The thing that clenches it's that in the end, living has a high cost. Just look at your monthly bills, your spending habits, and the size of your wallet. Many of us can see the hill of mounting debt growing like a volcano being born in the middle of a mexican corn field which in a matter of months will be as huge as the village--it seems impossible to stop debt. In this trendy and not-cost-effective society, take a quick look at your daily expenses: Full tank of gas--$15.00. Rent--$650.00 A week's groceries for a single individual--$35.00 (on a financially-sponsored diet) Regular car maintenance: $80.00 every couple of months. Delivered Pizza: $18.00 (tip for delivered included) Two video rentals at Blockbuster: $7.00 A night of clubbing and drinking: $30.00 (lowest amount possible--cover charge for club plust two to three drinks and tips) You get the picture already. Living might be an experience unlike any other...but man, is it pricey.

     For those like me, in their mid-twenties, just doing the Real Life thing after years of wanking around in College Life, it can get mighty stressful. Some of my friends can't so much buy a six-pack of beer without deliberating if they will eat tommorrow. I'm in the same bind--my friends as I write this my car's tags and registration are expired and I've a couple of unpaid tickets. One casual stop by a cop could easily land me in jail--me, who has never maliciously broken a law, never even been charged with misorderly conduct. But some bills unpaid, and I can be thrown in a jail cell along with the latest punk who's been caught stealing.

     And credit cards--man, what an evil racket. In college, kids are seduced by the ease of use of that plastic friend, Visa, Or Master Card; maybe even Amex, if you're a rich kid. You charge everything from required-reading books to pizza-and-soda for all those endless study sessions to those ski equipment rentals at last month's ski trip. It doesn't hit you until the Graduation ceremony, that starting the next day, all that shit needs to be paid back. The kicker is with the interest on most credit cards, you'll be paying for those ski rentals ten years after you rented them. Many kids have offed themselves as result of accruing obscene amounts of credit card debt--death by overspending. Ain't that the last drop of piss in the pot.

     It's said that in the end, no one can hide from the ugly truth. Many people simply struggle and barely break even by their end of their lives. They struggle to pay the college loans. Then they struggle to pay for that house in the suburbs. After that the couple of kids and their college education. Finally, they struggle just enough to buy a decent plot of land to drop dead in. That's most of us. Because ungodly geek-gods like Bill Gates only come one in a billion, and the rest of us make believe we can be like him if only we tried harder. We can try harder, but nature only allows very few to break from the pack.

     Think then of the cumulative value of a human life. The cost parent's pay for having and raising a child. The pains of upkeeping one's life to the matter we were accustomed to. No wonder so many now flock to gameshows like "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". And no surprise the dating scene is full of sporsters who callously measure the earnings potential of their prospective lovers. It's too sick to think about for long.