I wish I lived in a world where abject stupidity and douche-baggery weren't rewarded.

I had someone who left this message on her Facebook page and it made me think about a lot of things I have seen in the past few years. I don't know if its some grand conspiracy brought on by corporations looking to develop some slave state of workers, if this is the ultimate legacy of complete worship of a capitalist society, (my favorite) if we are being corrupted by some other dimensional entity called the American Scream, willing to feed off the pain and suffering of humans, or a myriad of other plausible or fantastical theories.

I do know sometime, probably around the time of Reagan, Americans grew tired of complicated answers to complicated issues. At the time the analysis was we yearned for a simpler time. We were told Americans craved a time when you could leave your doors unlocked, when you knew your neighbors. We were told we were looking for the America of Ozzie and Harriett or Leave it to Beaver. On the surface that life did seem idea, but there were two things wrong about the theory; that lifestyle was based on fictional television shows and by focusing on what we thought was the ideal life we ignored the underside, the real reason for that lifestyle working.

I love telling the story about a 60 Minutes story in the late 80s. It was around the time when Koreans and blacks weren't getting along too well in New York. The story was about a corner grocery worker, and it was a very good, yahoo America success story. In the span of seven years the man went from having $2 in his pocket to owning his own store. The overall lesson showed if you worked hard, anyone could make it in America. What was glossed over what how this man earned the money to get the business. Some complained that this 'foreigner' was able to get government loans to get his business. That's true but they didn't give him all the money. How he earned most of the money was by living in a one room apartment, working three jobs, living with seven men and eating rice for almost that whole time because it was cheap. Now, if someone born and raised in the United States had a dream, would they be willing to sacrifice that much?

I would argue no, because one thing we have as Americans is an inflated value of fairness, and what I mean by that is we want to be so fair that if someone happens to get ahead without 'fairness' we get our panties in a bunch. We will complain, we will grumble, we will curse them. Hey, I'm not immune to this. I get pissed off that Donald Trump has the money, the fame, the wife (wives) and kids. I hate that Bristol Palin can be a teenage mom and make over $500000 a year by writing a book, talking about abstinence and going on Dancing with the Stars. I can hate that Kim Kardashian can be a household word, a person some people emulate in being, because she taped herself having sex with someone and pulled that into a media empire.

I may hate how they and many other people got their money, but there are far more American who admire how they gained fame and fortune, looking at what they did as a path for making it. They never really define what making it is, they just want it. So yes, we do live in a world where the vast majority of people are going to reward the greedy, the slimy, the stupid for making it, because we think of ourselves as being part of the stupid group. We think, if they can make it so can I, without looking hard as how they got where they are.

Eddie Griffith used to have a reality show on TV and it was so silly watching him. He earned a very substantial living from his film and comedy work. He had an accountant who tried keeping him on the straight and narrow, as far as keeping an income during the lean times. Eddie lived like money flowed from the river; he lived like he was Donald Trump, with hundreds of millions of dollars at his command. The truth was he had maybe 5 million dollars, which we all know is nothing to sneeze at, but like my Mama says, if you make a quarter and you live like you make a dollar, you will still be poor. At least a person with 50 cents who lives like he has a quarter is ahead of the game. He had the way too expensive house he was RENTING for a lot of money, blood sucking relatives and friends who hit him up for money and he had the big shot mentality that had him buying things like an expensive car that he couldn't afford.

In a sense he was rewarded by being stupid (doing comedy) but he really didn't have the sense to take the money and sock it away. In the long run, he was who he was and no matter how much money he got it wouldn't help him in the brains department. That's not to imply he was stupid, but how many stories have we heard of people getting instant riches in the lottery, only to be broke in under five years because they had no way of managing the money? MC Hammer made enough money during the early days of his career that he could have been set for life, but extravagant living and questionable decisions (getting into horse racing when you don't know the first thing about horse racing) led to his financial demise.

We, the American people, have this tendency to gloss over some important observations when we look at those people we admire because of their simple ways as I'll call it. We think short term, not long term. Like I said earlier, there are very few American who would make great sacrifices for a long term goal, and I include myself in this category. Right now I'm trying to save for a big purchase. I have saved well, but if I really wanted to I could do a lot more. Every once in a while I take a hard look at what is an important purchase and a fun purchase. If I have the goal in focus, many important purchases aren't that important. I have gotten better, but I still take the occasional spurge, then I beat myself when I look at my goal and wonder why it hasn't moved as fast I wanted it to do. Frankly I'm not willing to let five other people pay rent for the apartment, find two more low paying jobs and eat rice everyday. I think most of us are like that.

We may hate people that fall into fame and wealth, but we want to be them. We think if we have it we would be different about it. We wonder what cruel twisted joke allowed them to have riches and we struggle. Saying we admire them isn't too strong of a word.