Via Jason Bock’s blog I get pointed to This article about a man who went the night before to get one of the first Xbox 360’s on the night of the product launch.  Apparently, it was akin to being in a disaster zone.

     Also, Jason’s article, in which he describes a conversation with a guy selling his Xbox 360 on E-BAY for a scandalous profit.

      Right now, there are people in this country who quietly and in a civilized and dignified fashion, dying for lack of food, and shelter, and medical care, and they have enough respect for themselves and others to not resort to crime and violence.

     By way of comparison, we have animals who are willing to kill over a GAME CONSOLE.

     I can’t help but think that there’s a serious disconnect here, and it’s not being helped by advertising and such.

     I am thinking of an ad Rocky and I saw the other day.  A family gathered around in front of a Christmas tree, hugging, laughing, smiling, opening presents.  And every last one of them was a sleek, shiny electric do-dad.  PDA’s, Cell phones, flat-screened TVs, camcorders, laptop computers…probably $15,000 worth of merchandise flashed across the screen in that 20-second ad.

     Who has a Christmas like that?  Nobody, that’s who.  Are you kidding me?  That’s insane. 

     I wonder how many people watched that ad and thought “How come I don’t ever get to have a Christmas like that?”  How many people felt left out or left behind by it?  How many people think that they are the only ones struggling to get ahead enough to put just a couple packages under the tree, and how many people think they’ve been dealt a raw deal because they can’t have what they see on the big screen?

     I remember when I was working for as a leasing agent for an apartment complex in Birmingham, AL.  One of the things we had to do is go around on the weekends, and put “reminders” on the doors of people who had not yet paid their rent.

     I would get angry replies to these reminders, sometimes people opening the door to give me an earful face-to-face, and sometimes a phone call while I was in the office.  People who stopped paying their rent as early as October would be particularly indignant.  How dare I pester them for rent?  They were poor working people and here I was, heartlessly demanding their rent.  The most common lament I heard that time of year? 

     “How am I supposed to give my kids Christmas?” or “We’re not even going to have Christmas.”

     News to them, Christmas is coming.  As someone who had, to put it mildly, quite a few modest Christmases in her childhood…Christmas comes whether there is a pile of presents under the tree or not.  I had a number of Christmases where I didn’t get a single thing that I asked Santa for…but I only ever had one bad Christmas:  The one right after the death of my beloved uncle, when he could not be there for the celebration.

     When you think you have to stop paying your rent in October to get enough $$$ to make a decent Christmas for your family…there’s something wrong.  OK, I understand being laid off or having a medical emergency or stuff like that.  That’s not what these people were talking about as a general rule.

     There’s an attitude I don’t get.  I’ve been so poor the food is gone and there’s no money coming for another week, and I’ve been pretty comfortable, and pretty much everything in between in the course of my life…I know that no matter how much or how little you have, you have to make careful choices.  I still make those choices.  For instance, I still don’t own a cell phone.

     People I know say “Don’t you think you deserve a cell phone?” or “Why don’t you have one?  You can afford it.”  Or “How come Rocky has a cell phone and you don’t?  If he can have one you should be able to too.”  Many of the people I know are continually shocked that I don’t have a cell phone.

     The fact is that I do not have a cell phone because I do not need a cell phone.  Deserving one is besides the point.  Being able to afford it is beside the point.  Having the same stuff as my husband is beside the point.  Rocky needs a cell phone for work.  I don’t need one, so why should I spend money on something I don’t need and don’t care if I have or don’t have it?  They seem shockingly expensive to me…not just to obtain, but to pay for month after month.

     People who have less money than we do own cell phones, and they have pretty darned good reasons why they need them.  Cool.

     But being told I should have a cell phone because I “deserve” one is bullshit.  And I think it might be part of the problem with this whole psycho Christmas mentality.

     Think about if you are looking at your kids on Christmas morning and you have somehow failed to communicate their worth to them through anything but the stuff you give them.  They asked for an x-box 360, and you didn’t get it for them. 

     How are you going to face them and know that they are going to think you let them down because you didn’t think they were “worth” the effort of standing out in the cold for 16 hours to be the first in line…or do whatever it took to shake down the guy who did for his voucher, or whatever?

     So what if you have to take a baseball bat to some guy’s kneecaps, or bid $1,000 over the list price on E-Bay to get that x-box under the tree.  Isn’t your family “worth it”?

     Bullshit.  Get ‘em a checkers game, and play it with them every single night.  Hell, score a Monopoly Game while you’re at it.  For the price of a scalped x-box on E-bay you can take a deluxe tour of your local Games by James and barely scratch the surface, and get tons of variety so you’ll never get bored.  And while you’re at it, take the time to ask them about school, or what girls they like, or what kid’s been bothering them this week.

     From what I understand, the line for board games is pretty short.  You’ll teach them that they are “worth” your time and attention, and you’ll probably STILL be able to make the rent.