retail workers, like most of the working public, work because they have to and they work despite many inconveniences. We all have to put up with things we dislike at the workplace, but outside of jobs that are a matter of life and death (e.g. doctors or police officers), no one should have to be separated from family and forced to work on one of our few national holidays. 

Believing this, some argue that we need new legislation to protect workers. But telling people when they can’t work will certainly have negative and unintended consequences. 

If you feel strongly that people should not work on Thanksgiving (as you should!), then stay home that day. Support the family by spending time with yours and staying out of shops so that workers can spend time with theirs.