rambling thoughts on advertising and credit and marketing and thought patterns
I feel like such a hypocrite at times, working in retail credit. Credit marketeers and retailers are the worst type of enablers, pushers of the drug OverExtend ... they make it easy to overdo, to indulge, tell you it's easy and painless to do things that are Bad Ideas from a fiscal point of view. Because in the end, they're serving their own interests, and yours are secondary and considered only to the point it impacts their ability to make money.
Through work, I often run into people who resort to fraud to get out of financial trouble. What's usually happened is they steal a little bit once to handle something, then keep taking more again and again because they haven't stopped the behavior that got them into financial trouble in the first place. Addictions and living-past-your-means counts for most of it. Sometimes it'll be a one-time event that caused the problem, but usually it's ongoing.
I wish delaying gratification didn't feel so much like deprivation and leading some people to obsess about something until they get it. I wish advertisers and retailers and others whose incomes depend upon ME giving MY money to them didn't actively tell me I'm depriving myself and encourage me to obsess and dream about everything I could have or enjoy (for a while) if I just gave in and partook of what they're pushing.
That's the same kind of thinking that people use to get over the rationalization barrier when they start down the embezzlement path. It's sort of frightening to see, at an objective level, how closely the feelings that advertising tries to evoke meshes with the thought patterns that a person uses when debating whether to steal.
*NOTE: This post is NOT intended to imply that everyone in financial distress or feeling deprived or dreaming of something they can't afford is a thief-in-the-making, or addicted to extravagant living, or so on.
Through work, I often run into people who resort to fraud to get out of financial trouble. What's usually happened is they steal a little bit once to handle something, then keep taking more again and again because they haven't stopped the behavior that got them into financial trouble in the first place. Addictions and living-past-your-means counts for most of it. Sometimes it'll be a one-time event that caused the problem, but usually it's ongoing.
I wish delaying gratification didn't feel so much like deprivation and leading some people to obsess about something until they get it. I wish advertisers and retailers and others whose incomes depend upon ME giving MY money to them didn't actively tell me I'm depriving myself and encourage me to obsess and dream about everything I could have or enjoy (for a while) if I just gave in and partook of what they're pushing.
That's the same kind of thinking that people use to get over the rationalization barrier when they start down the embezzlement path. It's sort of frightening to see, at an objective level, how closely the feelings that advertising tries to evoke meshes with the thought patterns that a person uses when debating whether to steal.
*NOTE: This post is NOT intended to imply that everyone in financial distress or feeling deprived or dreaming of something they can't afford is a thief-in-the-making, or addicted to extravagant living, or so on.