Stupid

I'm reading The five universal laws of human stupidity by Corinne Purtill and as I scroll down this combination of text and picture appears:

Stupidity leads to a new Mercedes

which I think is a perfect sequence, given my disdain for over-priced German vehicles.

This is probably due to my cheapskate attitude, which I undoubtedly got from my parents. It's not just expensive German cars I abhor, it's anything that carries a premium price tag based on some perceived superiority. Apple, Sony and Honda products all fall in the same category.

I have this attitude mostly because my upbringing doesn't allow me to spend money foolishly, and if you haven't squeezed ever penny of value out of a dollar, you're wasting money. If I had more money, I would relax a bit. Shoot, I have a bit more money and I have relaxed, but not enough that I would be willing to throw away money on a stupid Mercedes.

The big idea though, the one that I just recently realized, is that people will pay good money for services, services I would never buy because I can do it myself. The circular thought running around in my brain for the last 50 years has been that because I could take care of a problem myself, I would never pay for it, and since everybody else could likewise take care of their own problem, nobody else would pay for someone else to fix it either.

Call it the curse of over-competence. Of course, doing things for other people requires talking to them, and there are few people I enjoy talking to. I suspect that might be because I am too wrapped up with all the nonsense running around in my head. Between that and napping, I just don't have the time.

Wikipedia has a short article about Carlo M. Cipolla, the author of the originating essay. It seems be his primary claim to fame.

Via Indy Tom