Ready for an example of the kind of stupidity on offer at the moment, and a sign of how absurd people are being, at least in the demographic where disposable income has skyrocketed?

My daughter is going off to college in a month, which is a wildly expensive life event for almost everybody. We’re fortunate to have been financially preparing for this for a long time, so we’re thrilled to be able to help her study where she wants to, and for it to not be an overwhelming burden like it is for so many families… but we just got an offer in the mail that promised to make her time at college more efficient, and keep her healthy and focused on her studies… by charging $1,700 to provide her with full-service laundry for the academic year.

Thankfully, she was almost as horrified as we were (“Do they think I’m stupid and can’t take care of myself? Or that I can’t run a washing machine?”), but apparently people do this. My inner grumpy old man came out to squawk immediately… living in squalor and wearing dirty clothes if you forget to do your laundry is part of growing up. It’s not going to make you sick, and there aren’t many full-time college students in America who don’t have more than enough free time to do their laundry (if they’re also working 20-40 hours a week or have kids, then sure, maybe time is tight… but that’s not the demographic to whom they’re selling this indulgence).

It’s not the college offering this, to be fair, or I’d be yelling at them, it’s a private company trying to profit from wealthy parents who want their children to be coddled… but still, earnings surprises be damned, I’m penciling that in as this week’s sign of the apocalypse. (In fact, we’re told that her college even made the laundry machines in the dorms free, no more search for quarters… so using the dorm’s laundry machines is already included in her rent, making this pitch yet more ridiculous).

Why are people paying huge fees to save 18-year-olds from the toil of washing their own socks? Maybe it’s the same reason that they’re still competing to pay top dollar for Ferraris and Louis Vuitton handbags. To some people, the money itself is largely meaningless, and every indulgence is deserved… and that group ...