No Sale

With Halloween about to wrap itself back up and the commercial Christmas making its presence ever known in do-it-yourself stores, various advertising departments have decided to start early this year to attract those out there that will drool and spend money on whatever they make look pretty.

Case and point, the Star Wars Episode III ads that are playing right now in preparation for their DVD's release.

The thing is, I'm not bothered by what will end up becoming an eternity of commercials between now and Thanksgiving. What bothers me is that I'm not affected by them.

The capitalistic world as we know it now doesn't really sit well with me anymore. Very rarely do I find a product that I know I'll get more for my buck. Something I can treasure or get a lot of use out of. If I were to make my Christmas list now like how all the ad companies want everyone to do, there would only be two items on the list. The Musical History of Disneyland Box Set and some kind of SLR Digital Camera. Expensive, yes, but cheaper than the grand total of what I wanted last year. (And a hell of a lot cleaner as far as content goes as well.) On top of that, those two are the only things I think I would get the most out of. If I was to buy the Star Wars DVD that is coming out, how many times would I watch it? There are DVDs sitting in my drawer that I haven't touched in well over a year. Hell, there's a set of DVDs in there I haven't watched more than once!

I guess it would be premature of me to say that I may be learning the value of a buck at this point. Most don't learn that until they work their asses off to the point where they are seen as respectable.

Ironically, give us just a few more decades and the US will become the source of cheap labor. Why? Well, there's this little thing called "The Number Gap." Long story short, once all the smart people in all the scientific field of work retired, the US will only have 1/3 of the number of innovators and inventors that they do now with some kind of creditable background, that isn't some hack trying to get rich quick. I've brought this subject up before; I know I have. When I have, I learned that our society is so left-brain oriented, that eventually it will be the creative ones that will take over. The ones that can produce things that the average person will eventually realize is worth more than what they are really investing in because it can never be reproduced. That's why in Japan, the source of our cheap labor for all those Happy Meal toys and anime shows, collecting art is a hobby that will pay off several fold over once they become the supreme commercial power in the capitalistic world of ours. After all, all the best products come from Asia now. Hell, some of the best cars come from Europe! What commercial product can you name that the US has made that is the best in the world? The only thing I can think of is being the world's supplier for food and weapons. Both of which we are slowly finding out are bad for us in one form or another.

But I'm ranting again.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I've come to a point in my life where I realize what is more important to me financially. I can enjoy what spoils of life that are free, like the free online video games I play provided I pay the monthly internet fee for example. Even now, I can enjoy what little privileges I have such as the fact I don't have to pay any bills at this point since I'm not working. But I don't think I'll be buying anything the commercial world wants me to any time soon. At least not anything I know I won't get any repeat value off of.

But the commercial world is tricky. They know how to make it sound like you need their product. So who knows. Maybe this is just me being premature again.