RECESSION, CAR BOOTS, CHRIST & ALL

This car boot stall holder is not just praying, he's flying the flag! Who I wonder does he think Jesus is with? Seller or buyer? It is this contradiction of Capitalism playwright Bertolt Brecht returned to over and over...

The 'problem' of the many car boots in Norwich & Norfolk this summer has been that the Recession is proving far deeper already than anyone imagined. So, instead of ordinary folk turning out their lofts to fund their daughter's university place, or finding cash for their son's gap year, or such, more car booters have turned into quasi-dealers this year - in order to try and make something of an income. Unfortunately Capitalism doesn't work like this - it doesn't work:-

Sellers use crass phrases like "it is new" or "this item I'm selling is three times cheaper than they're selling it for in the shops."

A. If an item is not in a shop, it is not new; B. It matters not a bean what the item for sale is in a shop, for out on the field it joins with all the rest of the tat. This summer the punters have zig-zagged the stalls as usual but without their bags bulging. What was a £2 DVD last year is a 20p DVD this year but if you haven't the money to buy it won't sell for more than 20p. But of course, if you're selling how can a shop bought £15 DVD ever be sold at 20p? And so the seller upholds the £2 price tag, confident - like the estate agent is - that the tide will turn (and all those cliche weather analogies the economists use on TV).

Yet, car boot sellers are not to blame at all. It's all part of the pressure this Recession puts upon both workers and the poor. Chugging (being approached by charity salesmen in the street) is a consequence of the freemarket system. Charity shops now 'employ' experts to price their secondhand goods, upping their prices, and charity plastic bags through letterboxes are attempting to match supermarket carriers in a quest to destroy the planet. No? No, Charity is clean and good and...

However, this long summer of Recession is nearly over and I see changes taking shape. Suddenly car boot sellers are lowering their prices to take on Poundland et al, while the past has begun revisiting us: the jumble sale is back - big time! Think about it: the small charity/church group cannot compete with Oxfam while the community or church hall is begging to be used (the costs of hiring halls has hitherto been prohibitive).

The beauty of a jumble sale is both itself (a fast event) and the past - not just the smell, the crush and elbows but an old way/new way of recycling. We must look back to go forward. First the jumble, then the milk float, and then free school milk...

This Recession is a long, long way from ending. The Big Cuts follow.