No Wonder They're Greedy

Nothing regarding what I saw on the news tonight as a particular advertisement has been really bothering me.  The events in Wisconsin are very tragic and I feel for the families effected, but I am not going to rant here because even the supremacist groups that he "belonged" to denounced his actions.  Perhaps they are attempting to spread their message peacefully.  Nope, this one has a lot to do with why there is greed among our young folks.


I'm sure anyone who watches television with advertisements has seen this commercial from Chase.  They show a grandmother giving her grandson a card for his birthday.  He opens the card and begins looking for something then looks at her like something is wrong. At that point his cell phone vibrates and she points at it.  Without unlocking the phone or anything along those lines there is a message that she deposited $100.  A look of relief then comes across his face and he says thank you, with a message, not in person.

There are a couple of problems here.  The first I have is that in less then 5 seconds (not enough time for most cards to be read, even by a fast reader) he with an, "I can't believe it" look on his face.  I don't know about you but I find this extremely annoying!  He opened the card and didn't even bother to read it and expected that she gave him something.  I have said many times that if I ever heard my kids say, "What did you get me?" they wouldn't be allowed to have whatever someone was about to give them.  Commercials like this just reinforce the give me attitude that kids have nowadays.

The second issue is the amount of fiction involved.  And there are several of them: they are at a party and she comes up to him to give him a card that he opens immediately; his phone is on vibrate; his phone is sitting on the table unlocked; the message comes right after he finished "reading" the card; and his thank you message is sent immediately.  I know it is just a commercial and they only have 30 seconds but that is a real stretch!

The last issue is the amount of the gift, $100!  This is a big part of the reason that kids expect so much.  That is a ridiculous amount of money just for a birthday.  But then again, this lends to a "stocking stuffer" being valued at over $100 dollars.  The manufacturers like when banks push high dollar gift amounts (for any occasion) for obvious reasons and the banks benefit twice for it.  How you ask?  Simple, they benefit from the cash being spent frivolously by the kids throughout the year as well as all the high fees on the credit card purchases during the holiday season.  The day that my kids get a $100 dollar "stocking stuffer" is either the day that I win the lottery or the day they only get one gift for the year.  The latter is more likely...