Everyone is shocked — shocked I say! —  by the looting happening in London. Where did these renegade youths learn to break into stores and snatch as much as they could carry?

I have hazy memories of these commercials, of imagining what it would be like to walk through a store and take all you wanted. Gift certificates preserve a bit of the feeling, but the agonizing dollar limits always force choices. In movies and TV shows, having the money to pay doesn’t signify power, not having to pay at all does.

The comments on the video are revealing: