On a recent afternoon, Lucy Johnston, 37, an accountant from Tulsa, Oklahoma, could be found at the Fashion Show mall on the Strip in Las Vegas. She’s cutting back on shopping and eating out because of the recession.“It’s really tough right now,” Johnston says. “I don’t do many full-on spa days anymore.”Yet there she was, shopping and vacationing in Vegas with her husband.“We’ve pulled out all the stops. We’re staying at the Bellagio,” she says.Schizophrenic ConsumersThe new abnormal has given rise to a nation of schizophrenic consumers. They splurge on high-end discretionary items and cut back on brand-name toothpaste and shampoo. Companies such as Cupertino, California-based Apple, whose net income jumped 94 percent in its last quarter, and Starbucks Corp., which saw a 61 percent increase in operating income over the same time frame, are thriving.Mercedes-Benz is having a record sales year; deliveries of new vehicles in the U.S. rose 25 percent in the first six months of 2010. Lexus and BMW were also up. Though luxury-goods manufacturers such as Hermes International SCA and Burberry Group Plc are looking primarily to Asia for growth, their recent earnings reports suggest stabilization and even modest improvement in the U.S.
This is the very definition of insanity; no wonder the U.S. lead the world in the percentage of the population suffering from mental illness.
How did we get here? In a word: Television. Of course, I truly mean all of the Media's effort to manipulate you but T.V. is such an easy target. Even if you don't watch it, everybody else in your community does.
I want to share with you some really, really politically incorrect observations. I can get away with this because I am not running for office and I am not looking for a job, and don't expect to be anytime soon.
I live half of the year in rural Tennessee in a small, blue collar and farming community about an hour outside of Nashville on a small organic farm which I run for the profit motive (as well as self-sufficiency). The people here were more than likely born and raised here with family living here going back several generations... They are, for the most part, extremely pleasant folks, and polite to a fault. If I were driving and the light in front of me turned green, no one (NO ONE!) behind me would honk their horn... not even if the light turned red and green and then red again... in fact, the folks behind me would rush up to my window and see if I was OK. For the most part they are overweight, and many are out right fat, many smoke, and many middle aged and older folks seem to have kept irregular dental appointments... and the VAST majority of the folks I have dealt with wouldn't cheat you out of $50 million, let alone $50 bucks. Outside of drug related possession and property crime flowing out of the public housing projects, there is just very little crime. Even the rich folks, and there are a few, drive pick up trucks, and my experience with my neighbors is the stuff right out of Mayberry RFD.
The other half of the year I live in Boca Raton, Florida running a hedge fund for the profit motive (until late last year I also operated a stock brokerage in Boca), and while I like to consider myself a keen observer of the human condition, these are only MY observations... And, really... this could be ANY well to do place that the "Real Housewives of Jerkville" might head over to catch the wacko's in action - Palm Beach, Orange County, New York City... This is hardly your average small town America type place. Many of the people here are rich. Some people are REALLY rich, while others are only middle-class millionaires, but still, in the grand scheme of history these people are freaking rich. For the most part this is "New Money". Don't get me wrong, many of these folks will likely endure poverty later in their lives because ANY fortune can be squandered, and many of them are hell bent on doing just that, but right now... they are living pretty well.
Most "New Money" is made by men (I said most, not all). I know that that is really political incorrect to say... but these are my observations, right? These are the guys that started hedge funds, built office complexes, started businesses, and made real money before the age of 40... and who does new money marry? Well, they ain't Wall Flowers. The women here are drop dead beautiful, and not just because of plastic surgery (although the number of psych-therapists and cosmetic surgeons within the city limits should give one a statistical hint, and; though I am sure that the figure enhancing procedures don't hurt) and I figure that that is not a coincidence. Men are driven to make money for a reason - and it ain't to play golf. It takes 2 to tango, as they say, this is not a societal fault. Men and women have been trading food for sex or status and wealth for youth & beauty for millenia and a better study of this cannot be found than here in Boca Raton.
White collar crime used to be Boca's largest employer, at one time it was referred to as the "Maggot Mile", with all of support business for such an economic structure - divorce lawyers, criminal defense lawyers, rehab centers, cosmetic surgeons, psychotherapists, etc... One of the 2 elite local private schools had a hard time keeping guys on the Board of Directors because the Directors kept getting indicted (not kidding). The pick up and drop off lines at these schools are littered with Bentleys and Mercedes and such; the medicine cabinets are littered with anti-depressants, pain killers, and treatments for mood disorders - sorry, but all that medication is not for the most productive, hard working and successful... for some reason and for the most part it is for their spouse. Borderline Personality Disorder dominates.
