walked with mom for 55 min

Sold a book at half.com for $1. Postage $1.59

I started to read the library book Not Buying It My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine but quit around page 90. I couldn't stand it any more. About 30% of the book is about her experiences only buying necessities. 70% of the book is American bashing. We're gready, we're fat, we use too much of the world's resources. Big business is too big, the government is bad. Basically every liberal, environmentalist argument you've ever heard, she brings up. If I want to read a book on politics then I will.

She basically complains throughout the entire book and as far as I'm concerned, she doesn't have a lot to complain about. She decided not to spend money on anything except expenses for a year because she had maxed out a couple of credit cards and was working on the third one. She spent over $1000 on Christmas. Well, who made her do that? It must have been those evil stores advertising all those tempting things, it obviously couldn't have been her fault.

Her and her live-in boyfriend are self-employed. Between the two of them they own an apartment in New York city and a cabin and 40 acres in the Vermont woods. They own 3 vehicles and a bunch of sports equipment. She refers to her second best pair of skis. She makes average wages for New Yorkers. So what does she have to complain about?

The thing that made me stop reading in disgust though was when they went to the MOMA in New York. Apparently this museum and many others offer free entrance on certain nights. They decide to take advantage of that for free entertainment. Nothing wrong with that. But then she turns around and complains that because of the evil government budget cuts the MOMA will raise it's entrance fees from $12 to $20.

Ok, first of all, she's not even paying the $12, she's taking advantage of the fact that tax-payers have supported the museum and they offer free nights. If she thinks it's so important to support the museum she could at least pay the $12 entrance fee instead of complaining that they have to raise the fee to $20, which she won't be paying either.

Everything is the fault of big business, or government, or American selfishness.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but I hate the blame it on forces beyond our control attitude.