I'd like to share with you all an event that transpired this past weekend.
Normally, I don't like to blog about my personal life, because well, it's my personal life.
But this particular story is a microcosm of what's going on in the bigger picture, and why our society is so utterly screwed up.
On saturday, my girlfriend and I went to a local car dealership. She's looking to buy a new car, as she has an old beater she picked up a while back and it's time to part ways. In this particular instance, she's doing a trade in. Dealership takes her old beater, and subtracts a couple grand off the cost of the new vehicle.
To be fair to the dealership, they gave her a pretty good deal. She paid 3 grand for the beater 2 years ago and the dealership is knocking 2 grand off the cost of the new vehicle, with an existing price that's pretty decent to start with. But this article isn't about the car my girlfriend is getting.
It's about the car that they tried to sell me while I was there. I went there to do the supportive boyfriend thing. You know, to make sure they weren't ripping her off or anything like that. No interest in buying a new vehicle, not even looking.
Ha!
After we did the test drive the salesman who's doing the deal with my girlfriend pulled me aside while she was busy telling the finance people, in no uncertain terms that she had secured her own financing and didn't need or want the oh-so-benevolent help of the dealer financial arm.
"Couldn't help but notice you've got a pretty nice ride there my friend" He said as he gave me that classic salesman grin.
He wanted me to do a trade in with my car. They'd take my car, and give me a STEAL of a deal on a brand new whatever. It's a deal I couldn't go wrong with, he told me, as it was win-win. He wins, I win, and at the end of the day we both go home and eat apple pie and ice cream.
Now as a disclaimer, I'm not a smart man. I'm actually pretty dumb. And when in person on a face to face basis, I hate to upset or disapoint people. In short, I'm just about as big a sucker as they come, and this wolf had spotted me from a mile away.
He used every trick in the book. He was my buddy, wanted to help me out. Told me I paid too much for my current car and he wanted to set things right by helping me recoup some of my investment, new vehicle would have low payments, extended warranty, lower gas mileage, blah blah fricken blah.
I went from the tough guy going there to make sure they weren't going to rip off my girlfriend to a sucker saying things like-
"you know maybe your right.... maybe I could use a new vehicle!!!"
Keep in mind I was and am totally happy with my current ride, on which the last payment will be made in less than 2 years from now, freeing up a nice chunk of money.
I told him that it sounded like a good deal but I needed some time to think about it.
"What's there to think about???" He asked bombastically as he spread his arms in surprise
"Can't go wrong with this one, I'm doing you a huge favour!"
Car dealerships, for those of you not in the know, use extremely high pressure tactics. If you walk in there and you're able to afford it, they don't want you walking out without having signed some kind of piece of paper, even if you never had any intention or desire to get a car.
Most people, actually, are like me in that they don't want to be rude face to face. It's human nature. We're pre-disposed to try and be agreeable, especially when taken off guard by someone who's pulling all the moves and using all the body language of a friend. And dealers know this. They know all the psychology to use on trying to get you to commit tens of thousands of dollars in a split second without fully thinking it over.
Most folks, when you tell them a story like this, will in public say that they're wise to the ways of the sleazy car salesman and could never be fooled. Yet, when you talk to them in private those same folks will readily admit that they've been taken for a ride a time or two.
Anyway, I told the dealer I needed to know more numbers and details besides the baseline quote he gave me. He was emphatic that it was a no brainer and if I took too long someone else could snatch up this steal of a deal he was offering me on such good terms. You know, cause' like he liked me and was my friend right? He wanted at least a deposit on the vehicle, which was the breaking point for me. You can do a song and dance for me, but when I walk into a place with no intention of even looking and you've talked me to the point of getting a couple hundred dollar deposit out of me, that's when the alarm bells started ringing and I woke up.
Ten minutes after I left the dealership I was shaking my head at what an utter idiot I was. I was damn close to actually buying a brand new vehicle that I had no desire for, no need for, and would put me thousands of dollars in debt.
So what's the point to all this?
I may be an idiot, but in the big picture I think I fall in line as a roughly average joe when it comes to money and decisions about it. When I say average, I mean in that I realize the importance of saving money, staying out of debt as much as possible and trying to be reasonable in working towards that thing called "future money" which means investment towards retirement and the like.
Financially, I'm educated enough to know that credit cards are a bad thing (although necessary if you ever want to rent a car, stay in a hotel room, or get a free plane ride every now and then) and that you should always try to keep as small a balance owing as possible.
If you can't afford something, generally not a good idea to buy it. Don't spend beyond your means. And always try to have something left over at the end of the month you can squirrel away.
Every now and then, a little short term pain is necessary for long term gain, blah blah blah.
And despite all of this, despite the fact that I knew better, I almost got taken, came very close to buying something that I didn't want or need and taking on a significant amount of debt because of it.
Could I have afforded this bamboozlement? Sure. For me it would have been a forehead slapping "idiot, idiot, idiot!!!" moment but then life would go on little for the worse.
But lots of other folks get taken by the exact same song and dance and can't afford it.
Lots of other folks are hard working, well to do folks who just want to have a decent life. They don't want to take over the world. They're not going to cure cancer. But they're generally pretty easy to please. They just want their little slice of life and to be able to enjoy a cold beer at the end of the day. Sure, they may not be fire-starter inventor entrepreneur billionaire cowboy astronauts, but these are the folks who collect our garbage, fix our pipes, ensure power gets to our house and clean water flows from our taps.
These are the people who cook our meals, patrol our streets and enforce our laws. I mean no disrespect when I talk of "these" people because I'm one of them, just a middle-class joe.
But these people are also like me in that they don't like to be disagreeable to nice smiling people in suits and ties who look oh so smart. As I've stated in another thread, and taking a line from another blogger, it quite often comes down to;
"Just sign here Jeeter. In another year you'll be able to flip that double wide trailer and make a 100 grand in profit... or you can always use it as an ATM cause it's got equity so you can buy that nice new quad. Just you and me buddy, we'll take on the world!" as he gives you the wink and the gun.
We're raised all our lives, to defer to authority. We're brought up in an environment that teaches us to trust and worship money, and to believe the nice man in the suit who has money and a fancy plaque on the wall knows more and is better than us. Because he sits higher up than us on the totem pole, of course we're going to defer to his authority and believe him when he tells us he's got our best interests at heart.
And, after we've signed on the dotted line, which yes, is our responsibility for doing so, the truth is revealed.
The same smiling friend who was joking with us about going fishing and seemed so concerned for our well being suddenly becomes distant and barely tolerant when you see him at the grocery store the next day.
He's not your friend, and he never was. Congratulations, you've just been tricked and bamboozled by someone who's profit depends largely on your misery. And he'll gladly do it all over again, knowing full well that he's screwing you over in the process.
And how do we react when one of us gets in over our head and must foreclose or default on debts?
"Ha ha, screw that guy!! He got what he deserved, what a waste of skin!!!"
That's what we do. We sneer at those less fortunate than us, while absentmindedly clucking our tongues at the predatory lenders who knew better, but screwed that guy over in the first place.
At the end of the day, we are indeed our brother's keeper. We all have to look out for each other or these sleazeballs will end up ruling the world by default. In fact, they already pretty much do. And now that we've made our bed we're gonna have to sleep in it!