LAWAWAY ENVY

I used to think layaway wasn’t something you should take serious. I mean to me it was something for people without decent credit or the kind of bucks to buy things when you wanted them.

Then I don’t know I guess I had an epiphany of sorts. For me those can also happen when you end up running into some huge clown with a bad attitude and no sense of humor who thinks other than you do.

I was in this one store the other day and this big huge bear of a guy was making a payment on some layaway. Well I could tell from the look on his face and that hunger in his eyes that comes from not having beat somebody to a pulp for at least a day that perhaps he wasn’t in the best of moods.

But being the stupid politician that I am I figured perhaps I could somehow have a conversation with the guy and turn him into an ally of a sort in case I need his help persuading somebody to see things different down the road. Yeah, I do things like that if I can find somebody to do the “persuading” part.

Well I thought I would use the subtle approach so I went up to him and paid him the compliment of looking like a pro at shopping at the place. Then I pretended to be looking for cleaning supplies and wanted to know if he could tell me where to find them.

It was a gamble of sorts I suppose, but it worked. Before long we ended up having a conversation and that’s when he explained about his view of layaway. First of all there was no interest like a credit card. Second no debt. Third he also ended up buying stuff on sale, but paying for I later when he had the cash.

It was sort of hard to argue with that logic, especially since I wouldn’t have wanted to argue with a guy who looked like he used little import cars for a noon snack! I didn’t feel that was a healthy choice.

Then later I got to thinking about it and admitted layaway was really a good deal in many ways. The only problem was that with my wife I don’t think I could convince her that it would work. If she can’t have it now then forget it.

So the next time I’m in the store and see the line at the layaway desk while I’m rushing off to buy whatever with my plastic I’ll probably be a little envious. A couple of months from now when I’m still paying off my debt and what I bought is worn out these folks will be just picking up their purchase and have no debt.

That is the joy of living in a democracy where most folks are slaves to debt. You can have the freedom of lying to yourself about the way you shop. And the good thing is only the credit card company knows the truth. Well along with the clerk in the store you showed your credit card too, the mail person who delivers the bills and probably everybody they know and will blab it too in the process!