Today's evil, anti-American thought.

I think that here in America, when spend so much time and money on crap we neither need nor enjoy, but feel we HAVE to have that it has screwed up our society in general. We need to 100 inch TV set, the 200 cable channel connection, the newest cell phone, the house that costs 10 times what we make in a year, a new car every four years, replacing all of our gadgets every couple of years and so on, and so on, and so on. When we DON'T spend enormous amounts of money, we are chastised by the media and government that we aren't doing our part.

After 9/11, what did our President tell us to do?

Go shopping.

What is the solution to the current economic downturn?

Go shopping.

Buy more crap you don't need, throw it away and then go out and fill up the car AGAIN.

It's crazy. It's destructive to both body and spirit.

I was laid off at the end of last year, but I live so cheaply that I haven't started feeling the financial pinch until the last week or so. I have a part-time job to supplement my unemployment while I look for a new job, but I'm also using the time to get back to writing and creating. I don't buy the $120 concert ticket to see the band that hasn't had a hit since 1982, I wait and pay $10 to see the band that has been touring and working the road and makes their living from the CDs they sell. I work at a movie theater, so I get movies for free, and watch the stuff on Turner Classic or the DVDs I bought but didn't have time for. I read a LOT, I spend time in contemplation, I play my older video games and relish the free time I have for now because when I have a full-time job again, I won't have as much time.

Americans work more than most people in the first world. We have worse health, no savings, a terrible retirement and a huge income disparity. In the last 30 years, upward class mobility has all but vanished, and we allow corporations to run everything. The current economic crisis is being blamed on the poor by the rich (which is pure propaganda):

The right blames the credit crisis on poor minority homeowners. This is not merely offensive, but entirely wrong. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine

Truth is, we've been living in a country that has extolled greed and waste since 1980, and maybe it's time we took a step back and thought about just how much better off we are after having a "Baby Boomer" consumption orgy...since we have nothing but garbage and debt left to us by the boomers. No great art has emerged, popular music is back to the model it was during the 40's and 50's when manufactured stars sing songs created by committees and our lives have become an endless treadmill or working to pay for the food you bought and ate three months ago. We've outsourced labor, science and now our military (just like Rome did before it fell).

Most Americans say the US is the best country in the world. But they never can answer when you say "At what?"