I'm given to the belief that you could largely blame the shops, or, rather, those who run 'em.
In the goode olde days, when men worked and women stayed at home bringing up the family, keeping the home fire burning (presumably only in winter) and the food natural, there was fairly full employment, fewer prisons existed and there was always room within them for those in need of a socially-sponsored vacation.
And hire-purchase didn't exist.
Then things began to change. Buying stuff you couldn't really afford became the norm: everybody got into debt to some degree; women then had to find work in order to rescue the family and keep the bailiffs away; men began to find themselves in competition with women in the workplace and that tended to keep wages down. Other men became afraid of the women who turned out to be more intelligent than they were, and unnatural workplace sexual competiton became a sour note undermining society.
The more women who worked, the greater the stock of working people grew. In one sense more money was being circulated, and so came the opportunity to sell more and raise prices down the ever-lengthening distribution chain to meet the new incomes available for the milking.
Nobody stayed at home anymore - they discovered they couldn't afford to - and so other people found jobs looking after the kids who would otherwise be abandoned, alone with a glass of milk, a sandwich and a tv set. That paying for these minders took away so much of what the newly working spouse could earn didn't seem to be noticed...
Just like the fucking guns, then: the more you have the more intractable the situation becomes. Norman Rockwell wasn't popular by accident: he touched upon the happy lifestyle that almost everybody wanted to have. And they still do, only their own greed and that of those who pander to their appetites has denied it to them. You get what you sow.
Just think: had the attempted and typically Turkish delight - aka coup d'état - happened but a month ago, we'd probably, as Brits, still have the entire European continent ours for the enjoyment of, imminent travelling bogeymen driven far from popular myth and fear.
As I mentioned, reaping and sowing follow an impartial, immutable natural rhythm.
The record crowds of tourists filling the port make me happy to live a klick from the sea. The sewerage system is holding up locally, but appears a little enthusiastic closer to the beach! Happy days! Aren't blue flags reassuringly deceitful?
Rob C
