The Empire

I was watching the Pats violate the NY Jets with a proverbial rubber fist last night when I saw a commercial that answered the question,”When did we as Americans become such pigs that we allowed our economy to be run into the ditch my man Barack keeps talking about”? It was a Mercedes Benz commercial recommending you buy your wife (or husband, or side action) a fucking Mercedes for Christmas.

I remember when these commercials started running about 12 or 15 years ago…I think the first was a Lexus commercial. I thought then,”Imagine, there are enough viewers considering buying a loved one a luxury car for Christmas that these companies don’t balk at spending huge ad dollars on prime spot placement”!

When I was a kid the “wealthy” lifestyle seemed unrealistic for most. My parents and most of my friends parents both worked full-time jobs, had one car for the family…if two there was newer car for the mom while the dad got the 10 year old rattle trap. These were middle class to lower middle class neighborhoods. Cops, nurses, insurance agents…a trip to Disney world once a year. Hard workers raising families and pretty happy with what they had. Then, in the mid nineties, interest rates started falling and equity lines at low rates became easily accessible and we, the children of these hard working humble folk began leasing BMW’s and Audi’s. Maybe a sports car for Dad and a nice SUV for Mom…a Harley, a boat, 2 trips to a tropical resort or to Europe every year. Enough of us started suckling at the “cheap money” teat that it began making sense to gift 50 thousand dollar cars to our wives at Christmas.

I am shocked that after the last 3 years of a crumbling economy…unemployment at 9.8% (the true number of those not working much higher), astronomical national debt, municipal, State and Federal deficits out of control…there are still “Luxury Cars for Gifts” commercials running during Monday Night Football. The fact that these commercials seem like prudent marketing expenditures for Mercedes Benz and Lexus shows that a large segment of  the population is doing pretty damn well…and they’re most likely doing damn well on the backs of those who aren’t. 9.8% unemployment…stock market over 11 thousand. Pay freezes across the board, manufacturing plants closing all over the country while corporations post record profits and executive bonuses are through the roof.

There’s something fucked up going on and as long as Corporations are treated as individuals under campaign finance laws…we’re going to keep taking the same rubber fist in our ass that the Pats stuck up the Jets ass last night.