The Way We Live Now: charging towards every incentive, negative or not. Survival is the bottom line. Drug sales? Yes! Stealing from neighbors? Yes! Good credit? Bah! Life is but a doll's carcass, full of dust.

The Oriental Trading Company was a proud strong business build on kewpie dolls. Now? It's built on poopie dolls. Which is my way of saying it's not strong, economically. Which is a shame because as Warren Buffett himself always says in various investing newsletters and forums, "fundamental" business sectors such as kewpie doll importation (with or without heroin inside) have always made up the backbone of Midwesternly valued American econometrics.

And what does our nation have left now, to sustain us? Giant marijuana farms. Oh just great. When you get loony enough on the reefer you'll believe anything, like the argument that rich people should live in Connecticut rather than in New York.

Hey, If you're rich, you can afford to not live in Connecticut.

Stay off the reefer tax revenue, states and municipalities. There are other ways to make money. Like, by robbing the jobless. That's a good one. The incentive is just to make it. Not for everyone to make it. Just you, and perhaps your friends, if there's enough for them. Frame it as simply as that, and you eliminate many of the thorny "ethical," "overarching" issues that might otherwise bother you. So when you find someone with good credit and a steady, conservative economic philosophy: Penalize them. Or, hey, just cut em open. You never know what you might find inside. (Gold?)

[Pic via]