This is a town where a man can rip off a children's charity and his wife will stand by him... but if he runs a couple of laps with his female personal trainer his wife would be all too willing to take a knife to his manhood and his wallet. (Bernie Madoff did not fear that his wife would "leave" him for stealing billions and destroying thousands of lives... but he did fear her departure when it came public that he had had a long term mistress... somehow this is beyond ass-backwards... for myself, I could forgive a philandering spouse but not if she ripped off a children's charity.)
Know what the shortest time measurable by man? The time between when Boca traffic light turns green and the time when the guy behinds you blasts his horn and flips you "the Bird".
A compelling example comes from Greg Jeffer’s farm blog, in which he rants about the culture of femininity and divorce that keeps farm-wantin’ men in Boca in line. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the compliment, even if I don’t agree with a good portion of his commentary:"So why’d I say “good luck”? I live half the year in Boca Raton, FL, where the poor people have a million dollar net worth, and the rich quite a bit more than that, and I should know – I manage their money! I hear their concerns like a priest in the confessional. Any of those guys even TRYS to move his family to a small holding homestead or ditch the landscaping for a productive garden, or try’s to downsize the familY’y consumption… and it is off to divorce court for his troubles (I truly wish the “Real” American Housewife were more like Sharon Astyk but that that just ain’t the case – America is fascinated by the Reality Show “The Real Housewives of Wherever” precisely because it is, in fact, REALITY). Sorry, but “family law” has left the successful “king of his castle” nothing more than a neutered figurehead, a laboring eunich that, if he so much as steps out of line, will lose his home and life’s savings in addition to the family jewels he lost to the marriage/divorce industrial complex by marrying without a prenup agreement. What is the point of marriage in a society that promotes divorce?" - Greg Jeffers, from his Blog: The American Energy CrisisNow my comment would be that maybe Boca isn’t the best place to hunt for the sort of women who dream of farmwifing. But then again, maybe that’s not fair – if the world of even the rich is filled with men panting to get a small homestead and give up their affluent ways, with only wives holding them back with the threat of divorce, maybe there’s hope yet?So I thought I’d ask the question – are women really more reluctant than men to take on a new way of life? Are women more attracted to creature comforts and more afraid of the future? Is this a gender thing at all? I should note that among me email collection on this subject, I have at least two emails from lesbians, complaining that other lesbians talk about sustainability but don’t really want to live it, and one from a gay man complaining that gay men are all mostly concerned with status and affluence, and don’t want to live sustainably.
Dear Sharon:
Somehow I think you missed the point. I never suggested that the Nouveau Riche men of Boca wanted to take up organic farming or sustainable living - these guys get manicures and Botox injections for pity's sake. What I DID say was that these guys had lost all power over their own destiny to the marriage/divorce industrial complex and I was hinting that something in our society was bringing out material competitiveness in our women folk to the point where "The Real Housewives of Wealthy Miserableville" are considered normal and Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorder dominate. The point was consumerism is destroying the fabric of our society... and just what is the demographic of the folks walking through the mall clutching a mocha frapapoofychino with status shopping bags and the gaudy jewelry with the cell phone stuck in their ear? These are the consumers. These are the folks leaving the family budget for retirement in tatters. So... Dearest Sharon... as usually happens when a male member of the majority questions ANYTHING about the women or minority's priorities or powers I am rubuked with lines like "farm-wantin men in Boca in line". Let us remain germane to the conversation at hand, spare me the eye rolling BS, and give an ear to what thinking men like myself and Dmitri Orlov (also mentioned in Sharon's article) both seem to have noticed.
We, as thinking people really must be able to talk about the things that are harming all of us regardless of how uncomfortable it makes us feel or politically incorrect it is.
More to follow...
23 comments:
The marriage rate is dropping, so be sure that young men are figuring out that marriage 2.0 is a bad deal. To compensate, the baby-mammas will be given alimony level rewards by judges. 'Accidental' pregnancies will become more common in order to take advantage of this. These trends are already in motion, along with the male response, an increase in vasectomies.
