| High ticket items? Do you buy cars with credit
| cards? I don't.
|
| I was thinking about a $1500 TV, not so much a car!
|

You have rich tastes. If I had to pay $1,500 for
a TV I'd settle for reading.

If it weren't for Netflix I'm not sure I'd even bother.
PBS has gradually degenerated into the British Soap
Opera Channel. (With occasional breaks for Neil deGrasse
Tyson to pass off carnival barking and special effects
as science.) The networks seem to all be playing either
a slick version of Community Auditions or one of the
numerous sicko police shows like "Let's Hunt a Psycho
Murderer" or "Let's Figure Out Exactly How The Psycho
Murderer Tortured His Victims" or "Catching a Psycho
Murderer by Studying Worms in Corpses". (What is
it with this perverse, gruesome obsession?)
When I'm so tired that I'll watch almost anything, I
find myself switching back and forth between old
Cary Grant or John Wayne movies and ads for
transvaginal mesh lawsuits. .... I seem to remember
there used to actually be thoughtful shows on TV, but
I can't seem to find them anymore.

But all that aside, I sometimes do spend upward of
$1,000 at HD or lumber yards. I regularly spend several
hundred dollars at a time. I can't remember the last time
that I even had to show my card. I just swipe, scribble
gibberish on the plastic screen, and I'm on my way.

My impression is that both the merchants and the credit
card companies are generally happy with the status quo.
The credit card companies are making a bundle through
2% cuts and loansharking scams. They're apparently also
losing a lot through theft, but I'm guessing that's pocket
change for them. If it weren't they would have done
something about it.