Bursting bubbles
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Something a little different for you today: America’s coming economic collapse, as foreshadowed in the funnies. Just a couple of days ago, Lois was chatting to one of her friends about her work:
Hi and Lois, 11/29/05
Today, though, the situation seems a little different:
Hi and Lois, 12/1/05
Hi and Lois deserves kudos for not only giving Lois a job, but giving Lois a job that isn’t a cop-out extension of the “lady’s work” she does at home (I’m looking at you, Blondie, you food-addiction enabler, you). Still, she’s throwing herself into her role as a pimp for the real-estate-industrial complex with a bit more enthusiasm than perhaps is wise. First, she’s telling Brunette Neighbor Lady Whose Name I Don’t Remember that the housing market is a nonstop rocket ride to the moon, with no possible downside. I knew a lot of people who talked like this when I worked for an Internet company in San Francisco in the late ’90s; despite their ostensible business savvy, they were a lot more surprised than I was when the pink slips started fluttering down on everyone’s desks. It’s only at show and tell that we see that the housing-market balloon is full of hot air and nothing more: making your kid shill crappy suburban bungalows to other kids reeks of financial flop sweat.