Points? what points?

When I go shopping, I usually go looking for something I need at the lowest possible price. What I get annoyed at is when I start having to carry point cards or membership cards to get some kind of discount. When I get into a situation like that, my wallet starts to get bloated with more cards than cash and eventually I become generally annoyed with dealing with excess baggage.

I also hate gimmicks where stores make it look like you're saving more cash than you actually are. When I was a kid, I would always be mystified about the idea of a "sale." Something could be "50%" off, but I used to wonder what if these guys just doubled the price and then said that it was "50%" off? Essentially, that is what the retail business is all about-- finding ways of getting people to spend more money.

Air miles, I've never in my life have ever spent an air mile before, but it just seems like one of those big things that you ought to save up for a trip to somewhere or something like that. I ended up getting an air miles card for one of the flight carriers in Japan since I had to fly out to the country side to visit a factory. Free miles, so why not, I thought. I got card in the mail just today and according to the system they have, is that I have to spend $2 to get 1 cents worth of points. In other words, I would have to spend about $20,000 to get a $100 worth of cash back!?

What kind of insane system is that? It just sends the wrong message that you have to spend ridiculous amount of money to just get a little back. I am rather surprised at how some people are so keen on collecting points to get something back, especially when what you get back is so little.

Rather than collecting points, I would believe that there are better ways of spending one's time.