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As you read the title of this article, it’s my guess that a familiar cliché went through your mind, the cliché of “freedom isn’t free.” I’m convinced of the truth in that statement but also convinced that without personal experience as a family member or as a service person that has served and sacrificed, that I am not capable of expounding on that fact.
Several other clichés come to mind when I think of the word free. One is “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” and a free meal multiplies that effect. The first cliché is followed by another “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” For everything that is supposed to be free, there is an underlying cost that may not be realized for a long time.
Sometimes the seemingly free thing is something for which an expensive price has already been paid. Its kind of like telling a friend how much you paid for something and them ask you if you felt anything hit you in the back as you were leaving, meaning the change that was due back to you.
You can hardly turn on the TV for the evening without seeing one of those commercials for one of those
slicer/dicer things. If you watch that commercial you almost have an uncontrollable urge to cut up vegetables and fruit in shapes that you have never wanted to before. It seems too good to be true that this marvelous device can be bought for only $19.95. But wait, there’s more! If you call in the next 15 minutes you will get another one of these contraptions FREE.
Every time I see one of these commercials, I wonder how many end up in yard sales with the owner trying to recoup 50 cents back from their free experience.
Sometimes these things show up as Christmas gifts before finding their way to yard sales. These things are never good Father’s Day gifts, however.
A friend once told me that he receives about three credit card offers per week. Most of these offer no interest for a period of time if the balances of other cards are rolled over into this card. How can these nice people afford to do this? In the Spring, everywhere you turn there are offers on lawnmowers for no interest and no payments for up to a year. This is great if you want to use someone else’s money for a year for free, but quite expensive if you slip up and go past the deadline. These folks must hire actuaries retired from insurance companies. They know that 47.8% of the people cannot pay at the end of the year or will slip up and not pay off in time. These 47.8% will be hit with enough back interest (22.9% APR), late fees and other charges to way more than compensate for the 52.2% who paid on time and used interest free money. I have one of these cards that offer no interest, no payments for a period of time. It is convenient to use when I need fertilizer and my calves are a few months away from selling. It is also easy to miss that deadline and get hit with the consequences.
Those companies offering the free stuff must think of us consumers much like a fisherman thinks of fish. He baits his line and drops it overboard and just waits for the right fish to come along. Pretty soon this largemouth bass comes by and sees the impaired minnow struggling along and thinks this is just too good to be true. That pokey minnow is swimming so stiff like he has got an iron rod for a spine. This little fellow would be easy picking for even a catfish. Mr. Bass proceeds to go over and take advantage of this free lunch and begins to feel himself drawn toward the light. It turns out that the iron rod that the minnow has for a spine is a #2 fishhook attached to 8 pound test line and now hung in Mr. Bass’s dentures. I would bet that he feels much like I did when I opened my past due notice.
We as consumers are constantly bombarded with free offers that have one goal in mind, to make us pay up big time in the end. If you don’t face this problem, then you must face a combination of problems. You don’t have a TV, the postman looses your mail, your phone calls are being screened and you must have really, really bad credit. It’s funny how people who could really use free stuff get less free offers than someone with a higher credit score. That alone should tell us something.
One of the best lessons that our young people could learn is the high cost of free stuff, easy terms and the convenience of buying now and paying later.
Darrell Thompson is the manager of Lawrence County Exchange in Moulton.
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