And that's all our economy has been for 25 years.

Every single job has been reduced to a temp job paying $7/hr and those lost wages were supplemented with a massive flood of consumer credit. Instead of $0k a year....we got $25k a year and a series of credit cards to make up the difference!

Everyone in America (everyone!) was given a $25,000 credit card.

This flood of credit forestalled the crash that the $7/hr jobs would've created. If it weren't for credit cards this all would've happened 10 years ago.

But how long can you sustain an economy like this on credit cards instead of wages?

The real problem here is that 300 million American are dead-fucking-broke.

If wages had simply just kept pace with price inflation then none of this would have happened. Or it wouldn't have mattered so much. The reason we are in such a crisis state isn't because there is a "liquidity problem" with banks....it's because you have 300 million Americans either unemployed or working at $7/hr jobs with $20,000 in credit card debts.

No one can buy anything because our entire paychecks are going to rent, utilities and Visa.

How is giving Ford $20 billion dollars going to change the fact that we can't afford to buy their cars?

I thnk we're headed for a Depression.

You can't have this many broke people!

Brilliant article!

The quality of writing on Gossip Girl and the characterizations in comparison to 90210 is much, much superior.

Most Hollywood writers, lets be frank, are really talentless hacks who reeeeeally don't deserve their salaries.

Taking 1 dimensional characters speaking predictable lines and putting them in overly used cliched situations is BAD writing!

Heather articulates this point and (sigh) predictably the people who enjoy 90210 get offended.

Or they proclaim they hate ALL such teenage based shows and then get on their high horse to proclaim that they would never watch such a show and surely anyone who would ever even write about such shows must be dumb...or at least not as intelligent as the oh-so-sophisticated letter writer.

Regardless of the "type" of show being written...quality writing can be found.

Heather, thank god, is finally pointing out that fact, showing us where it exists and exposing others as hacks (everyone who has ever written a word for 90210).

But I'll let the other pseudo-intellectual letter writers take it from here.

Tell us again how brilliant and worldly you are for not ever indulging in such balderdash.

What should be pissing people off is that there is a team of writers out there who just got huge paychecks to WRITE this crap.

Carey is just acting in it.

It’s the writers who need to be strung up and shot. They’re the ones who knocked out this paint-by-numbers screenplay over the weekend with it’s stock one dimensional characters and standard issue scenes.

I honestly think there is a screenplay creating program that simply outputs this shit.

I don’t think human beings have ever written a major release film in over a decade.

INPUT PARAMETERS FOR ROMANTIC/COMEDY:

1) Repressed man finds unorthodox way to release emotion

2) Love interest must be beautiful and “unconventional”

3) Set pratfalls/spit takes at one incident per 10mins.

You click “Submit” and the Powerbook and then the hard drive spins for about 20mins and then vomits out a screenplay.

Submit screenplay and instantly collect paycheck for $100,000.

Easy work. All I’ve got to do is find whatever automated screenwriting program these guys are using and I can be a successful Hollywood writer too!

If you admit to loneliness....there is a small army of people waiting to pounce on you to attack the you for being lonely.

In other words, the lonely are self-absored jerks and that must be why they are lonely.

Sheesh!

No wonder lonliness is on the rise.

America has really devolved into just a culture of holier-than-thou assholes.

Finding people to really and truly connect with is very, very difficult.

The premise (amongs the holier-than-thous) is that deep, intimate friendships are easy! Just introduce yourself to someone on the street and -- bingo! -- you've got a best buddy that not only understands your deepests thoughts but will stand by you for think and thin!

Riiiiiigth.

If only it were that easy.

But try explaining that to the holier-than-thous lecturing the lonely on how "easy" it is to create deep, intimate lifelong friendships.

I can’t help but wonder if the people who insist that making close, personal friends is “easy” really have any close, personal friends?

Nodding hello to someone at work is NOT a deep, personal friendship. Is that what these people seem to think it is?

Chit chatting about the latest episode of Survivor with co-workers or casual acquaintances is not the same thing as a serious heart-to-heart with someone you truly trust and respect. Is this where the holier-than-thous are getting confused? Do they think it is the same thing?

I chit chat and bullshit with tons of people….but I am fairly lonely because those are not emotionally significant relationships.

This is what is meant by being alone in a crowd. You surrounded by people and you’re interacting with them on a superficial level...but it is not an emotionally significant relationship!

I don’t know. It’s starting to seem like the subtle difference between making a casual acquaintance and having an emotional significant emotional connection with someone is a distinction that is hopelessly beyond the ability of many on this thread to understand.

Bullshitting about the weather or the latest episode of Prison Break? Easy. We all do it.

Actually have a serious friend that you can truly count on for emotional support? Much, much rarer and much harder to find.

Do they understand the difference between the two types of relationships?