Get Paid for Doing What You Agreed to

The new Discover card has me a little worried about the world.

Discover’s Motiva card makes me a little anxious about the state of the world, at least the state of the U.S. When you get a credit card you normally have to sign something saying that you’ll pay for the stuff you buy with it. We even talked about this concept via a Steve Martin SNL sketch some time ago, but it doesn’t seem to have sunk in to most of the populace. What the new Discover card does is pays you the interest on your card’s balance if you pay your bill on time for six months. I’m not sure why you should need an incentive to pay your bills, really. Just do what you said you would, is that too much to ask of the world? Seriously, if you got a job that said they would pay you so much a month, you wouldn’t expect to have to bribe them with free overtime just to get your check, would you?

The current state of society has me concerned for the future. As a teacher I get asked a lot of questions during the course of my classes, and these are normally followed by an apology for asking questions. It’s my job to make sure that people leave the class knowing how to do certain things, if they don’t then I haven’t held up my end of the deal. I don’t see this as a difficult equation: “I said I will do X, so I should do X”. Not hard.

What’s it gonna be like when I’m old and infirm? Will I have to bribe the nurses to come change my bed pan? “Hey, if you clean up after me, which is in your job description, I’ll give you half of my meds to sell on the street?” Just ridiculous.

Anyway, do what you agreed to and make more money, it’s the wave of the future.

Tune in next time when it becomes apparent I’ve been watching too much TV.