has been the Bush administrations' economic strategy since the fall of 2001. When Americans were running out of money to shop, the government lowered rates until loans were almost free. Then with the artifically low interest rates, home values skyrocketed, and millions of people (maybe tens of millions) used their increased home equity to shop even more. I'm surprised that there isn't a professional shopping league in this country.

It's bad enough that some people live to eat instead of eat to live, but now we have an entire class of people who live to shop. Tourists now visit places not to sightsee, but to shop (as if every city in the U.S. doesn't offer the same exact crap). Somebody even created the term retail therapy, as if shopping can make you feel better (just like sugar, but I guess you can double your pleasure by buying ice cram or something even worse while you shop).

So it shouldn't be a huge surprise that the consumerism that has come to define America plays such a promient role in an American-made movie (film, whatever).

I may be older than you, but I remember that we shopped back in the 90s. Beanie Babies -- we bought tons of them. What were we thinking? That damn guest room closet is still full of them. For a while, we bought a lot of flannel shirts, but we threw all of that out pretty quickly. We got Rachel haircuts and WWJD bracelets; it was quite a time.

We even shopped back in the 80s. We had Members Only jackets in every color you could think of. You wouldn't believe me if I tried to describe "parachute pants" or "hypercolor shirts," but trust me, they were real and we loved them. Preppy clothes, Tone Loc cassettes, Cabbage Patch Kids -- all that stuff you youngsters buy on eBay had to come from somewhere.

The 70s, not so much. Carter told us to stay home and compost. I think we spent our money on blow.

Tom,

I never bought any of that stuff even though I was around then (another reason why I love the internet, nobody can tell how old I am), but that isn't the point. I think that the people who did buy all that garbage actually went to the mall with the idea of buying that garbage. Nowadays (there, that word makes me sound older) people go out to shop, without actually needing to get anything specific. They just want to buy something. Not only do they have too much time on their hands, they have way too much credit (although that may be changing soon). I doubt you got a home equity loan with a variable interest rate (that could only go up) to buy your beanie babies and members only jackets.