Let's face it: we live in a world of dangerously skewed priorities. Take, for example, the hordes of morose children and teens preparing their imminent and sullen return to the halls of academia; as far as we can remember, just about the only good part of the end of summer vacation was the ritual of back-to-school shopping. (We mean "good" in the relative sense, of course, such as the way that a sharp stick in the eye feels "good" after one has used Windows all day long.) You could wheel that cart through the aisles, toss all kinds of junk in there, and if you intoned the magic phrase just right, it would be yours: "But moooommmmm, I need it for schooooool!"

Yes, that one phrase (perhaps augmented with a bit of extra embellishment) is the key to having your parents buy you a five-pound tub of Gummi Bears under the dubious category of "mandatory art supplies." But here's the part that's killing us: it's bad enough that Apple's sales are suffering because the economy is in the toilet and parents are cash-poor, but now it looks as though the back-to-school crowd doesn't even want their parents to shell out for new computers. According to an American Express survey, "students don't even rate personal computers on their 'must have' list." A Reuters article about how the PC industry probably won't see much of a back-to-school boost actually quotes an honest-to-goodness 17-year-old high school senior as saying, "I think most people I know are pretty satisfied with the [computers] they have."

If that's true, then the worst is still ahead of us, people. Everyone knows that the whole PC industry-- nay, our entire economy-- is predicated on the basis that consumers are never satisfied with what they already have. If high school seniors are actually accepting last year's computer without pestering their parents for an upgrade during the one time of year when they have carte blanche to beg for anything that might even remotely be connected with academic performance, well, then someone call Greenspan and tell him it's all over.

How will this affect Apple? Good question. After all, Apple has been pushing the new iBook hard as a cool "digital hub" that also just happens to be perfect for school. Well, here's Apple money dude Fred Anderson on this year's back-to-school season: "Normally you do get a little bit of a seasonal bounce with back to school, but we think it is prudent not to count on that this year." D'oh! Between lack of money and apparent lack of interest on the part of schoolkids and their families, Apple may have to tough out this sales lull along with everyone else. But if you ask us, the fact that kids aren't using the "Back To School Parental Purchase Loophole" to try and score new computers is just another sign that it's the beginning of the end.