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| Rent-to-Own |
Written 19 January, 2007
Land Grab
IV. Kitra Rents His Computer
When I was in the early twenties, I had an experience with a rent-to-own company.
I was doing some work on my car (yes, girls work on their cars!) and needed a tool.
A piston ring compressor, if you must know. I really worked on my car.
Anyway, all my friends told me I would probably never need a ring compressor again, so I should rent one. And I did. I took myself down to the then-equivalent of Aaron Rents and picked up a ring compressor. Rent for three days was, best I remember, about five dollars.
The next day, when I used it, I discovered it was broken. Someone had cleverly disguised that fact by sticking the broken metal bands under a metal flange, but it was definitely broken.
I got a ride from a friend and bought a ring compressor at an auto parts store. It cost $3.95. Do the math.
By the time I got around to taking the rented tool back, it was nearly two weeks later. It cost me another fifteen dollars. For a tool that costs less than five.
So of course I’ve not been to a rental place since.
So when Kitra told me he rented his computer—and one for Valley—I knew he had to be young and foolish.
Later, when I told Dodgeguy Kitra rented his PC, he laughed his ass off.
“I can’t WAIT to tell Damian.”
Now, this might to this point seem like a classist post.
Certainly the disenfranchised tend to rent-to-own, while even lower-middle-class people don’t. But that’s not why Dodge laughed.
It’s because rental stores are like a special tax on the math-challenged.
Rather like the lottery.
I learned my lesson with a piston ring compressor. Artik will learn his with two computers and most likely his audiovisual equipment and living room furniture.
Land Grab
IV. Kitra Rents His Computer
When I was in the early twenties, I had an experience with a rent-to-own company.
I was doing some work on my car (yes, girls work on their cars!) and needed a tool.
A piston ring compressor, if you must know. I really worked on my car.
Anyway, all my friends told me I would probably never need a ring compressor again, so I should rent one. And I did. I took myself down to the then-equivalent of Aaron Rents and picked up a ring compressor. Rent for three days was, best I remember, about five dollars.
The next day, when I used it, I discovered it was broken. Someone had cleverly disguised that fact by sticking the broken metal bands under a metal flange, but it was definitely broken.
I got a ride from a friend and bought a ring compressor at an auto parts store. It cost $3.95. Do the math.
By the time I got around to taking the rented tool back, it was nearly two weeks later. It cost me another fifteen dollars. For a tool that costs less than five.
So of course I’ve not been to a rental place since.
So when Kitra told me he rented his computer—and one for Valley—I knew he had to be young and foolish.
Later, when I told Dodgeguy Kitra rented his PC, he laughed his ass off.
“I can’t WAIT to tell Damian.”
Now, this might to this point seem like a classist post.
Certainly the disenfranchised tend to rent-to-own, while even lower-middle-class people don’t. But that’s not why Dodge laughed.
It’s because rental stores are like a special tax on the math-challenged.
Rather like the lottery.
I learned my lesson with a piston ring compressor. Artik will learn his with two computers and most likely his audiovisual equipment and living room furniture.
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