Free Stuff!

How often do you see a child under age 21 drinking in public? Probably not that often any more. Bartenders are generally instructed to check ID on anyone who looks under 40. Party stores are monitored for sales of alcohol to minors and can lose their licenses after being caught a few times.

How often do you see a child under 18 smoking? Oh, all the time, right? Is it legal? Hm. No. But no one does anything about it, do they? There is some smoke and saber rattling regarding sales to minors, but in general, any teenager or even preteen can get their hands on cigarettes and can smoke in public. I used to see grade schoolers smoking at bus stops on my way to work. Surely police saw them also. No one cares enough to enforce that law. Smoking while driving? Not so much an issue as drunk driving. That is a good justification for letting children slowly kill themselves.

How about stealing? Not so much a problem, is it? All you have to do is get someone's credit card information and have a good time. What are the chances that anyone will follow through on prosecution? Small charges, who cares? After a few billion, someone should. I am not researching the stats, but use your imagination.

In April or May my account number was changed on one of my credit cards. I called to find out why, and I was told they are making some change or another in their system and I should not be concerned. I was leaving on a trip, so I was concerned, but the new card came in time for me to take it with me. I shredded the old card into small pieces, and separated them into separate containers before tossing. Some pieces went in my pocket and were dumped in a trash container at a mall or gas station. I am careful with these things.

Imagine my surprise when I checked my balance online today on an account and found two charges that I didn't authorize - on the old account number. One was to blockbuster.com and one was to napster. I called my credit card company, wasting a half hour. They told me to call the two companies. So, I did that, wasting another hour or so. Neither would remove the charges from my account, although they were able to verify that they were fraudulent. I had to call the credit card company again, and at that time found out that someone had also charged something to iTunes to my account. Another hour or so of being transferred and having explanations pass back and forth. I also heard that email accounts were opened by "me."

Bottom line? Nothing is going to happen to the children who charged their music on my account. I am sure they did it on other people's accounts too. Why not? It's not any more risky to them than smoking in public. No one really cares. Everyone does it. I assume it's children based on what was charged. The amounts for each were small.

These are brave children. Two of the charges were made a week apart.

No one is going to do anything about it.

Sure, the charges are removed from my account now. But do you ever think about where they go? I do.

I don't know the stats here either, but my guess is we probably pay 50% more for goods than necessary, due to illegal activities like this. Or employee theft. Or bills just never paid. And so on.

Those of us who pay for what we buy are kind of stupid, aren't we?

Conspicuous consumption. At it's finest. If you can't afford it, buy it anyway. You deserve it, right?

Why?

So the rest of the people can pay for it for you?

Everyone can have a setback at times. These times are hard, too. But some people make it a lifestyle to see how much they can get without ever even intending on paying for it.

I do not know how they sleep at night.

They keep me awake sometimes.