Monkey Business
A 7 year Yale study was done teaching capuchin monkeys to use currency, aluminum discs the size of quarters, and compare their spending habits to ours. Interestingly, the animal behavior matched that of human decision making in many respects. Money makes monkeys out of us all I guess.
Comments
Smart little animals. Fascinating study I thought.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 08/31/11 at 08:29 AM
So patty, which idea should we be most concerned about; that the monkeys are a lot like us or that we are a lot like the monkeys???
Posted by yogi in Kennesaw GA on 08/31/11 at 09:20 AM
In my years of financial counseling I learned that 3 to 5 year old's know, instinctively, what has value and what doesn't. Offered a bright silver dollar, a $100 bill, and a credit card they would, almost 100% of the time go for the only thing on the table that had any real value!
Now, maybe (and that's a whopper of a maybe) with debit cards replacing credit cards people will start to get the message that the card is only a tool to access the money and not some way to ignore the future.
Credit cards are running amok here in Greece. The banks were passing them out like business cards a couple of years ago. A friend of ours had 13 of them and all of them maxed out! She was living on a "fixed income" on top of it all.
Now, maybe (and that's a whopper of a maybe) with debit cards replacing credit cards people will start to get the message that the card is only a tool to access the money and not some way to ignore the future.
Credit cards are running amok here in Greece. The banks were passing them out like business cards a couple of years ago. A friend of ours had 13 of them and all of them maxed out! She was living on a "fixed income" on top of it all.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/31/11 at 11:21 AM
This current credit card "crisis" is not the first one by a long shot. It's a cyclic thing where it goes from your family dog getting it's own cards to everybody maxing out the cards to nobody gets a card!
I've suggested over the years that "bankruptcy" be a process where you get to pay your debtors off slower than as per contract but you still have to pay them off! This would work wonders for the psyche of the borrower and allow for lower interest rates which are usurious on any account.
I've suggested over the years that "bankruptcy" be a process where you get to pay your debtors off slower than as per contract but you still have to pay them off! This would work wonders for the psyche of the borrower and allow for lower interest rates which are usurious on any account.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/31/11 at 11:58 PM
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