6) I caused the credit crunch.

Okay, I'm tired of this culture of victimization. Nothing's my fault, everything is because of the media or my parents or the corporations or society. All I've been hearing on the news for months is how the banks screwed us over and _______ are a bunch of crooks for fucking up the market.

We all have ourselves to blame.

When you bought that shirt that you really couldn't afford but you "deserved" it and you put it on your credit card?

When you couldn't to pay off the credit card this month but you could afford to eat out twice a week?

When you decided you wanted a house and you went with the bank's advice to lie about how much you made?

When that investor bought a bunch of securities without reading the fine print.

When I convinced you to open up a credit card account with my store even though you already had four maxed out? And I knew about it? And told you about how you could get another shirt for only $20 more?

When I said it was disgusting that that company had huge layoffs and gave the CEO a raise and then I turned around and bought something from them that afternoon?

Yes, executive boards fire half the company due to their own incompetence then give them raises. Yes, banks told customers to lie about how much they made and then sold off the loans to people who basically immediately jacked up the interest rates. Yes, companies shove credit cards down our throats. Yes, they bombard us with marketing.

But you know what, at every chance we had a fucking choice.

Look, society's only going to improve when we accept responsibility for our actions. And by accept responsibility, I don't mean demand retribution or curse ourselves and our bad luck. No, own it. And work to fix it. Pay off that credit card (but don't close it- just every once in a while put what you were going to put on the debit card anyway on the CC and set it up to pay the whole thing off at the end of the month automatically), eat in more (you'll lose weight and feel better), start a garden (seeds are cheap), cruise the thrift stores (they have cooler clothes, anyway), but don't sit on your ass feeling sorry for yourself and waiting for the gubmint to send you a stimulus check.