Secret confessions of a second rate socialist.

Even if I want to be able to choose between different brands of say, lipstick, I think things like health care, education and the water supply probably shouldn't be left to the vicious, twisted bird of prey we call market forces. I hate that companies chase ever-increasing profits at workers' expense. So really, I'm not exactly Capitalism's best friend.
But even while I believe all this, there is a little sick part of my brain that spent over an hour this morning looking at Jaguar XK8s (second hand, of course. That's recycling. Recycling is green right?). This is the same part that insists that shampoo from the hairdresser is way better than from the supermarket, which is way, way better than rinsing my hair in dish detergent which apparently is the same chemical, but 5,620% cheaper.
Why is consumerism so seductive?