There were a lot of depressing, terrifying articles in the New York Times today. America’s economy has collapsed and Washington can’t agree on how to fix it. WaMu became the largest bank seizure in American history. The credit markets are frozen. China’s space program is on pace to overtake America’s space program within my lifetime. The country of Myanmar is turning into North Korea. Obama is resorting to un-truthy campaign ads against McCain. There are countless dead or stranded cows in Texas after Hurricane Ike.
This is the sort of depressing stuff that feeds the cynical, nihilistic monster who lurks beneath the wafer-thin deposition of cheer and sanguinity that I manage to project on days when I get enough sleep and when I’m wearing sneakers.
But the most distressing article, the one that made all the sunshine within me shirk like a spooked cat, was an article in the New York Region section called “A Sample Sale at Hermes Defies the Wall Street Malaise” (here), about the annual sale at the luxury goods manufacturer that attracted scores of women who arrived in driver-navigated Escalades and carried $8,000 purses.
The article juxtaposed the bleak atmosphere of the current Wall Street crisis with the still-raging consumerism within the upper-class women of New York. A well-noted symptom of economic recession is that lipstick sales go up, because while women can’t buy a new dress, they splurge on small things like lipstick. These women make small splurges on $900 boots and $280 leather-bound hunting horns the size of a comb.
“Some things are recession-proof, and this sale is one of them. Even if I don’t find anything, I still spend a thousand. It’s like Costco,” say one woman. “It makes you feel a little better – like maybe there’s some normalcy in the world,” says another. Costco! $2,000 jackets, $300 change purses and $200 toddler robes! Normalcy! I’m crying because I’m laughing! I’m laughing because I’m crying!
