Ahh..Monday

Ahh..Monday

Trying to not think like a consumerist today. It helps that I have other forms of entertainment as I do with my cable, dvds, keyboard, and all of the other "hobbies" I've picked up along the way. I went to the mall on Saturday and actually didn't buy anything besides a venti soy iced green tea latte at Starbucks with some madeleines. They were really good. It's proving harder to not have Starbucks than it is to not buy new clothes. I closed three of my retailer credit cards today. I didn't need them and didn't need the lines of credit open. I have a great credit score, despite the fact that I have a lot of credit out, I always pay on time; what can I say? It never hurts to make sure your credit situation looks the best it can though too. I also lowered the maximum amounts on the rest of my credit cards so I didn't have so much revolving credit out.

I used to think it wasn't a big deal when I opened a retailer card and they gave me a $1,000 limit (as if any one person should spend that much at Victoria's Secret anyway!). The problem is that you shouldn't have the maximum amount of revolving credit out for you even if you have good credit! I think learning about credit, credit cards, banks, and money handling in general should be a part of your high school curriculum. Isn't knowing how to manage money part of being a good citizen too? That and empathy. Empathy should be the foundation of our society. We need to help each other, capitalism is great, but without empathy, what's the point? What makes America so great without the person in line who pays for the single mom's groceries; the teenager who gets out of his seat to give it up for an elderly person? Perhaps if we had more empathy, we'd have less national debt, less shootings, and who knows what else? Who knows.

So there's my consumerist rant. Even a person who looooves shopping can recognize it isn't the most important thing, nor does it actually make you feel better for more than a couple of days. I hope it's not just me who realizes that spending $70 on make-up could feed 7 people, or more, a warm meal. It's just good to not forget our fellow man in this consumerist society. I wonder what would Kerouac say about all this? Any thoughts on this friends? Do you ever feel buyers remorse when shopping, not for the money but for other people...(even for groceries, food's so expensive these days!)