Stupid is Relative

I walked into the health club, informed them that I had cancelled the credit card they had been charging in the past and presented a debit card to replace it. The man behind the counter thanked me for coming in and as he brought my information up on the computer another customer came through the door. One of the trainers was standing nearby so he asked the counselor to finish my paperwork so he could help the next customer.

As the trainer started in on my payment adjustments he glanced at the computer and said "I see you've been with us for nearly a year. Have the workouts been helping you?"

"Oh no, I don't come in here" I boldly stated "I just give you money every month"

He stopped what he was doing and gave me a funny look.

"It's true. Since we joined a year ago I bet I haven't crossed that threshold four times. We just give you money in the hopes that having a membership will magically melt our excess pounds away but we don't actually come here" I explained. "We joined last year at this time because we were going to train for the MS-150 but we never got around to it. Then when I cancelled the credit card and we realized we needed to transfer the payment I suggested we should quit. My wife insisted that it was time to start training for the 2010 MS-150 and that we needed the membership"

He finished the paperwork so they could keep taking my money every month, thanked me for my donations, and I left feeling a bit stupid.

I climbed in my truck and started toward town to take care of some errands. As I drove along I was listening to news on the radio. Enough time had lapsed since the "Cash for Clunkers" program ended to allow an analysis of the program effect. They reported that people stopped buying Chrysler cars in anticipation of the program and then when the program requirements missed most of the models Chrysler had in inventory their sales continued to plummet until the company finally bankrupted out.

General Motors suffered a similar fate as a result of the program but rather than going into bankruptcy they simply took 39 billion dollars from the US government to keep them afloat. The news caster interviewing the researcher said "Well quite a few cars were purchased so a great deal of money had to go somewhere. If Chrysler and GM were devastated by the program did Ford make out like a bandit?"

"No, the program hurt Ford too. Nearly all the money went to two countries. Japan got the most. Nearly all of and the rest went to South Korea. Actually, Italy did OK too because they bought up Chrysler for pennies on the dollar and now they can sell Fiats in the Chrysler showrooms. The other major impact of the program is that we destroyed half a million cars that would normally be used by the lower income and poor people in the United States."

I thought about it all for a minute and got some perspective. Perhaps stupid is relative. I drive a Chevrolet that has been paid off for nearly a decade. My wife drives a car that hasn't required a payment for five years longer than that. We don't have any debt beyond the mortgage payment and that's only $807 a month. If we want or need something we save up and pay cash for it. Both our cars are older than most everything that passes us as we drive down the road but when the government raises taxes to pay for all this current deficit spending and financial folly nothing I own will get repossessed.

Maybe I can afford stupidity of a $9 health club payment -- even if I never set foot in the place.