So after recovering from all the turkey, stuffing, green beaned casserole, and pie, millions of Americans will be hitting the stores early today. Very early. Some stores now start Black Friday on Thursday evening. Kind of an Ebenezer Scrooge version of Midnight Mass. Big Savings! Greatest Deals! Mayhem and Trampling!

Now, I have long avoided any store on Black Friday. Maybe six to seven years ago, I did venture inside a Best Buy, late on Black Friday evening, while waiting to pick up my daughter. I don’t know, maybe all the amazing, incredible, unprecedented deals were gone by then. I didn’t see anything special at all. The “deals” weren’t even great sales prices. But I don’t claim to be an expert on capitalism. I wrote Survival of the Richest after all. It just seems to me that, if you proclaim it loudly enough, in big, bold, bright colors, that much of the public will think they’re getting a bombshell, one time, lowest ever deal. Even though the numbers should tell them otherwise. Most people are followers. The Bobbysoxers were persuaded that scrawny Frank Sinatra was a dreamboat. The conditioning can even work on celebrities. Somebody convinced Ted Danson that Whoopi Goldberg was a catch. Heidi Klum and Seal?