This article popped up on my home page today and for some reason I clicked on it. Typical meaningless crap. But this one part really hit a nerve with me:

Consider credit cards: Like poker chips, they only represent money. Studies show that when we put purchases on plastic we spend more because we don’t experience the discomfort of parting with actual cold, hard currency. (This also explains why I’ve never walked out of Target with just the things on my shopping list.)

What!? The worst part is that I’ve seen that said in many places and I don’t buy it one bit.

Currency merely represents value as well. Same idea, you use an agreed upon object to exchange value. It feels like I’m being talked down to. Like I’m a toddler who thinks 5 one-dollar bills are worth more than a single five-dollar bill because there’s more there physically.

Hell, with that logic, large bills must be bad because it doesn’t feel like I’m spending as much to hand over a 50 instead of five 10′s or fifty 1′s. It makes no sense. Why would handing over one plastic card be any different than handing over one large bill for any given purchase? They both represent a transfer of value from one person to another. That’s all money is – representation of value. Guess what my credit card or debit card is? The same representation of value!

I guess once our currency goes all electronic, the world is screwed. What are we going to do when every purchase is made without physical money? Oh noes!!!!

Wait. Plastic will represent value instead of paper…just like it does now!

Have we really dumbed down our expectations this much?

…and for the record, it doesn’t even come close to explaining why the dumb broad who wrote the article walks out of Target with more than the things on her shopping list. The same could be argued if she had a list with $14 worth of items and she took a $20 in cash with her. Has anyone ever done that study?