America in Crisis

Last day of my American holidays -- it's an American tragedy all right, a true cataclysm:

People can no longer afford to buy a lot of overpriced useless junk they don't need. The stores full of useless junk stand mostly empty.

Purveyors of useless junk are in a panic. "How can we afford to buy overpriced useless junk ourselves, if no one buys our useless junk?" they scream. "We can barely afford to drive our SUVs down to Starbucks for $5 cups of coffee!"

God help us all.

So I return tomorrow to Russia -- where more of the same awaits.

(It's even more satisfying to see this in Russia, where eight years ago toilet paper in a public restroom was a pricey luxury and most people lived on vegetables grown at the dacha. How soon they forget.)

I'm so relieved I didn't waste my life starting a family or pursuing a career.