Some years ago I started thinking that we’d probably be better off if we’d all buy paper clothes. With the high cost of dry cleaning it only seemed to make sense to me if we’d just buy these disposable suits and shirts and then just throw them away when they got dirty. Always be in style; never have to worry about alterations. I think it’d make a lot of sense in the long run. Watch and see, I’m probably ahead of my time, in about fifty years, this will be the normal thing to do. Have new clothes delivered to your door every month or so.

Everything today is marketed around convenience. Go to the grocery store. Look at the produce section. Why, you don’t have to cut up carrots and celery anymore…. it’s already done for you. Stew meat is cut into smaller chunks. Hamburgers come in individual patties. Fruits and vegetables are sliced and diced and placed on platters. Nothing is overlooked.

Look at our offices of today. Years ago, a printer for a computer would cost you an arm and a leg. I can remember paying thousands of bucks for some new printer because it was faster, better quality or whatever. Today, they almost give them away. Printers are so cheap it doesn’t make any sense to have one repaired, just throw the old one away and start over. Same thing goes for fax machines. They don’t cost anything these days.

So, how do they make any money giving them away? Simple, they give them to you and then you have to buy the printer cartridge to keep the thing printing. How long does a printer or fax cartridge last? Not long enough to suit me. Are they all interchangeable? Not on your life. Each one is different and each one is hard to find and each one gets to be obsolete in about three months or so. I bet every office in this country has a couple of spare printers and fax machines laying around somewhere that can’t be used since they stopped making ink cartridges for them some time ago. I tried buying some of that fill it yourself ink supply kits to refill ours…you won’t do this but one time. I haven’t figured out how to use one and keep the ink from splashing all over me and anyone around me. As far as I’m concerned these things are a disaster waiting to happen. Hopefully someone else out there has had better luck than I have.

The latest gadget trick I’ve noticed this past month or so is a swell looking automatic coffee brewing machine that is just about free. So, how could you go wrong on this one? I love fresh coffee. I think most of us do. How can we get done in on a coffee pot? Simple, you have to use these special coffee pellets to brew the stuff. So, how much do these cost? I haven’t the faintest idea and don’t want to know. First off I’m not going to put another thing on my kitchen counter since we have entirely too many things up there now. Second thing is that when I wake up in the morning I want some coffee and don’t want to have to worry about some dumb special pot needing special pellets or pods to make it happen. Not going to happen. I use regular old coffee that will go into any pot.

They used to have a saying in the old west that went like this…”There ain’t no free lunch.”

The bars and saloons used to advertise ‘free lunches’ but you had to buy drinks before you got to eat. So, where did the free part come in? There wasn’t one.

Nothing has changed; there still ain’t no free lunch. Look at those printers and fax machines. Check the prices on that stuff you buy already cut up at the grocery and see how much it costs to cut those carrots and watermelon. I bet you can do it a whole lot cheaper.

Speaking of cheaper, can I interest you in saving some money by buying my new line of paper clothes?

© Peary Perry

Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com