Well, shit, man... why would anyone do anything for free anymore? The only reason I ever did was out of necessity. Now I can get paid for existing so why would I want to leak value for someone else to cash in while I do without? I call bullshit and I don't want to play anymore!

Seriously, though, I'm still struggling with the betrayals of my youth, wherein I was taught/allowed to throw money into the consumerist void without any education relating to financial planning, management, and responsibility.

And this wasn't just a failure to blame entirely on my parents. They were seduced/trapped by the same non-sense. My "General Business" class in high school taught me how to balance my checkbook, while my math teacher drilled how we were gonna need this on the construction sites when we go to work.

No one told me why it was wasteful to blow money on over-priced posters, t-shirts, and shitty music that was made specifically to milk me of every nickel.

Sure, the elders disapproved of my taste, but it was always because God didn't like Motley Crue, not because it was a racket designed to bleed me.

I can't think of one thing our society doesn't do ass backwards and I've come to understand that it's not just us, the whole world is crazy as fuck, but we seem to be the only species with the ability to look at things from an overview and make adjustments and we just haven't learned how to do that responsibly or efficiently yet. I kinda think we'll get there, though... even if it's only long enough to make it to the next save point before regressing three steps back again... at least we'll have a new mark to target, fall short of over and over, and eventually surpass to discover a whole new set of problems to wrestle with for another century or two... goddamn this is a crazy ride...