Black Friday tragedy hits close to home

A lot of people are going to write a lot of nasty things about what happened at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., yesterday morning when shoppers trying to be first into the store at 5 a.m. for Black Friday specials knocked an employee down and trampled him to death.

We're going to hear how horrible our consumer society is, and how screwed up people's values are.

We might even hear mean stuff about the kind of people who shop at Wal-Mart.

Sorry, but none of that is the real story to me. This is the first year in the last eight that I wasn't out as a reporter Friday morning covering the pre-dawn rushes to get incredible bargains at the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

I've talked to people who waited in line 15, 20, even 30 hours to get things they could never come close to affording otherwise. And let me tell you, those lines are getting longer every year and it's not because the deals are getting better.

Yes, there's something in the air in those early-morning lines, and contrary to what you might think, it isn't greed.

It's desperation.

For the last six years in George W. Bush's America, people are working harder and harder for less and less money. Statistics I saw recently said productivity is up something like 20 percent over that time, while real wages are down between 1-2 percent.

Good old George Dubya accomplished what Ronnie Reagan only dreamed of; we're now the ultimate trickle-down society. Folks at the top get rich, and when they mess up they get bailed out. The rest of us stay up all night trying to get decent Christmas gifts for our kids.

I guarantee you there wasn't one person in line for those 50-inch plasma TV sets at $798 just to get a bargain. Everyone in line for one was there because it was the only way they could even dream of buying one.

I don't know what the other bargains were, but there are way too many of us now who can't afford the so-called "good life." Maybe that's a good thing and we'll eventually transition to a society based less on possessions and more on values.

Maybe.

But I guarantee you one thing: Before that happens, a lot more people are going to get trampled.