ego of Edward Norton's nameless character in Fight Club, perhaps Brad Pitt summed it up best when he said that advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy (stuff) we don't need. And that is exactly why millions of us run to the nearest bank and ask – no, beg – for personal loans. We want a Lexus when we can only afford a Kia. We want Versace when a knockoff will do. We want lifestyles that are beyond our means. No wonder, then, that all what some of us have to show for it are lost friends and shattered marriages. Worse yet, they can't show off anymore, because they're in prison. It is easy, and perhaps even entertaining, to engage in a lengthy blame game over who's responsible for giving money to every Tom, Dick and Harry, for them to squander on appearance packages. Some might say that the banks have too much money on their hands, so they can afford to be lax on loaning and securities. Others, like Tyler, might blame it all on advertising that makes us want what we don't need. Or you can blame the Toms, Dicks and Harries of the world for their over-indulgence and obsession to keep up with the Joneses. But all we have to blame is ourselves. The bank is simply doing business off of our paychecks, and we can't blame it for that. An advertising agency's job is to make Angelina Jolie look pretty and a Lexus feel interesting. But if you fall for all that, it's your fault. According to the Arabic daily Al-Riyadh, out of a staggering SR188 billion of personal loans Saudi banks had granted in 2006, borrowers have defaulted on SR5.8 billion. In Kuwait, news reports say that three out of 10 Kuwaitis are likely to go to prison for failing to pay debts. Whole lives are being lived on lease. But the greatest defaulters are governments. With the lack of proper awareness campaigns on how to live efficiently, and the antiquated educational systems that mass-produce graduates with no skills they can use, it is only natural that people will want more money that they know what to do with. And with rampant inflation, it is only downhill from here. Next stop: rock bottom. And with the Ministry of Trade playing Marie-Antoinette with an inflation-fighting strategy that consists of simply telling people to find cheaper places to shop, they will all be the middle children of history. __
