Rampant consumerism…

I heard something in the bagel shop this morning that reminded me of someone I grew up with – it’s something I’ve never understood, and I still don’t understand:

Middle-aged woman in jogging attire #1: So what’d you do yesterday?

Middle-aged woman in jogging attire #2: Oh, I went out shopping…

Middle-aged woman in jogging attire #1: Oh? What’d you get?

Middle-aged woman in jogging attire #2: Oh, I just bought a whole bunch of stuff I know right now we’re never going to use, and that’s perfectly alright, I don’t care.

Middle-aged woman in jogging attire #1: (nods sagely in agreement)

Can someone please tell me what it is with people just going out and buying crap that they know at the time of purchase they won’t use?? I mean, I’ve bought stuff that I knew I could use that might not get used but that I at least intended to use – but buying something with the knowledge that it will never get used?

Thing is, I know for a fact it’s not just these ladies who do this. It’s bad enough that we have institutionalized debt in this country, but seriously, consumerism for the sake of merely consuming? I have brilliant friends who are struggling madly to make it from paycheck to paycheck, and there are still obnoxious folks who treat money as if it is disposable, as if that’s normal and good. And yet I’ll bet these two women are still paying off several thousand in debt on their houses and will be scratching their heads in wonder and dismay when they can’t make a payment. I am totally going to start a “Give Money to My Brilliant Friends Fund” and fund it by selling cheap worthless “cute” tchotchkes at an outrageous price – made in China, of course – that appeal specifically to over-50 females with disposable income and really bad dye jobs.

We are a sick culture, truly. Don’t people have anything better to do than spend an afternoon shopping for stuff they’ll only throw away?