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We could try to solve this problem with regulation. Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island ban stores from opening on Thanksgiving. A state lawmaker in Ohio\u00a0 has introduced a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would force stores to pay employees triple wages for working on the holiday and allow them to take the day off without facing retaliation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But until workers can freely choose whether to show up for the job on Thanksgiving, consumers who take advantage of these overhyped sales are simply voting for the gross status quo. Right now, Brown Thursday is a terrible bargain for society. Don\u2019t fall for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s interesting that Slate chooses THIS as its demarcation line of what constitutes a decent human being, since, from a personal morality standpoint, it\u2019s generally got a if-it-works-for-you-go-for-it philosophy. But it just goes to show that we all have a moral compass, even if we only pull it out of the pocket once in a while.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to not ever be forced to work on a holiday. Although, as a writer, I\u2019ve used more than one holiday \u201coff\u201d to get caught up on work at home (if you\u2019re a writer, especially a journalist, you\u2019re never really<\/em> on vacation, and I never got paid extra for the effort).<\/p>\n

But I do feel for those who have to work a holiday and don\u2019t want to, and yeah, you should get extra coin for doing that. It\u2019s only fair. But far be it for me to tell people who want to earn extra money by working a holiday that they can\u2019t do it. I\u2019m not responsible for paying their bills or feeding their families.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never shopped on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, but then I\u2019m not buying Christmas gifts for a raft of kids, so who am I to judge bargain-hunters? As I said today on Twitter, I\u2019m agnostic about most things, except religion and politics, and the choice to shop on a holiday doesn\u2019t, for me, fall into either of those categories.<\/p>\n

For some people, holidays are their only day off when they can<\/em> shop, and sometimes you need to get something. It\u2019s a free country \u2014 shop when you want, if the stores are open (and that\u2019s the call of the retailer, not the government).<\/span><\/p>\n

I can think of a lot worse things people do than pop off to WalMart after turkey. If the stores weren\u2019t open, people might stay home with their families. Or they might not. Or, they might not have family and be terribly depressed, because they can\u2019t bear to go to the movies alone, and shopping may be the one way to alleviate crushing loneliness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or they actually enjoy it, and for hedonistic Slate to get all finger-waggy about what makes someone else happy is ironic, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Sorry, Slate guy, I know you think you know what is best, and you\u2019d love the government to impose your belief system on everyone else. Even if I agree with you about Thanksgiving retailing, I\u2019m not about to let the heavy hand of the Almighty State smack somebody who\u2019d rather get a big-screen TV at a discount than watch the 2015 Detroit Lions play.<\/p>\n

Stores also used to be closed on Sunday, to honor the Christian Sabbath. Wonder if he\u2019d like to go back to that? Bet not.<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a thing: head over to my other home at\u00a0CatholicVote\u00a0<\/a>and like my\u00a0 Facebook page.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"