The Big Board

The stock market, which is not to be confused with the economy, soared yesterday and closed at its highest point ever. This makes rich people happy because it makes them richer. Interestingly, the Complete and Total Loser also gains from this because the money his late parents left him was in the form of stocks and he reaps the dividends, which this month were more than he'll earn at his low-paying job as a store clerk. 
This has put the Loser in an odd position; he hates a system that benefits him. Despite the extra money, he lives as he did before, eating out once every two months or so with the one friend who will dine with him. His only extravagance in the past year has been the occasional accessory for his early model digital SLR camera. A lens, a larger memory card. Even then, the Loser shops around, checking craigslist for weeks and, if he gives up, looking online for good deals. He's talentless as a photographer, as he is in everything else, but has the childish, warped notion that if he bought something better photographers used he, too, would be better. 
He knows, however, that it's not about the camera. It's the person using it.

A woman stands in front of a big building.