The Crappiest Place on Earth

Dagny Taggart flew to her Disneyland, though she knew not how she got there.

How on earth can Disneyland be closed on the days right after Christmas?

Sorry, not closed - Sold out!

It was perhaps the first and only example that I saw of "respoppulance" - a new word I have invented that encourages those with, to reign in what they purchase.

On minimalism...

I have been to stores where you can't see the end of the merchandise. I have been to malls that have more pants than there are people in America. I have seen it all, and I have seen it all on sale.

There are two distinct views that I have for the commercial appetites of people from North America - on the one hand, I love my 800 thread cotton sheets, but I know I don't need them. On the other hand, I am far more responsible than most of the people I know in controlling the money I spend and yet, after Christmas I find myself in this mound of debt.

Dagny Taggert lived in a shoddy one bedroom apartment. Hank Rearden had a nice mansion, but he never used it- he maintained it for his simple wife who relished such things. In both cases, phenomenally successful people lived in relatively meager ways. They also aren't real.

I have no desire to live in a monstrous house. Nor do I have any need for $65.00 plates.

At the same time, I watch as people rush out to pay $59.00 for those same plates, because they saved money. The contradiction disgusts me.

All the while, people work harder and harder to enjoy less and less.

As my new years resolution, I pledge to not spend money on foolish, frivolous expenses. For example, I am wearing $14.00 pants that I bought at a mall that had 279 million other pairs to choose from.

...and Human Suffering

It appears to me that the people off of whose backs the rich get the richest tend to be the poorest who can't afford any better. Why do you think Disney was sold out? Because the upper crust decided to go and take their loved ones into the mobs? No, the poorest of the poor who could access it on their day off. They got a lower value disney than I could get on any other day of the year, and paid through the nose at it - rather than creating happy memories for their children, they waited and waited in line amidst thousands of others.

The cheap trinkets at the malls to pacify children, the fast food, the low-price low-value products - all designed to induce quick sales with massive margins. I have the money to waste on it, but I don't - others who are not as fortunate as I are obviously pulled into it. Be it the advertising, the fancy colours, or the feeding frenzy these markets are designed to create - millions of people waste their money on crap that is neither of value nor useful every day.

That is the environmental disaster of our generation- our waste and our need for things that the even poorer toil to create. Not to mention the cost and value of the energy that went into creating it.

How I long for a simpler life.