The current mancession has left many guys with no assets to confiscate. There are more men in prison for failure to pay support/alimony, but the various governments are figuring out that the new debtor's prison doesn't work any better than the old one did.
It will all work out eventually, but expect a rough ride for a generation or two.
Having seen the child support scam from both sides it is unreal how biased the system is. Basically if your male your only use is to pay. The surprised look when a social services employee (always female btw)figures out I am the payee is very telling.
If a man misses three support payments there is a warrant put out for his arrest. My ex has missed 4 years and they are just now talking about going after her drivers license.
The mouth foaming hatred from women's groups every time a state tries to pass mandatory paternity testing or the behind the scenes moves against any pharma company working on a male pill should also show us something.
The real numbers behind all this progressive PC crap, social spending, and out of control debt is gurrrrl power. Men and what was left of male dominated industry are 85% of the unemployed yet female dominated areas got half the so called stimulus spending.
Women now make up 65% of college students (some say higher) there have been female articles on the lack of men on campus. They were the largest growth segment in sub-prime home loans through biased community re-investment act legislation and have taken the lead in mid-level management positions.
Just look at this years sailor(s) of the year. All four of them women. Out of a service branch which is at least 85 - 90% male they couldn't or wouldn't even try to find a male to decorate.
I could go on but I think I made my point.
During the 1990's I worked in NYC, but we had an office in Boca Raton.
This was the height of the "sexual harassment" payday. The firm had 5, 5!, "sexual harassment" claims from receptionists in a row - 5 for 5. All they wanted was a couple grand to go away... after the 3rd time, we fought back. Number 4? We were the 5th firm in 3 years she sued for sexual harassment. Got to the point were we simply decided not to have a receptionist in that office.
People can be really awful, especially if you make them a victim and hand them a sword.
Dear Greg,
I really like this blog but I hate the flavor of this post. It calls up a kind of devisiveness that we can just not afford. I'm sure that an opposite vision of men wandering the car lots and boat showrooms, the casinos and brothels could have just as easily been made. We could also say that men who work 80 hour weeks do so, not at the expence of their retirements but at the expense of their children and spouses. The point is that we all need to grow the heck up. Consumerism does not belong to gender but to our collective childishness. I want it NOW!!!! Perhaps the female version is more visable in your community as is the implication that woman divorce out of greed and laziness. Around here, a woman is much more likely to leave after a couple of black eyes or a case of herpes and she is likely to end up in poverty when she does. How about we admit that there are bozos of every gender and race, age and creed, political party and sexual orientation. We need more models of other ways to live. I am a good bit older than Sharon but I consider her a friend and an example. I disagree with you on any number of issues but I respect your clear thinking, insight and ability to make me reexamine my own belief system. It's your blog and you're certainly free to post what you like. Today though, I just don't see the point.
Kathy is right. We don't need any more deviseness. America is badly polarized already due to the Beck Limbaugh Hannity Coulter tactics of exploiting fear & insecurity.
I don't support everything the feminists come up with. But we must remember that women had some tough circumstances until recently-
1. No vote on how their own society was governed.
2. Getting the living hell beat out of them by violent or drunken spouses while the sheriff would not respond because it was a domestic matter.
3. Getting pregnant 10, 12, or 18 times without access to birth control. We had a Catholic neighbor lady who had 18 kids and finally just dropped over and died in her early 40s.
4. Women constantly threatened & browbeaten by Priests, pastors, etc and threatened with eternal torture if they use birth control or question their husbands, church, pastor, etc.
5. Women denied any type of career even when capable of doing high level work in complex areas such as engineering, science, leadership, etc.
It's best to stop the blaming every problem on the other gender or political party. We have too many politicos using hate & blame to advance their own wealth & money interests.
Best, Marshall
I find it interesting that when someone lists out facts or opinions which do not support the myths and propaganda of the current feminist doctrine it is automatically hate.
Yet they fire back with more of the same that they claim to condemn.
Of course these days they also add in the proverbial "it's time to cooperate" because by and large they realize they have went too far and cooperation may let them keep the advantages they have.
But to Marshal's points.
Women did vote in several states and counties and even held office as judges etc. White men who did not own property were not all allowed to vote in the US until 1860.
Non-white citizen men 1870 (depending) Poor who were unable to pay a poll tax as late as 1964.
Women 1920
It wasn't an all men vote women can't thing like the feminist claim.
