Victims of Commercialism

The first time I saw someone wearing a piece of clothing bearing the name of a company was a man wearing a sweatshirt with Roots emblazoned across the front. I immediately presumed he was an employee of that company or was paid to be a walking billboard. To my amazement, he was neither.

I am still amazed that people pay to enter a building, for example, to visit the One of a Kind Show, Sportsman Show, automotive shows. They pay to meet people who want to sell them something. More logically, the public should be paid for visiting the building.

In a clothing store in Paris, France, I once asked to view various products. The clerk placed each item on the counter so as to make prominent the name of the designer. Without intending to, I shocked her when I asked if she had others of the same quality, but without the intrusive name or company logo.

Has our society become so brainwashed that we tolerate, indeed support, such crass commercialism? Is our education system so under-funded that school trustees allow junk food to be sold on the property in order to buy pencils and books for the classroom? Are the arts and hospitals so lacking in public support that they must beg for private money by naming every room, hallway, nook and broom closet after a moneyed person?