Next to the articles about the rising price of oil was one mentioning that Walmart is reporting a drop in back to school* purchases.

When it comes down to economic choices, I really wonder what choices American's will make? Will we choose to live less enegy intensive lives, or will we cut back on education, health care and other soft items.

Now, I realize most back to school purchases are superfluous. However, an article about decreased back to school sales sitting next to one about the burgeoning demand for fuel shows that we are making that choice. Hopefully we are just cutting back on the non-essential accessories to education, but I fear too many Americans would choose to gas the Hummer over their childrens' education.

(*yes, there is an absurd combination of commercialism and moral self-righteousness in this post...but is this not the way life is supposed to be?)