Scaling The Pinnacles Of Liberal Guilt
What's a guilty lib to do? He'a alredy cowering in a Prius as the big rigs thunder by. He has euthanized his dog. He has had a vasectomy so as to avoid burdening Gaia with the carbon footprint of a couple of rug crawlers. He is boycotting all the right foods and television shows, and he spits on the ground whenever he hears the words "Sarah" or "Palin". What is left to be done?
The NY Times is here to help - cut up your credit cards! Why? Why not! No, seriously, because the people who benefit from credit card rewards are paying less, which might be forcing everyone else to pay more. I kid you not:
For several years, I?ve wondered whether my aggressive pursuit of credit card rewards made me a selfish consumer.
After all, the 1 to 3 percent or more of every transaction that merchants pay to accept the cards is a significant cost, and the small local retailers that make neighborhoods vibrant often pay a higher percentage.
Stores then build those fees into higher prices, so people who aren?t earning any rewards can end up subsidizing those who do. Many of these people have no credit cards because they?re financially troubled.
So the risk is that we perpetuate a sort of reverse Robin Hood problem, as Prof. Steven Semeraro of Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego puts it. It?s possible that the poor pay subsidies to finance the rewards of the affluent.
Andrew Martin?s article in The Times earlier this week noted how quickly the fees that merchants pay to accept certain debit cards had risen, too. That suggests a related question: Wouldn?t we all be better off if those of us who use plastic to earn free travel or cash back laid down our cards en masse?
Wow. We have come a long way from "Save The Whales".
So this week, I tried to figure out what would happen if we did just pay cash, or if there?s a better course of action for people who spend in a self-interested fashion but still have a conscience.
Still have a conscience that pesters you when you buy things? Hmm, would writing a check to charity help? Or back to credit cards, if I pay cash in an expensive restaurant on order to hold down prices, does that benefit "the poor", or other presumably well-off patrons of the restaurant?
Our intrepid Consumer with a Conscience staggered on with an essentially meaningless statistic:
As for the cost to consumers of all the card use, the National Retail Federation figures that the so-called interchange fees that their members pay to accept Visa and MasterCard alone cost an average of $427 an American household in 2008. Add in other fees the stores pay, plus costs for American Express and Discover, and that number could approach $600.
But that number is irrelevant since it includes, for example, the costs incurred by high end stores. Bringing the prices down at Nieman Marcus won't help the poor. What the author needs (and good luck) is some category of store catering to both rich and poor, or a commodity bought by both. Gas stations are the only example that comes to mind.
The author eventually grinds to a non-conclusion, but we are hungry for more. We eagerly await his study of the impact of his air conditioner use on the rest of us - does he realize that it heats up the city for pedestrians and those poor enough not have have a countervailing AC? He ought to be sweltering in his little childless apartment next July.
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/01/scaling-the-pinnacles-of-liberal-guilt.html