2. Recent studies have shown domestic violence is a 2 way street with the same "victims" both male and female repeating over and over even with different "partners". If the "old days" were so hard on women someone forgot to tell my grandmothers thats for sure.
3. If child birth is such a death sentence for women that it was such a problem, why is it the average life span for women has always been higher than for men?
4. My opinion of course, but the only real moral control over women has been other women. The men sure as hell didn't want the women escorted and chaperoned.
5. There have always been successful women and times when they were encouraged to find a career. Much like today's wage myth, in general women didn't want to and like today they do not want nor do they put in the same amount of work hours therefore they make less overall wages. Even when actively encouraged to enter dangerous or stressful positions they do not do it but gravitate to part time and office positions.
But of course giving a different opinion or presenting uncomfortable facts is just hate and refusing to cooperate. Unless of course its the feminist doing it.
Good grief PP! Did what I wrote sound like hate? I thought it sounded like an opinion. But your response illustrates my point. We are so polarizedd already. I am so blessed to have a truly equal partnership. When I had a terrible accident a few years back, my DH just stepped up. He did it all, including getting me showered and dressed each morning as well as caring for the house and the kids, including the special needs 2 YO we had just adopted. There was no his work or her work, just our work. When he was ill, I did what I had do inside then trudged to the barn to milk the HUGE cow who had just delivered and had milk fever, in a blizzard. It had to be done. I wish for nothing else but that same attitude to rise for all of us. No one is exempt or above the sacrifice. We must all do the work if we are to survive. This isn't about hate. It's about becoming adults.
Hi Kathy: No, what you wrote did not sound like hate... Nor, what I wrote, either.
Consumerism, the divorce/industrial complex, "multiculturalism", and the social programs are tearing this society apart.
Here are some very short and simple facts:
THe vast majority of taxes and production in our society (be it for the best or worst) is produced by the Neauvue Riche - and consumerism is the bi-product of this.
Boca Raton, Palm Beach, Orange County, etc... are nearly perfect examples of what is wrong with our consumer centric society. These places, and their life styles, are covered by the media and this behavior is then exported into every living room via TV and picked up by our young people who LIVE in a make believe world of video screens.
BTW, what was the tone of the post that you were objecting to?
Kathy
I did not throw the "hate" clause out at anyone. I understood it was being thrown out at those of us (namely me) who had a different opinion.
As for proving your point you proved mine in that you wrote your "facts"
ie: men wondering car lots, boat showrooms, casinos, brothels...
You replied with an opinion that in effect is no different than anything I wrote that you take an exception with. Yet what I wrote was hate in your eyes.
Marshal then made several "points" that I feel I can prove are completely false feminist talking points. Yet my points are hate and his are not?
Now if I need to I am prepared to back up every claim I make with a resource unless I say it is opinion.
I am sure your are all you say you are and you sound simply wonderful. I do not think all women are like what has been posted, but a woman simply posting "not all are like that" avoids the real issues and defends the ones who are and allows this madness to continue.
In the end simply shifting the victim is not justice, we tend to forget that when we are nott he victim.
Ultimately, and I am making an assumption here, this all boils down to cheap energy and oil believe it or not and I think Jeffers sees that as well.
All this PC, feminist, racial hatred needs cheap energy to get to this point. Just my opinion but there you have it.
What I was hearing (and correct me if I'm wrong) was that the culture you are referring to is female dominated and that's not what I see here. Granted, there is not much money in rural Western Mass but what there is is far too often spent on snowmobiles, BIG trucks and other toys at the expense of things like a dental care for a child. Now I will admit to a bias, having spent my working years as an advocate for children living in poverty. By definition, most were the children of single mothers who were a bit more concerned with food than with getting their nails done. I think there is more than enough blame to go around. It need not all be leveled at one group over another. We see the same thing. Crazy spending on expensive trash while crying poverty and feeling deprived, thanks to a media driven culture that portrays Real Wives as real and seeks to convince us that we are entitled to $4:00 cups of coffee. I grew up in real, housing project, not enough to eat poverty and have no sympathy for cutting back from a few meals out and calling it a sacrifice. I just don't see it as a female thing.
Marshall,
"We don't need any more deviseness. America is badly polarized already due to the Beck Limbaugh Hannity Coulter tactics of exploiting fear & insecurity."
Second Quote
"It's best to stop the blaming every problem on the other gender or political party. We have too many politicos using hate & blame to advance their own wealth & money interests."
