Oh, The Humanity!

This is just ridiculous. The headline on page 2 of my local paper reads:

Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet

Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.

To meet higher gas, food and prescription drug bills, they are selling off grandmother's dishes and their own belongings. Some of the household purging has been extremely painful — families forced to part with heirlooms.

Well, OK, I'm a sensitive person (I REALLY AM!) I can see how having to sell great-granny's whats-it would be tear-jerking, if it was to keep body and soul together.

But:

Christine Hadley, a 53-year-old registered nurse from Reading, Pa., says she used to be "a clotheshorse," splurging on pricey Dooney & Bourke handbags. But her live-in boyfriend left last year, and she has had trouble finding a job.

Piles of unpaid bills forced her to sell more than 80 items, including the handbags, which went for more than $1,000 on a site called AuctionPal.com. Now, except for some artwork and threadbare furniture, her house is looking sparse.

"I need the money for essentials — to pay my bills and to eat," Hadley said.

Hey, Lady, didn't anyone ever tell you that nurses shouldn't try to live the Sex & the City lifestyle? You don't make that much - not that the women with jobs like those of Carrie and her buds do, either. But, reality isn't what that show is about.

Cry me a river. Overspending, and then having to re-trench, isn't the stuff of good sob stories. It's a testament to the self-centered existence of those profiled.