In the movie, Do the Right Thing, didn’t Mookie — the one who was said to have done “the right thing” — throw a garbage can through a shop window, thus sparking a riot and the destruction of a family’s business and the loss of its income?

Because home prices in my area, Hudson County, have peaked and will be stagnant for several years. Plus, borrowing terms are not attractive right now.

Hasn’t stopped me from looking for opportunities though. I’m currently sizing up some suburban NJ townhouse neighborhoods – that is where I expect prices to drop sharply before rebounding.

By now, most of us are in post-holiday recovery.

We’re sorting through our gifts, cleaning up wrapping paper, exchanging ill-fitting presents, pondering what to do with our gift cards and worrying about next month’s credit card bills.

More than a few of us are wondering: What was the point of all this . . . stuff?

In an era when Christmas and Chanukah are synonymous with shopping, there is a growing anti-consumer movement brewing. There are whole corners of the Internet devoted to “Buy Nothing Christmas,” “Hundred Dollar Holiday,” “The Christmas Resistance Movement” and other efforts to rethink the holiday gift-giving season without turning into a Scrooge.

This season, bloggers on environmental, parenting, consumer and religious blogs were filled with soul-searching posts about de-commercializing the holiday season so it has less impact on the environment and more meaning.

From El Burro, blogging at Team Effort:

I have a confession to make. It might be shocking to some of you, but here goes.

I boycott Christmas.

The gift purchasing part.

I still bake cookies, and sing along to carols, and eat candy canes and go to parties. I do give gifts, but they’re either homemade (think hot pepper jelly) or gifts of my time (‘Who needs baby-sitting help?’). I have no desire to offend anyone or hurt any feelings, so I have bent my own rules on occasion, buying something for someone whom I knew just would not understand my point of view. But mostly, I try to stand firm.

I don’t even buy gifts for my own children . . .

I made this boycotting decision three years ago, but I’d been on the verge for much longer. My own personal values just didn’t match my actions during the holiday buying frenzy, and I felt more and more uncomfortable trawling through the malls in desperation every year, searching for presents that I was sure were redundant. I actually started feeling queasy with the disconnect I was experiencing.

From Dr. Steven Parker, a pediatrician, blogging at Healthy Children:

In this 2007 holiday season the average American consumer plans to spend $816 on gifts (that’s about $200 billion nationally). And your kids are, of course, excited to be the beneficiaries of this windfall and get a boatload of presents, which is– let’s face it– pretty much the meaning of Christmas and Chanukah for most of them (and us).
I’m no Grinch, but what if each of us were to donate to charity a mere 1 percent of our intended expenditures? That would amount to $2 billion. And what might that teach our kids?

From Manda, blogging at Whoa, Camel!:

The stores and advertisements are chocked full of crap that are supposed to make for good gifting. There are the unnecessary gadgets (novelty booze dispensers, shaving cream warmers, a creepy robotic horse from Target) and gifts sets (everything from picture frames to skin care to scarves) that will inevitably be gathering dust in a few months time and are destined for a trip to the trash or the yard sale table by summer.

Then there are the perishable gifts like mixer sets that make cough-syrupy cocktails or the fancy bottles full of pickled, brightly colored vegetables (Who eats those?) that are soon banished to some far away corner of the pantry . . .

Don’t misconstrue; I love Christmas, especially Christmas music, and love my son’s growing excitement for the season. Which is why for the past few years I’ve been trying to slowly move myself and my family into celebrating Christmas in a more simplified, less consumption-based manner. It’s not something I can do overnight, and I certainly don’t want to give up on gift-giving all together. I just want to celebrate in a more mindful manner.

From Hermipowell, commenting at Make Wealth History:

Have you considered what may happen to economy if Buy Nothing Christmas catches on? What about all the underprivileged people who get a nice job to pay some bills this season as they sign on with some business as holiday help.

From Jeremy Williams, responding at Make Wealth History:

Yes, and what a crazy economy we’ve built for ourselves that requires us to consume things that we don’t need, at a level that the earth can’t sustain. It’s a whole system that needs to change, and Christmas only highlights it. The same goes for the underprivileged reliant on seasonal jobs (which I’ve done myself in the past). Can we not create opportunities that won’t be rescinded come January?
Plus, I don’t think there’s any risk of everyone suddenly adopting it. It’s not as if it’ll catch on and there’ll be no Christmas in 2008. I’m hoping for a slow return to sanity, for changes over generations. The economy and the job market will find substitutes and adapt, the way they always do.

Courtesy of the Aussies

http://media4.abc.net.au/4corners/loans/loans_hi.wmv

I did it this year. I flipped the place a few weeks later and collected a triple digit IRR.

Your cause would be better served on another blog.

Want a reminder of what you are up against?

Pretty much anyone who bought a house in NJ worth over $400,000 who put 10% or less down (we’re talking the majority of recent home buyers) will be better off mailing the keys in to the lender than continuing to pay the loan. As a matter of fact, since your credit will get equally destroyed whether you fight to hold on to your precious home or not, if you are smart, you just stop paying the mortgage lender ASAP and squat until you get the boot. Save the money you would have paid the lender and use it towards rent and your 40% down that you will need to buy your next home at 30% off in two or so years.

Kramer was right when he said “just walk away!”

The only foolish ones are the ones who will try to hang on. In NJ, this is virtually impossible with the skyrocketing public sector retirement bill and no real solution available to pay for it.

So your advice for people to go out and buy a home that will most likely be worth 20 to 30% less is mean and hurtful. To say you are starting off the new year on a kind note is like claiming that global warming is good for HVAC repairmen.

People who read this blog are not stupid. This is evidenced by their desire to learn. You are so in denial that it pains me to read your posts. I sympathize for you and your poor investments. Especially your wack concept that changing the minds of people on this board will somehow turnaround the residential real estate sector. You are as silly as those people who feel fabricated posts on stock message boards influence stock prices.

Making your most recent statement after witnessing the worst month to month drop in real estate since 1992 is proof positive of your terrible advice.

Please look at this chart and tell me how the thousand or so readers of this blog could impact the RE sector. If we all ran out and bought a home, it would amount to more than a drop in the bucket.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/58574-new-home-sales-decline-again

Let’s all just run out and catch a falling knife!

Happy New Year to everyone. Even to those less fortunate and clearly in denial.

have funn :)
http://www.thestreet.com/video/index.html?clipId=10396382&channel=5+Dumbest+Things+on+Wall+Street&cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=&cm_ite=#10396382/