Can you say hypocrisy?
Well Kathy the largest consumer group in the US is in fact women. Last time I looked it up which was when I was researching home loans early last year women had an edge of like 15% in consumer spending I think (I may remember it wrong).
Television media makes no bones about designing commercials and shows around the female consumer and openly admit it.
Jeffers is right in that television and movies have clouded our outlook so bad that we as a whole buy into old (and new) myths and stories as if they were real. We never research or dig for the facts.
Just the other day one of my son's friends mentioned that Hitler was assassinated in France during WWII. He knew this to be fact cause he had seen it. It took me the better part of 2 days before I figured out where he knew this from which was that recent Brad Pitt movie. I of course have not seen it.
Just like Marshal's points on "conservative" talking heads it was very telling that he refused to mention Obermann, Madcow or leg tingle Mathews.
Seems to me writers and reporters used to try and show both sides. From my point of view we mostly conservative types kept doing that and now it is time to play by the new rules. I am sure others see it differently.
I have no primary knowledge of Mass. I have read it has the most biased pro-female alimony and support laws in the country however. To the point that women have been going back for 20+ years and several different marriages to get support from ex-husbands who thought they were free from them.
I know in economically depressed redneck Ozark land, women constantly talk about how they get shorted in child support. Yet they get the social checks, have a house under section 8 while their ex's pay 300.00 a month in CS and need to find some woman to live with just to make it. I seriously cannot see how anyone can claim women end up worse off after divorce when the men are the ones paying the support.
Maybe we can agree on this. Everybody loses, especially children, every time a marriage dissolves. And a culture based on consuming produces a lot of people good for little else. I suspect that if someone visits here, they have more on the ball than your average, mall hopping spender, male or female.
Kathy,
Maybe we can agree on this. Everybody loses, especially children, every time a marriage dissolves
If I was the chorus I would be saying "AMEN"
How about...
Children are the real losers in divorce....
And leave it at that? :)
I think we CAN agree on that. I think we can also agree that the life style, need for material affirmation, and selfishness displayed by the Media's depiction of the lives of the "Rich and Famous" has had a terrible effect on Americans... here is where you might or might not agree with the point of my post - the media in political cahoots with the divorce industrial complex has over empowered the wives of the nouveau riche with outcomes of consumerism (a very bad example for children) and divorce (a shitty way for kids to have to grow up), and now the out right rejection of marriage.
Kathy
To show I am not all biased male I will say your point regarding snow mobiles, trucks etc has some merit. I would also add my biggest peeve with Western White Males Alcohol to that.
Had I been around during prohibition I would have been right there with the hatchet women more than likely. In the end it was a mistake and should have been approached a bit more conservatively but I share the sentiment.
As my only rebuttal to the truck and snow mobile comment I once dated a woman who had a child with incredible buck teeth. One day she just up and shelled out 6K for new breasts with never a thought for her son's teeth. I have also seen just as many women oooo and ahhh over their BMW's and Volkswagen convertibles as men over their trucks.
Oh ya our relationship lasted about 3 months after the implants. She had a whole world to show em off to now :) Last I heard she had a warrant out for business theft and fled to South Africa and was working in the porn industry. I couldn't make that kind of stuff up.
I kind of agree that cheap oil freed women from the home and helped set loose a cavalcade of feminism/liberalism, but every time I try to really get into it, reading all that Sharon Astyk has written on the subject, my head basically explodes. I guess I'm too fixated on the technical and economic aspects of the changing times we live in, to get to the more social aspects.
I will say that in my experience, modern hyper-consumerism is all too well represented on both sides of the gender line, however.
That said, I've been thinking about something completely different regarding oil decline - something that I haven't really seen discussed much in Peak Oil related talking circles...
(from the Wall St. Journal, but Blogspot says the original URL is too long) http://tinyurl.com/2a6dqpg
The optimists have pinned their hopes on keeping our motoring civilization going post-Peak Oil on electric cars, algae bio diesel, etc., but nobody has really talked about the fact that virtually all of our road network is paved with oil byproduct. Call it what you will, bituminous concrete, or the new name, "hot mix asphalt", it's all dependent on cheap oil. Of course, we all have been discussing how a bankrupt government, already choking on entitlement programs, won't have any $$ for infrastructure maintenance, but what about the fact that the very material we use, asphalt, is about to become very pricey and scarce?
