Conspicuous Consumption

Ah, consumerism – the great American way. Feeling bad? Whip out that MasterCard and head to the mall. Buy yourself that $500 suit or that silly $400 bracelet. That’s what makes the world go round, right? Keep the economy moving, doing your part to keep the economic wheels of the U.S. in motion. Get paid, and after you pay bills realize you have….oh….$200 until the next pay day. Have a mortgage that takes up 2/3 of one paycheck. Have two mortgages. Have six credit cards. Have a mack! car with crazy car payments. Bounce a check or two. Be up to your eyeballs in all sorts of debt! It’s the American Dream alright, it’s just heavily financed by the banking industry.

Blood thirsty vultures.

I mean, you know the world is screwed up when the cashier at Publix has a diamond tennis bracelet that is worth about $2K.

What brought this on? Check out this article about companies that are putting gemstones or ground up gemstones into their line of cosmetics. It’s surprisingly popular.

Now isn’t that the ultimate in….lord, where to start! Tackiness, nouveau riche-ness, crassness, just….man, no wonder half the world hates us! Diamonds in our moisturizer! Zoloft for our dogs! Butt implants! Rampant glorification of adultery and promiscuity on television and in the movies! Woohooo!

What is wrong with my fellow ovarians that we actually think a moisturizer with ground diamonds will keep our skin looking young while providing a bling like glow? Is this now the culture of perpetual youth? Just take a look at any makeup counter in any mall....they become less and less about makeup and more and more about pore reducing toner, eye de-wrinklers with sunblock, laugh line wrinkle treatment with retinol, all over spray on tan with vitamin e, lip plumpers/glosses loaded with collagen.

I was randomly thinking....do you think 200 years ago women cared that their legs were ashy? Or that they had leg hair that could be braided? Do you think they slathered themselves with cow fat to enhance their skin? I mean, whatever happened to pinching your cheeks and lips for color? Do you think men cared? And if you had ashy legs 200 years ago, and you DID care, what did you do about it?

Sorry, just a random purge of thoughts.

Had two nice compliments yesterday. A very nice lady said my writing was "witty and edgey", and a friend from long past told me that I had a great personality.