Page 33 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com
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12 KEPING RETAIL REAL
You might think someone writing over two centuries ago wouldn’t have
a handle on ‘retail therapy’ and its problems. But Franklin did.
Consider this: ‘buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt
sell thy necessaries.’
DEFINING IDEA…
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
~ WOODY ALLEN
We have all done it. It might be the latest, shiniest i-Thingy, a company car
which is this year’s model or, in extreme cases, even that small but
irritating rival companyyou’ve always hankered after buying out. In each
case the whole purchase experience runs like a roller coaster from
anticipatory nerves to orgasmic retail delight to post-retail therapy
discussion. From there the excitement gradually slips away to the point
where the i-Thingy sits forgotten in the back of the cupboard while you’re
going over the credit card bills with a growing sense of disbelief.
Retail therapy, like comfort eating and chocoholism, seems to work on a
basis of binge and bust whereby once we’re in the ‘zone’ we actually look
around for more things to buy. We genuinely convince ourselves that the
new sound system just isn’t complete without a professional-quality mixing
deck even though all we’re going to use it for is listening to the Corrs
while cooking. Think about how many people you know who own a top of
the range shiny Scandiwegian fridge which opens to reveal a curling
sandwich, a dead tomato and some curdling milk. As for buying new cars,
there is no end to which we can be upsold to a better model with extras we
will only ever use to demonstrate to our friends exactly how fab the vehicle
is. All of which would be just fine, bog-standard human frippery if it
wasn’t for the annoying detail that this kind of cerebellum-numbing
consumerism comes at a cost. Often it’s a cost which is quietly topped up
by credit card rates, which finally leads to insidious—and ultimately
horrendous—debt problems.
