When Consumerism Kills

Image from Barbara Kruger circa 1987 via The Tate Modern

From NY Daily News:

A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said...

Before police shut down the store, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the store clerk's life...

Only a few stopped

"Black Friday" has taken on a wholly new and depressing meaning. I looked up Valley Stream to better understand the neighborhood. Here are some of the things I found:

• The median income for a household in the village is $189,243, and the median income for a family is $172,585. Males have a median income of $90,094 and only $56,260 for females.
  
  
• [Home] Prices normally range from $300,000 up to $1.29 million.
  
  
• As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 36,368 people, 12,484 households, and 9,600 families residing in the village. The population density was 10,569.5 people per square mile (4,081.9/km²). There were 12,688 housing units at an average density of 3,687.5/sq mi (1,424.1/km²). The racial makeup of the village is 92.79% White, 1.46% African American, 0.15% Native American, 4.86% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, and 2.54% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.27% of the population.
  
  
• There were 12,484 households out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.5% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.1% were non-families. 20.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.37.