Has America finally decided it's time to give up its immature, immediate gratification seeking ways? Time to grow up? I'm not sure if the fiery failing financial inferno, or good ol' Dr. Phil is the cause... but Americans seem to finally be getting "real."
I was convinced as soon as I heard Sears was bringing back Layaway for Christmas.
"Back in the day," when people couldn't afford to pay cash for something, they didn't reach for imaginary money on the credit card. They put things on Layaway and made cash payments until the balance was paid in full. Once that glorious day arrived, they picked up their purple Garanimals corduroy jumper, a Lite Brite, two Baby Alives and an Atari video game (complete with the Ms. PacMan cartridge), and delightfully drove home to wrap their gifts, using Scotch tape that turned yellow by Christmas morning.
"Back in the day," we didn't carry 10 different credit cards and have to sort through them to find the one that had enough of a balance to swindle our purchases out the door. "Back in the day," outrageous debt wasn't acceptable, and bankruptcies and bailouts weren't trendy.
As much as this whole embarrassing, stressful and fear-inducing economy crash hurts... it may well be the very "growing pain" that America so desperately needed.
Now, if I could just figure out who would wear purple cords...
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