Expect More. Pay Less.

A few weeks ago, when traffic crawled to a near stop, I found myself beside a Target truck. I looked up at the cross hair logo and read its slogan, “Expect More. Pay Less.” Traffic moved along and the truck faded out of view, but the two small sentences stuck in my brain. We really do live in a world now that expects more, and even more expects to pay less – if anything at all.

I still shop at Target… even as I know it really isn’t too far from the evil empire of Walmart. The only definitive improvement over the smiley face behemoth is Target does not sell guns. But it is still a behemoth and goes all over the country subverting that mantra into our minds. Expect More. Pay Less.

And that is why I shop at Target. I pay less for toilet paper and all the cleaning products my neurosis for clean surfaces require. I can go in there to get dish soap and find a dozen other unnecessary things I suddenly need… especially when they are at the end of an aisle and have a red clearance sticker on the package. Although I did manage on my last visit to talk myself out of an avocado spoon… even though at 50% off I really could have used an avocado spoon.

I accept that I have gotten sucked into that culture. I admit it, but it won’t stop me from giving you a dirty look or frown when you mention you saved money at Walmart. It also makes me feel like I have given away a tiny piece of my soul when I swipe my corporate credit card at the checkout… because I am not just buying my bathmat at a better price in the red décor-ed store, I am also buying into the belief that I don’t have to pay what something is worth.

Now, we can argue the sale price means I am not paying the middle man. But by going to that huge store, I am choosing the pay the middle man, aren’t I? Because I’m not going to a more direct source… because the direct source isn’t going to save me money on paper towels and anti-bacterial wipes. I’m choosing to ignore what I know about how those discounts are achieved, through bidding wars and manufacturing in countries where society (and unions) don’t demand treating a person like a human being. They get paid less so I can expect more opportunity for impulse buys in the kitchen gadgetry aisle.

I know the arguments to all this. I’ve had these conversations so many times about how hard it is to buy for a family, as a senior on a fixed income, on unemployment… etc. I don’t doubt those hardships for a second. But… the thing about economic hardship… isn’t that well, a time to take a breath and say to oneself, I can go without? I mean just because there are DVDs on sale for $4.99, does that really mean you need to buy ten of them? I understand (and have indulged in) the modern concept of escaping the seeming futility of one’s reality through retail therapy. Because splurging on a $4.99 purchase is almost like pretending money doesn’t matter… and it shouldn’t… because the material doesn’t matter in the big picture… except when paying $499 bills is so difficult because the economy was busted by forces we can’t always control.

I understand these rationalizations… because it is our reality. The reality that fades is paying full price for something because you are paying for a man’s labor and skill… for a quality piece of product that will last. But things don’t last. We wear out our electronic gadgets or get weary of them the instant they get slower and a shinier flashier piece comes on the market. The prices are driven up by our desire. Even if the flash and the newness is veneer and nothing about endurance. We don’t want to pay more because we know it won’t last.

I am starting to think we are taking that philosophy beyond retail purchases. We expect a lot for ourselves, but don’t want to pay for it. Or at least not a lot. Not with our money. Not with our time. Not with our attention. Not with anything that takes away from our lives. But we will demand, demand, demand that the universe give us more.

Except the universe always expects payment in full. And there is often interest in triplicate added to that fee. We expect the world to give us an easy ride and when it doesn’t we whine or drug ourselves… or buy more crap.

I’m not writing this to argue the horror of entitlement programs of our socialist government. Indeed, I would argue that public assistance is the reverse of that. It is us, as a group of humans paying what something is worth. Someone’s life is worth the opportunity to eat and breathe healthily. To have an education. To have a safe road, cleared of snow. To have one’s home protected from fire. To have a community that cares for one another to make a happier place to live. Not a group of isolated, miserable people whining about how things cost too much.

I suppose the cost of living is the cost of doing business in a lot of realities. Maybe I just simply live in the wrong decade. But there are moments… every once in a while… like buying a cup of coffee in the local shop downstairs from my office… when I realize paying a little more actually is a better tasting, more satisfying purchase. That’s when I know, “Pay what it’s worth. Feel good.”