andy- I just don't agree with this idea that we should try and say to people don't save, or don't buy stuff for the cheapest you possibly can. economiuc freedom means doing what you want. I think people shoud do what they want!!
You not seeing the forest for the trees, no one is saying don't save, no one is saying don't buy the cheapest. (If you think Wal-Mart is the cheapest, think again.) What is being said that to stop all personal spending which is impossible will kill the economy. As the song goes 'Money makes the world go around'.
Author Paco Underhill says that if people only bought what they needed to survive, the economy would collapse overnight. That won't happen because people will always buy not only what they need, but what they want and this emotional buying response will always be in force and will always be strong.
Those advocates of Buy Nothing Day have their hearts in the right place. But what they are doing is cautioning against reckless spending and unnecessary consumption. Even if everyone was more fiscally responsible, you would always get a section of the population who do what they want financially anyway.
Trouble is greed gets in the way. Everyone wants to be rich and have lots of things. But what they want is to be happy, so they think that material goods will do that and the sad truth is, things never make you happy. But they keep buying. It's a vicious circle.