Why our economy is failing

Lots of people have  theories about the origins of our current economic woes: subprime mortgages (blamed either on banks, George Bush, or Barney Frank), credit default swaps, deficit spending, stupid coffee mugs, or Barack Obama as the Anti-Christ. Here's mine: Retailers think that we're idiots and we don't work very hard to prove them wrong.
Here, to illustrate, are a few ads from the Sunday papers:

By the way, the word repellancy refers to the ability to repel water, or being hydrophobic; opposite to water wettability,, or, even, better, extreme hostility and dislike. But maybe the good folks at Bounce want allergy-sufferers to wear dryer sheets around their collars as you would wear garlic to keep vampires away.

You, too, can have a meal that equals the caloric intake of a Zimbabwean village.

Cereal pieces? Because you're too whatever-you-are to put your own cereal into the yogurt.