Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for March 23, 2014

Calvin, a true patriot (report your father to the police).

BI: Before Infomercials.

Per Veblen, a man’s respect in society is determined by the quantity of resources he can waste.

Somebody just wrote a book about this, I saw it on Oprah so I guess I’ll buy one. You?

Many of those charities spend way too much with mailing costs. My mom passed away in another state, and most charities to which she had contributed (and also many political entities) paid the USPS to get her forwarding address. So they don’t know she’s dead, but think they have followed her, and I’m getting way too much unsolicited mail.

Which at the rate he’s going means sometime around the time when pigs fly….

I noticed this when my mother started sending US TV shows taped on her VCR to us. (Nobody thought anything of it, then, this was before the Internet, way before.) The commercials on cable TV had this basic message: You can have it all, and you can have it now. Not only that, you should have it all, now. And if you don’t, there’s something wrong. With you.

The seeds of the world economic crisis we are still dealing with were sown in the late 80’s and the 90s.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt . . . the aims of advertisers, politicians, the media . . .

FUD is good

I did that when my sister passed and all her mail was sent to my house. Even with over a dozen phone calls, six years after her passing, I was still getting ads from the 3 As wanting to sell her life insurance!

Things haven’t changed much since Watterson originally drew this one.

Most of that junk just goes straight to my recycling bin without reading.

The blouse that Calvin’s Mother is wearing can do a number on the eyes, WOW, what a plaid ! ! !

What you don’t recycle it?

Stick it to the man, shop at thrift stores! I’ve been doing it for years.

Advertiser doesn’t manufacture desires. It can, however target those desires people already have. What woman, for example, doesn’t want to look more attractive? Who’s to say that the switch to high definition TV was “unnecessary”?

Easy Dad I can see where your son gets his imagination from.Just get a paper shredder. I don’t bother to read this stuff and recycle it.

also known as the “Round File”…

Scary True!

There was a president not too long ago who told us to combat terrorism with shopping. Ever had to file bankruptcy? Watch how many credit offers you get during and after the process. It is insane!

How about: "O. C. Cupant, [Local prison address]? Those guys need fresh reading material.

….and here are the stack of bills from the stuff we bought last month!

Interesting that all my ex-wives have thoughtfully provided for me the opportunities to appreciate the reality of no longer living a material existence…

If you get a “business reply envelope” adressed to the company in the junk mailing, put everything they sent you into it and send it back to them. You’ll be taken off the list in a heartbeat. Works every time.

You gotta love Dad’s gleefully subversive grin in the last panel.

Oh, Hello Calvin.

xxx

“Conspicuous consumption, one of the banes of society we need to get out of the habit of.”

I used to be such a shopaholic. Now I just wish I had all that money I spent. The recession has definitely cured me of my shopaholicism. At least I’m trying to get some of the money back by selling my stuff, much of which was barely used or even never used, on Ebay.

People are so gullible. There isn’t much that we can’t live without.

I love the smile on Calvin’s dad’s face in the last panel. Usually, you see it only on Calvin’s face.

“Something even Blair couldn’t imagine for his “1984” novel.”

Who is Blair? Didn’t George Orwell write 1984?

@flowergirl19Orwell’s real name was Eric Blair.

It’s not society, it’s greedy Capitalists.

In the past, I have said that C&H should be a politics free-zone.After reading last weeks strip about pollution and this weeks strip about conspicuous consumption, it is quite clear where Bill Watterson stands politically.-http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2014/03/16

I like to identify these things—like Dad—and then ignore them.

I suspect that a considerable portion of ‘society’ — by which I mean the individuals who comprise it — is “discontented with everything we do and insecure about who we are,” and seeks to sow that chronic discontent and insecurity in as many of us as possible — assuming that we haven’t already succumbed to that toxic mindset. In other words, spread the misery.

This strip doesn’t have enough Calvin in it.