Total Pageviews

Friday, January 30, 2009

A Numerologist's Analysis of Greed and Gullibility

Universally it's a #6 "home improvements, family concerns, maintaining relationships in focus" Universal Day - however, I'm in a #5 "think out of the box and be curious" Personal Day and the litter of octuplets - eight babes to a singular Mom (living with her Mom) who had six little darlings at home (one set of twins) makes me wonder how we're gonna' end up paying for her moments of pleasure.

Tis said that her Mom, Dad and the "single Mom" have been able to care for the six at home and eagerly await the arrival of the eight tiny boys and girls destined to share the three bedroom home on the cul de sac surrounded by accepting neighbors. No information as to how the fourteen kids will be distributed in the home. Fertility drugs are involved - this isn't an accident...
\
... I am skeptical...unless there is mental illness connected to the single Mom, I do not believe this was done without forethought. I imagine that by the time the newborns arrive, donations will have been accepted by the "just thrilled" Mom of everything the babies need...like a ten bedroom-eight bath, house, all the diapers they can use and a bus to help with marketing groceries.It's a good plan if you're thirty-ish, still live with your folks, have no husband or father for the kids and want a better future. The possibly forever naive or scheming Mom will be cared for - the public can be extremely naive and gullible when children are involved.

I know I was naive and can be gullible. I believed four proposals of marriage were going to lead to forever. Maybe you've wondered "how the Devil made you do it" too. Possible you can identify with my errors of judgment through your memories and would like insights to a "fix." So, today I found...

...an essay in the Wall Street Journal by a professor at the University of Connecticut, Stephen Greenspan (no relation to Alan), that mentions his latest book, "Annals of Gullibility" that caught my eye...as did articles on www.skeptic.com and in Skeptic magazine - 'cause I had just read (in the NY Times) that lawyers are concerned about clients anteing up hourly fees in this economy and are considering switching to flat fees.

Now, I had to be gullible to believe that. I read Stephen Greenspan's explanation of how he got caught in the Madoff Ponzi scheme just like other slightly naive, greed motivated, educated, sophisticated investors and liked his examples of how even smarties get zonked by "A Trojan Horse", WMD's in Iran, sexual seduction and medical fads.

It's in tough cash flow times like these that our accustomed "old millennium" extravagances make us salivate over a flat screen TV lacking the "new millennium" money to pay for it - and, so I suggest we check our "gullibility meter."

Too many people are taken in by the "no interest, pay this off in three years" sells offered by Best Buy and other electronics retailers as well as expensive furniture stores and automobile showrooms. The seduction comes just as you're checking out and it's a quick sell...no time to read fine print - if you miss one payment or are late by a day, you're on to 30% interest...

... how they calculate? Even if you pay the small amount billed each month that pays the loan off, if you default in any part of the contract, they charge interest from the day you bought the item. That's chutzpa! Worse bandits than the Wall Street monsters who are taking bonuses from government bailout monies and telling us that's how they get salaries on Wall Street!

Wall Street doesn't get it - they sell based in a client's gullibility and collect bonuses through greed. Desperate retailers and used car salespeople should make us wary. When money is involved even families may fight and be greedy. Evaluate your "naivety button" and your "gullibility meter" in these trying times. Beware or you too may fall prey to an, impossible to believe, "think out of the box", "offer you could not refuse."

No comments:

Post a Comment