Saving money is good.
When you add a bit of humor to your attempts to save money, it can be fun, too.
Just last week we received a subscription request from a reader in Warren. We're a newspaper, and we love taking subscriptions. Yet, what we found in the envelope was puzzling.
Included was a check for $9 for a three-month subscription and a clipping of the Monroe Times with a promotion that said it was taking $5 off the regular three-month subscription price.
We like to think we offer readers a deal, but our subscription prices are higher than what was quoted in the clipping.
We flipped the coupon over and found an advertisement.
It was from 1987.
So, a reader had sent us a $9 check for a subscription promotion we had published more than 30 years ago.
I tip my hat to that reader - very inventive. Funny. It must have been interesting to see how we'd react.
While I'm no attorney, I looked up the law regarding the use of coupons. There is a little-known part of the legal code maintained both in the state and federally that regards coupon fraud.
As it turns out, if a business that received an old coupon so wished, it could defend itself from having to honor ancient coupons and offers - even if there's no expiration date on them.
First, anyone using such a coupon would have to prove they were the initial purchaser of the original publication in which the coupon was printed. That's difficult to do after 30 years. Second, due to changes in technology, offers that include coupons are required to be accompanied by a bar code on the coupon itself. A retailer does not have to honor any coupon that does not have a bar code and an accurate expiration date. As an added protection to the retailer, the known use of a coupon that is not in accordance with current prices is coupon fraud. Coupon fraud laws are much like laws preventing counterfeiting.
So, while we'd all like to grab a newspaper from the 1970s, go down to the grocery store, and demand a box of name-brand cereal for 25 cents, doing so is illegal.
To get a little deeper into this, I went back through automobile advertisements from the 1950s. I looked specifically for ads that were ambiguous and dealt with major manufacturers of automobiles that also included cross-over models of vehicles still in existence today. If coupon fraud laws didn't exist, I discovered I could get several models of new cars and trucks for between $2,600-$4,300.
What I noticed the most when looking for coupons and examining prices is how much the prices of some goods have changed in comparison with how much the average wage of people has increased. The largest difference has really taken place over the last 50 years. Wages have remained flat while the prices of homes, large consumer goods and daily necessities have tripled. People who are past their 40s can probably recognize this the most. More often they've worked harder for somewhat equal money while the prices of things around them have skyrocketed.
A Pew Research Center Study from 2014, which included wage conditions that have not changed, was headlined, "For most workers, real wages have barely budged for decades." The study found that since 1964, wages for working people in "constant dollars," which equates buying power per dollar, had increased on average from only $19.18 to $20.64 per hour.
Congratulations, Americans, you've earned a raise in pay of about $1.50 per hour over the last 50 years.
I believe in fair markets and free markets. I believe in the American Dream. I believe in entrepreneurship.
Similarly, I believe the economic system since the Great Recession of 2008 included an escalating profit grab by corporations and the wealthy. Due to what was considered poor market conditions, corporations expected more work for less pay. And the stock market has done nothing but bloom, which has rewarded those who have vast, diversified investments. According to Money at CNN, there's been a wealth explosion. Those who have a net worth of $500,000 or more annually control three-fourths of the money in America. Those who have a net worth of $20 million or more control 53 percent of the money in America.
Maybe some of us at the bottom need to start looking at ways to get some of those coupons and advertising deals from the 1950s and 1960s back in place. It was the last time an Average Joe had equal footing in the economy.
- Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
When you add a bit of humor to your attempts to save money, it can be fun, too.
Just last week we received a subscription request from a reader in Warren. We're a newspaper, and we love taking subscriptions. Yet, what we found in the envelope was puzzling.
Included was a check for $9 for a three-month subscription and a clipping of the Monroe Times with a promotion that said it was taking $5 off the regular three-month subscription price.
We like to think we offer readers a deal, but our subscription prices are higher than what was quoted in the clipping.
We flipped the coupon over and found an advertisement.
It was from 1987.
So, a reader had sent us a $9 check for a subscription promotion we had published more than 30 years ago.
I tip my hat to that reader - very inventive. Funny. It must have been interesting to see how we'd react.
While I'm no attorney, I looked up the law regarding the use of coupons. There is a little-known part of the legal code maintained both in the state and federally that regards coupon fraud.
As it turns out, if a business that received an old coupon so wished, it could defend itself from having to honor ancient coupons and offers - even if there's no expiration date on them.
First, anyone using such a coupon would have to prove they were the initial purchaser of the original publication in which the coupon was printed. That's difficult to do after 30 years. Second, due to changes in technology, offers that include coupons are required to be accompanied by a bar code on the coupon itself. A retailer does not have to honor any coupon that does not have a bar code and an accurate expiration date. As an added protection to the retailer, the known use of a coupon that is not in accordance with current prices is coupon fraud. Coupon fraud laws are much like laws preventing counterfeiting.
So, while we'd all like to grab a newspaper from the 1970s, go down to the grocery store, and demand a box of name-brand cereal for 25 cents, doing so is illegal.
To get a little deeper into this, I went back through automobile advertisements from the 1950s. I looked specifically for ads that were ambiguous and dealt with major manufacturers of automobiles that also included cross-over models of vehicles still in existence today. If coupon fraud laws didn't exist, I discovered I could get several models of new cars and trucks for between $2,600-$4,300.
What I noticed the most when looking for coupons and examining prices is how much the prices of some goods have changed in comparison with how much the average wage of people has increased. The largest difference has really taken place over the last 50 years. Wages have remained flat while the prices of homes, large consumer goods and daily necessities have tripled. People who are past their 40s can probably recognize this the most. More often they've worked harder for somewhat equal money while the prices of things around them have skyrocketed.
A Pew Research Center Study from 2014, which included wage conditions that have not changed, was headlined, "For most workers, real wages have barely budged for decades." The study found that since 1964, wages for working people in "constant dollars," which equates buying power per dollar, had increased on average from only $19.18 to $20.64 per hour.
Congratulations, Americans, you've earned a raise in pay of about $1.50 per hour over the last 50 years.
I believe in fair markets and free markets. I believe in the American Dream. I believe in entrepreneurship.
Similarly, I believe the economic system since the Great Recession of 2008 included an escalating profit grab by corporations and the wealthy. Due to what was considered poor market conditions, corporations expected more work for less pay. And the stock market has done nothing but bloom, which has rewarded those who have vast, diversified investments. According to Money at CNN, there's been a wealth explosion. Those who have a net worth of $500,000 or more annually control three-fourths of the money in America. Those who have a net worth of $20 million or more control 53 percent of the money in America.
Maybe some of us at the bottom need to start looking at ways to get some of those coupons and advertising deals from the 1950s and 1960s back in place. It was the last time an Average Joe had equal footing in the economy.
- Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
