h a l f b a k e r yExpensive, difficult, slightly dangerous, not particularly effective... I'm on a roll.
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The L.E.M. (Life Energy Meter) helps shoppers to better evaluate purchases by telling them how much a purchase really costs in terms of work, time, or money. If the consumer begins to buy a $1.40 cup of coffee a LED on the L.E.M. will indicate that $1.40 adjusted for taxes, social security, withholding,
etc. is really more than, say, $3.00 which would require a certain amount of time spent working.
Credit card purchases would be even more enlightening, as the L.E.M. would show that a $14 CD would cost close to $40 when interest is added.
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//L.E.M. would show that a $14 CD would cost close to $40 when interest is added// ..depending on when you paid it off. If your LEM can predict when I'll pay off my credit card bill, don't tell me, I don't want to know. It'll just depress me. |
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// how much a purchase really costs// ...The environmentalists' approach is the lifecycle assessment (LCA). These figures can vary wildly. But I don't think that's what you meant, is it? |
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Well, I think we're wanting to know how much it costs a person "personally" in time spent working to pay off that particular item. That's the concept of "Life Energy" which I read about in the book "Your Money or Your Life." |
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I'm thinking this instrument should be called a "Financial Life Energy Meter" or FLEM. What do you think? |
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How about FLIM-FLAM? //$1.40 adjusted for taxes, social security, withholding, etc. is really more than, say, $3.00 // So what if it is? All cash purchases would be scaled up at the same rate, which could be estimated without a meter. |
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Besides, it really isn't. I have had low-wage jobs that made me well aware how long I had to work to purchase something, and I seldom adjusted for taxes, social security, or withholding. When I did adjust, I did so by thinking that I could afford something when I got my tax refund. |
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A meter/scale for credit card purchases might be impressive, but as has been said, it depends on when you pay it off. I know when I use my credit card that I am going to be paying interest, although some folks don't seem to grasp that. |
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This idea is for something that isn't really needed, which would be hell to program, and, as described, either operates by magic or would be a nuisance to use. (Or maybe it could be replaced by a paper chart, without all the LEDs.) |
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I don't really want to evaluate my purchases in this way, because I think that a $3.25 cup of cappuccino is ridiculous anyway and if I knew that it really cost me $10, I'd think I was a some sort of sick person.....
but I buy them anyway. |
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//So what if it is?// The trouble is we commit a mental error when we look at the price of things because we say, "$10 for a DVD? That's not so much because I earn X amount per hour." When in fact it costs a lot more to pay for that DVD. Especially costly if it's a lousy movie. |
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An electronic calculator? > baked - |
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//How about FLIM-FLAM?//
The flim-flam is the title. |
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It could be a relitively simple device into which you enter your income, tax braket, average time to pay off a credit bill, etc. Certainly neither magic, nor is a calculator compairable. One may as well have said in the 1800s, "A device that can calculate, tabulate, and manage thousands of records? Baked: A secretary. We don't need no steenkin computer." The fact that something may be stretched to make do does not a baked device make. |
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[Marked for tagline] We don't need no steenkin computer. |
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