"You know what the news is-- in a minute, you're going to hear the rest of the story"- Paul Harvey

After being disciplined, some consumers are wising up while others continue to add to their debt. The dumbing down of many American's have lead them into a sea of massive debt, almost to the extent that they are hocking their futures by spending money they don't have on things they don't need.

This dumbing down process began at the Department of Education (Video), and has been extrapolated into TV advertising. See they know you've been programmed to follow instructions, and are trained not resist the movement.

As an example, the talking heads on TV have been promoting "Black Friday" shopping for several days now. This morning, sales promoters on TV have been interviewed, and get this. They are using slogans like, "inventories are down, and you'd better get it when you see it".

What bullshit! These people are pushing people to buy stuff they don't need with money they don't have by using slimy sales tactics such as these. There is not product, in any store in the world, that you or I absolutely need. I may want a product, but I don't necessarily need that product.

Take for example clothing made by Ralph Lifshitz (Ralph Lauren Polo). Unless you have millions of dollars, and don't care what you pay, why in the world would I pay $75-100 for a shirt that his company manufactured for $5-10 dollars?

How about a Coach purse or bag? Do you really believe these items are worth $250-$500 per bag?

If you want to know what something is really worth, don't look at the retail price, just look at the trade in value.

The great American showman P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute". The real question we must ask ourselves is, "Was he talking about us?"

Here are a few examples;

-Who were those people that lost their fortunes buying dotcom stocks in the late 1990's?

-Who were those people that lost their fortunes buying real estate at the top of the market from 2004-2007?

-Who were those people that voted for Barrack Obama in 2008 thinking he was going to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

-Who were those people that voted for the Republicans when they held power in the executive branch and both houses of congress thinking they were not going to spend as much money as the democrats?

-Who were those people that voted for Bill Clinton, after Ross Perot warned that a giant sucking sound (lost American jobs) would occur if NAFTA was passed. Perot was right.

-Who were those people that voted for these people thinking they would navigate the country responsibly, but instead got our nation deeply into debt.

Ronald Reagan left office, with the Total Debt around $5 Trillion, an increase of $4.1 Trillion.

George Bush Senior left office, with the Total Debt around $7 Trillion, an increase of $2.9 Trillion.

Bill Clinton left office, with the Total Debt was still around $7 Trillion.

George W Bush left office with a Debt of around $15 Trillion, which includes an estimated $5 Trillion in future war costs.

Barrack Obama has agreed to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and in June, the anti-war Democrats voted for a $100 billion increase to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I guess P.T. Barnum was right, "There's a sucker born every minute".

The question now is, how many suckers do you think will be adding to their debt today?