On the face of it, Black Friday should be of great interest to frugal zealots. Living frugally has many facets, and one obvious one is the careful husbanding of resources, making sure that you spend no more than you have to. That way you can avoid debt, work less, pile up some savings as security, and even have something available for the occasional indulgence.

Here’s how Black Friday fits into this strategy. You need certain things, like a new fridge or a winter coat; but you don’t just rush out and buy them. You do your research, plan ahead, and wait for the maximum discount to appear before you strike. Black Friday is (supposedly) the day of the greatest possible discount. So you make a flask of hot chocolate, wrap yourself in the old winter coat that badly needs replacing and camp outside your store of choice in pole position for the opening at 8.a.m. (or earlier).

This behavior is rational if, when you divide the total time devoted to getting the discounts (say, 10 hours) by the amount you save (say $200) you arrive at what you consider a worthwhile hourly rate ($20). It’s like cutting and using coupons for groceries that you would buy anyway.

But many Black Friday enthusiasts will end up buying things they don’t need, or which they could get cheaper elsewhere, or at a similar price with less hassle on another day. In that case, the frugal impulse that leads them to the Black Friday Sale has led them astray. Or, more accurately perhaps, advertisers have cleverly turned a desire to be frugal into a desire to spend money. Our inner frugal zealot is ever alert for news of great bargains. The Black Friday ads scream “fantastic bargains!” And off we go, primed to buy things not because we need them or really even want them, but just because they are (supposedly) bargains.

A lawsuit involving a sale at J.C. Penney US:JCP illustrates this process perfectly. Cynthia Spann sued the retailer after she learned that the “sale” price she paid for some blouses — $17.99 apiece — was no sale. While it was a discount off the $30 “original” price, the actual price had never been above $17.99 for the past three months. If she’d known the discount wasn’t real, she says, she wouldn’t have bought the blouses. The class-action lawsuit was settled in 2015 for $50 million without J.C. Penney admitted any wrongdoing.

So we have here an interesting phenomenon. Frugality and consumerism are natural enemies. A venerable philosophical tradition stretching from Socrates and Epicurus in ancient Athens to Thoreau and Wendell Berry in modern America tells us that the key to happiness is simple living. This includes living on relatively little, and prioritizing simple pleasures like friendship, conversation, and enjoying nature. Yet the ads that bombard us 24/7 suggest that the royal road to happiness is to buy stuff, especially if the stuff is (supposedly) on sale. The marketeers thereby leverage our desire to be frugal to convert frugality into its opposite.

The advertiser’s strategy doesn’t just persuade us to buy things we don’t need. Its undermining of the frugal lifestyle goes deeper.

Black Friday shopping secrets

Getting a bargain becomes one of life’s great pleasures — although, in truth, the really great pleasure lies in telling people afterwards what a bargain you got, proving thereby how canny you are and how the system is no match for you. And once getting a bargain gives you a guaranteed dopamine rush, shopping itself becomes a major recreational pleasure since it provides the occasion for these moments. But once shopping is a major recreation, you’re a lost soul so far as the philosophy of frugality is concerned, having left the ideals and values of the frugal sages far behind.

Black Friday thus illustrates a paradoxical process: that of a system co-opting ideas, values, and actions that initially oppose it and making them work for it. Something similar can be seen in other spheres. In education, for instance, the established system always favored students from privileged backgrounds. Standardized test were introduced to level the playing field and improve opportunities for bright kids from lower socioeconomic groups. But then the rich kids start prepping intensively for the tests, attend evening classes, hire private tutors, and so on. Result: the gap between rich and poor students grows wider.

Even our form of democracy exhibits the same sort of movement. Universal suffrage was supposed to check the power of the elite. But then the rich and powerful used their money and mass media to support candidates who will defend their interests. (The recent election of a billionaire to the U.S. presidency, along with incumbency return rates of 97% for the House and 90% for the Senate, does nothing to disprove this thesis.)

So if you think that by hitting the Black Friday sales you are making the system work for you, think again. Chances are, the system is working you.

Emrys Westacott is professor of philosophy at Alfred University in Western New York. His book “The Wisdom of Frugality” was published this year by Princeton University Press.