Conventional concrete simply doesn't work very well in the Snowbelt. The cement it's made out of uses copious amounts of natural gas to fire the limestone kilns, and then uses lots of diesel to mix, haul, and spread it.
Previous to HMA and the various similar products, our civilization used twin steel rails, canals, and (wooden) plank roads to do the heavy hauling in places where regular dirt roads turned to seasonal mud and just tolerated the mud on back roads.
Even IF society could build 300 million Chevy Volts, etc., along with the power plants to charge them, what are we going to run those cars on, cow paths?
The Internet is full of pictures from Third World locations of heavily loaded trucks or tractor trailers hopelessly mired, axle deep in mud on a 100 mile long dirt road, trying to get to the next major city. Indeed, this is a prime reason many poorer parts of the world couldn't be modernized during the Oil Age....they couldn't, or wouldn't build paved, intercity roads.
We're headed back there too, and more to the point, we're headed back to those completely awful roads much faster than many think....I think anyway.
At the very least, multi-lane divided highways are going to become single lane highways. Redundant routes will be abandoned. Side roads will become lesser or unmaintained dirt or gravel.
That railroads become more important for freight again is a no brainer. But will we rebuild the branch lines to the smaller towns we abandoned in the early 20th century, or do we make do with gravel roads, or splurge and use the little bit of asphalt (possibly derived from tar sands...something the latter resource might actually make some economic sense for) to access those sideline towns?
Here is one last thing to think about: draft animals deal with muddy roads much better than even a four wheel drive truck does, especially if replacement parts for the truck aren't available anymore.
Continued....
Our national road network is THE lifeline of our economic system. Without fast roads both local and interstate, we don't have practical 20 mile work commutes. We won't endure regular trips to the shire town's Walmart. In short, we drive a whole lot less miles and less often.
It isn't about biodiesel or electric cars. It's about the solid, cheap pavement underneath those vehicles.
Is there any hope for a cheap, practical alternative to HMA, available in abundance?
Stephen
I linked an article not too long ago about how South Dakota was converting several miles of their paved roads into gravel by pulverizing the asphalt.
I am sure we are going to see more of that but in the end even gravel takes a huge amount of oil to keep drivable especially in wetter climates and snow. A gravel road not properly packed, graded and re-topped seasonally quickly turns to a mud road with some rocks mixed in.
As for draft animals the numbers needed to produce the food we need today would eat so much of the grain just to be kept alive. The main worry I see from declining oil is not driving or even transportation it is simple food production. There is no alternative energy with the power to run the combines we use during harvest time.
stephen,
Good points, but dirt roads are fairly simple to maintain. Lived on them my whole life. 5 yrs ago they put limestone down and they just grade them every month. Have not put any more toppings on since.
As for concrete and asphalt I can tell you that concrete is much more durable. The problem is that most states only put down 8 inches instead of 12-14 inches on highways. This makes a major difference in lenght of durability. Plus concrete is usually placed on sand which is cheap and abundant instead of a limestone base like asphalt. In germany the roads are over 40inches thick (concrete) and survived 40 plus yrs. Michigan did one highway with 15 inches in 1980 and the highway is still the best section of road in greater detroit. Plus we have some major limestone quarrys in southern southeast michigan and northern ohio. I don't disagree that it will be hard, but dirt roads are very cheap to maintain only a couple thousand per mile compared to build asphalt and concrete roads
which can start at 300,000 a mile for a rural cheap ashalt road and go up to a million dollars mile for main highways out of concrete.
I see the largest problem being the durability of cheap and chinzy cars. Everyone I know has trucks because our roads have a easy 20 inches of snow on them and only get plowed from 8 am monday to 6 pm on friday due to fiscal constraints. Not to mention cars can't haul anything.
Most consumerist behavior is driven by our hunter gatherer hard wiring. The hunting, which is about the big kill, is primarily what men are interested in. Hence you have the guy buying the IPad in your link. The dudes spend the big money...the car, the boat.
The ladies on the other hand, spend their time gathering...berry picking...carefully working their way thru the malls of America...touching all the merchandise, hour after hour.
Hell, this type of berry picking goes on at flea markets and thrift stores...by people who don't have much money.
The hunter gatherer adaptation to consumer world is what keeps it going. It's not actually about needing the stuff.
And TeeVee keeps reminding you to do it or you will die.
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