BALLPOINT PENS 

Their tips were solid gold and their bodies were covered in fine Chinese lacquer, or sculpted with pure silver. Often, they were inlaid with mother-of-pearl and precious gems.

Such were pens. Owned by rich landowners and industrialists, used by presidents to sign laws that changed history, and by powerful businessmen to close multimillion-dollar deals.

That is, until the ballpoint was invented and pens finally became accessible for the masses. You could see them everywhere: behind the ears of bakers, in the shirt pockets of accountants and waiters, tucked into the overalls of factory workers and mechanics, inside the toolboxes of plumbers and carpenters, next to cheap drugstore makeup in middle class women’s purses.

Unlike pencils — popular from the start and happy about it — ballpoints suffered the same faith of all shoddy versions of luxury items.

As the years passed, the humiliation only got worse; ballpoints became something that people didn’t mind losing, or getting back after lending them out.

You know you’ve reached rock bottom when you’re abandoned in offices and libraries, and nobody even bothers to steal you.