Why is a new car better than an old car? Not just because a handsome man and a scantily clad woman tell us so, but because everyone we know believes the SAME THING. Our sights are aimed for us, and any of us foolish enough to retain some youthful idealism into our early adulthood soon discover pragmatism, which dictates personal subordination to the task of accumulating things (particularly money). Because this is a materialistic world, we soon learn that if we don't care about the things we have, we won't have them for long.

The first tool of society we discover, which forces us to conform, is peer pressure. If that doesn't work there are the authority figures. Under the glittery show, the flashing smile, the commanding voice of the narrator, is a pernicious conditioning process which turns us all into drones. Slaves without chains, who have even built our own slave quarters. Anyone who does not recognize that the United States is a police state believes that it is perfectly normal to work like a dog for 50 years, to be discarded at age 65 like atomic waste. (Of course, in America we get to choose what form of slave-work we will do).

Why does a rational adult submit himself to an employer? To work in a 5 foot by 6 foot cell, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, year after year... To submit to insults and humiliation... To be dealt with as an inferior person because of a job classification... To be punished for being 15 minutes late... or for getting pregnant... or for going to the bathroom... or for expressing one's mind.

Because IF you work you get to SHARE in all the goodies MONEY CAN BUY; and ONLY money can buy all these great, glittery NEW baubles. Of course, once sold these baubles lose their lustre because they get OLD. The prices for all of these great things are also vastly overpriced, but that doesn't matter because the whole purchase price is FINANCED by a BANK (of some kind). All we have to do is make "small monthly payments," but this doesn't include the cost of insurance; and we never realize (until it's too late) that we are paying to insure an OVER-PRICED item at its OVER-PRICED VALUE. We also pay closing costs, escrow fees, points, charges, membership fees, and the pride and joy of every banker, the interest rate. By the time a simple laborer fulfills the mortgage on his home or car, he has paid the original price THREE or FOUR times! Just figure the interest on a $1,000.00 debt at 10% p.a. for 10 years... the debt merely doubles! If the laborer finds that he cannot service his debt (i.e., make his payments), the bank not only repossesses the car or house, it may be able to go after John Doe to make sure he pays off what the house or car was never worth!

This is not the result of a free market in operation, but is the result of "government" control, because when a "government" has the firepower to interfere in economic markets, and proceeds to do so, then it deems itself worthy of licensing businesses and regulating commerce, therefore centralizing policy-making. When this happens diversity disappears, and along with it the ingenuity of individuals. A small group -- not in "government" but representative of the institutional property-owners (who finance political careers, often without demanding interest, and without regard to party) -- gain free access to the politicians regulating the economy, and they gain favors at the expense of the integrity of the free market, using the force of law. (Result: Laws ostensibly against usury fix usurious rates).

But don't think about all of that unpleasant stuff. It is un-American to believe that people have a right to do as they please; or to think that "government" and industry work hand-in-hand to deprive the disenfranchised of their natural rights. It is our "duty" to protect the country, which means unconditionally OBEY THE PRESIDENT (or your boss). In school it means obey the teacher. If you THINK about what your new microwave oven will REALLY cost, you may think twice before you spend money you don't have, because you are going to pay for that appliance with your TIME, a commodity you can't reclaim with the money you'll be paid for it.

Of course, if you don't think about any of these confusing, rabble-rousing issues, you will go ahead and blindly "Buy American" -- regardless of quality -- and you will help the economy to roll on. All you have to do is WORK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (what is left of it). You will claw and scratch and cut throats to get more and more greenbacks, which have as much value as a brownie button (because the "government" prints them at will). We may never know how much money local banks create out of thin air, by just opening deposit accounts (on paper) for lenders, which the central bank (Federal Reserve) provides the actual dollars for when needed. Because of this there are no "private" banks, only one gigantic financial institution divided between regional managers, all bound by the same policies. As a result, the profits reaped by these fictitious persons (corporations) are all the more symbolic of the lack of freedom in Official America.

To make the U.S. a free economy, the "government" itself would have to disband 2/3 of its own operations (and, of course, more than one mega-corporation would collapse in the process). Considering that the "government" is constituted on military power, and it enjoys a large bi- partisan following, this is not likely. VOTING WON'T HELP. But there are things you and I can do, because our buying patterns are what CREATE markets.

Try to get along without mass-produced and packaged medications, foods, etc. Try to NOT WANT something on a TV commercial (especially a new car). Try to be satisfied with a little less glitter, a little less gloss. If you succumb to the hard sell -- the glossy brochure, the pretty pictures -- without using your rational capacities, you only fail yourself. If you really think about it, you CAN feel happy no matter what THINGS you own or don't own, if you really want to. You were involved in developing your own appetites and expectations, and if something is destroying you (such as with stress or anxiety) it is unhealthy not to re-evaluate your life. It is suicidal not to resist the hype culture of our industrial economy. Every mass-produced product is chock full of chemicals, made from non-renewable resources torn from the Earth, from the sweat of unhappy overworked underpaid people. Like the devil, the hype culture will tempt us to buy its baubles with the precious gold of our souls.