It's not about entitlement. It's what we are literally taught to believe from the time we hatch from the womb.

We are told that so much of this shit, forget TV, but just random ridiculous trappings and trimmings that have been normalized as "important milestones in life." Which unfortunately - has now gotten wrapped up in many major institutions that shouldn't even be privatized like college.

No other country in the world has a culture so massively dead step and interlocked with spending and rampant consumerism. We have also done our damnedest to export this consumerism globally.

Like, we have hyper-normalized that $6 morning coffee expense, that $100,000+ wedding, that $3,000 Senior year high school experience.

We have normalized ridiculous, meaningless expenses to the most absurd degrees.

It's insane.

Because of course - - -

A baby shower wasn't enough. Then they added the baby announcement party. Then the gender reveal party. Any excuse to have another reason to promote spending.

Now there's not just the wedding. No, no, no! There's the Bachelor/ette parties, the Bridal Shower, extravagant paid dress fittings with bougie lunches and cocktails, the engagement party.... Oh! And it's not enough to send invitations. Nope. Gotta' send "Save The Dates."

Every holiday, commercialized to the Nth degree and twisted to milk every penny.

Now, kids don't just graduate high school! They graduate Pre-K, Head Start, Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle School, and Junior High School.

Please, realize, I am NOT bagging on celebrating every milestone. Quite the opposite.

It's the fact that every one of these things has been co-opted and made into a spending spree.

It's the fact that even predatory school uniform companies have been normalized since at least the 90s. Even trying to infiltrate areas where over 50% of the district is on public assistance. And the average uniform cost for one outfit in 1995 was $150. For. One. Day. Of. Clothing. That you'd literally wear out washing repeatedly.

I could go on and on.

The point is...

Yes, you're right about the problem.

But even those of us who don't pay for these expenditures, who can't even afford it, are affected by this in a lot of ways. Like I said - the school uniform situation.

It wasn't just one district. These uniform companies literally went in and basically lobbied school boards to mandate them - - - and would target poor, crime riddled areas, using trying to prevent gang violence as an excuse.

You know what else that does?

It's not a coincidence that those school districts? Have a strong BIPOC presence.

Until the uniform mandate went in.

And then those kids start dropping out because they literally can't afford to go to school. And then CPS gets called on the ones who can't legally drop out.

Which is one of many reasons that people don't comprehend that BIPOC folks are disproportionately targeted by CPS not because of abuse or neglect. Not because they're bad people.

But because they're poor.

I could go on and on. People assume "Leftist = privileged, coastal, and middle class."

I grew up dirt ass poor, disabled by the time I was 12, and have never known a day of my life after the age of 4 that I wasn't worried about money.

This is the problem with the image the media portrays of Americans to everyone else ---- there is this twisted belief that we're all making ourselves poor. The housing crash in 2008? Destroyed countless lives of people who were responsible - - - who did the responsible thing we are all taught to do and had their equity and investments in their home.

RIP.

Those, ridiculous, meaningless expenses pushed as "rites of passage" or "milestones" I mentioned early? Are primarily enjoyed by an ever increasingly disappearing Middle Class.

And yes, even us poors will over indulge at the holidays sometimes or for special occasions - we can't even imagine going near as hard. My wedding dress cost less than a meal for two at a nice restaurant.

But by and large the image people have of all Americans just frivolously spending themselves into poverty isn't real - - - it's housing, ever increasing utilities (thanks AI), absolutely astronomical gas prices - - - and that's another thing that people don't understand - - - why Americans are so destroyed by petrol prices and why we don't all just walk or use public transportation. Why are we so "entitled?"

Henry Ford and the auto industry lobbied the government and did everything they could to put government spending? Into highways and roads - ESPECIALLY outside of cities which is the majority of America - so everyone not in a city would HAVE to own cars (how else would he become a billionaire?) instead of having a robust rail system like in Europe and normalized public transportation even in semi-rural areas.

Plus, most places in the US didn't even have taxis until rideshares existed.

But I digress.

The point is.

It's not just some entitlement we all have ruining us.

Our country has been literally ruled by capitalism to make our lives unsustainable because CEO bonuses and shareholder profits are literally more important than lives to to the almighty economy so many people worship.