Daniel Suelo, Jdimytai Damour, and the Price of Our Souls

 “Do you own anything?

Not really. The clothes I wear, the books I use, the car I drive, the house I live in and the money I spend are all provided to support and sustain my life and ministry. I need nothing since we share everything in common. This means if I have a need, it will be provided for by the community.” ---Sister Emma, Sisters of Mercy Website.

“Money only exists if two or more people believe it exists.” Daniel Suelo

            All through Thanksgiving night, into the freezing pre-dawn hours of November 23, 2008, a massive horde of shoppers began to swarm the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York.  Tired, cold, and restless the mob could not wait for the 5 a.m. open time of the annual “Blitz Sale” They began to break through the doors at 4:55 a.m. Several Wal-Mart employees, including thirty-four year-old, 270 pound Jdimytai Damour, tried to hold the shoppers back. They heard a loud crack as the glass on the door finally shattered and the hinges gave out. Damour was thrown to the floor and the crowd began to trample him. Horrified, co-workers tried to aid him but were pushed back by the massive crowd. Finally reaching Damour’s gasping body, emergency personnel continued to be pushed and stepped on. Police told the crowd to stop coming into the building; a man had been killed. They met with refusal because the shoppers had been in line since the night before.

            The United States is not a war zone; this was not a line for rationed food, clothing, or necessities. A man died over bargain-priced electronics and toys. To condemn the crowd as “savage” as one onlooker called them, would be hasty. Indeed fingers began pointing wildly at just about everyone for every reason. Wal-Mart most certainly did not have adequate security on site, but Damour’s family went on to accuse the chain of causing a culture of frenzy, resulting in Damour’s death. Some have gone so far as to blame the bargain-priced electronics for the tragedy. In the end, a man is dead; Wal-Mart settled the claim with, yes, more money. Where is the solution?  It can be argued deep discounts given during Blitz sales on what is infamously known as Black Friday are unethical but then should goods never be made affordable for have-nots so haves can shop at their own leisure? Stores would not make money offering every good at cost every day of the year. What is the real worth of these items? Why do we want them?

            Re-examining an archived copy of the 2008 Black Friday ad for Wal-Mart, it is not difficult to see why so many people cut their Thanksgiving dinner short to camp outside the store. While very few of those people, even the earliest to arrive, would snag the ultimate prize, a fifty-inch Samsung plasma television for $798, the ad featured many more obtainable sales. From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. shoppers could find a 6.5 foot tall pre-lit Christmas tree for $25 and various $10 toys, $2 DVDs and even a $29 children’s bicycle to go underneath. Minimum wage, for New York in 2008 and to the present day is $7.25 an hour. For around a hundred dollars a working class family of four could have a traditional Christmas scene unfold in their living rooms without breaking a precarious budget. The real worth of waiting in line overnight and making a mad dash through a crowded store is having one’s own piece of Americana to open on Christmas Day, a decorated home, contented kids wide eyed in wonder at their abundant take.

            The following day however, the decorations come down. The tree is placed in storage, several of the toys are missing pieces or broken. The Christmas scene will have to be re-created next year. The electronics become outdated, newer models with more features arrive in stores. Children decide last year’s toys are too babyish and that new toys, like the ones their peers have, are the ones they desire. In less than a year the relative value of the items purchased becomes nearly nothing. To compete with the glorious high of making a nice Christmas last year families will have to go out again the following year to other huge sales.

            Sales like Black Friday highlight gross inequality on one hand but also the disastrous effects of coveting possessions on the other. One walks a fine line when suggesting one live within her means and be contented when more and more frequently those means are quite meager. With full-time employment scarce, insurance is often outside of people’s means. That does not mean they should be contented to die of treatable illness. Being unemployed does not mean one should be a contented homeless person. We’ve reached a strange point in our culture where goods are the easiest things to buy cheaply. It is not uncommon to see a person below the poverty line with some type of newfangled technological gadget but having a hard time buying enough groceries. The part of us that wants everything to work rationally is encouraged to say “Why didn’t you spend that money on food?” But in reality a person only has to pay for a gadget once. It is a one-time expenditure of a couple hundred dollars. Groceries, especially healthy ones have this pesky tendency to spoil or be consumed and must be repurchased. This can be difficult if one is an hourly employee without a salary to rely on. The same goes for health care, college saving plans, and any other monthly expenditures. It is enough to make one fed up with the entire system.

            Enter Daniel Suelo. At wits end with the same monetary problems faced by most Americans, Daniel Suelo decided to quit. He stopped using currency the way a person might quit drinking or smoking.  He lives in caves, eats wild food, and has only the possessions which he has scavenged. He is non-committal about any religious affiliation but acknowledges his lifestyle is a nod to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Yet his radical lifestyle will work only for a few people.  Suelo is entirely dependent on the excess of others and the natural climate in which he lives. A person in Michigan would not be able to sleep outside or gather natural food in the winter with nearly the ease that Suelo does in the desert. If people stopped throwing away products they no longer desired, Suelo would not have clothing. Once he even received dental care for a cavity, from a doctor who offered her services for free but certainly would not be able to offer those treatments if other people had not paid for their own. A religious affiliation would most certainly help Suelo live as a monastic and provide basic protections, but he remains unaffiliated. His lifestyle also would not be suited to a person under the age of 18. One cannot argue his minimalist lifestyle requires a minor child eat bugs and things scavenged from dumpsters in any state in the country without opening an investigation with a child protection agency. Indeed he is the other extreme from the Black Friday shopper. He does not provide a workable model for others to follow.

            How should one make do with insufficient means? What is a right and what is entitlement? These maybe the biggest questions of our times. People have many different ideas on the subject but they seem to have a similar line of thought. The website Pinterest allow you to save links online along with a picture under organized categories for later use, other users can see what you’ve pinned and re-pin it for their own use. Not surprisingly many of the most frequently pinned links are for repurposing objects, crafting gifts, and saving money. The website Groupon sells individuals admission to local attractions or classes at group rates. Virtually every large store and some locally owned ones have some variations of a rewards or loyalty program. The trend seems to be “doing more with less money”. Indeed even American income tax credits are based on spending money. There are tax breaks for investing in an IRA, buying a home, installing (new) green appliances, or having another child but none for starting a garden or being exceptionally thrifty. Indeed a “doing less with less money” movement would not be very popular with Uncle Sam.

      The price for “doing less with less” is more than monetary; perhaps taxes are a small price to pay for the glorious reward of taking ownership of our souls back from a culture that seeks to consume them.