In 1970, aged 45, renowned author Yukio Mishima and three other men stormed a military base in Tokyo to protest against the materialist ambitions of a changing Japan, with the ultimate hope of restoring the Emperor to God status. He then committed seppuku – disembowelled himself with a sword, before his friend beheaded him.
I spent an hour this morning doing all that is required to get the car insurance company to lower my renewal quote. I saved £40 and lost an hour of my life and, with it, my peace of mind.
However you look at it, it feels like we lose. If not our money, it’s our life – often both. Internet contracts, phone contracts, insurances and even TV subscriptions. Flight prices, hotel apps, algorithm hikes; internet shops and Ebay costs; rising fuel costs in line with rising profits; a world teeming with middle-men, pinching a little fat in a country making new holes in its belt – metaphorically speaking, of course, because physically we’re getting fatter, or at the least the poorer end of society are (ever noticed how the cheapest food causes the biggest weight gain: is Nestle in cahoots with those who tell us we’ve never had it so good?).
Why is the default position of these companies set to screw you, but when you challenge it, they drop the price? If you’ll just give them an hour or two of your life. They’re like the devil sucking the goddam life out of you! And, if you think it’s done this way because they can’t afford to charge everyone the “low price” you fight to get, think about how many hours of work the company loses, how much they have to pay, in the process. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with this woman this morning. That’s 30 minutes on top of the 30 minutes I spent with the other woman I spoke to about this the other day – these weren’t heated conversations, because it’s all run of the mill. Then there’s the admin they did in the first place, the admin for the first renewal offer update, then the second, then the third. It’s at least £15 of work the company has paid for me to fight my 50% renewal hike, and that doesn’t include overheads. So, not only are they getting £40 less from me, they are paying at least £20 more in work costs – when you factor in overheads, holiday, sick pay and pensions - so, £60! Why not, at the very least, knock £20 off everyone who doesn't call in?
Presumably a large number of people don’t fight these yearly exorbitant – far above inflation – price rises? If I was earning £40 an hour, would it be worth an hour (or more) of my life to fight it? Then it would just be the principle. And this is the issue. I don’t blame anybody not fighting it, for peace of mind, but because we don’t all fight it we lose the battle by default. They will keep trying to screw all of us, because some people don’t mind being screwed, or don’t think about it, or just don’t know any better.
Perhaps it should be done another way. Perhaps anybody earning £40 an hour or more should have no right to fight it, just take a 50% hit. And those of us earning less than that should pay a fair price that rises in line with inflation? (I’m obviously not actually suggesting that, before the right get all fighty – just trying to make a point).
I’m not suggesting anybody take a samurai sword to the gut to let out a bloodied wriggle of bowels, before asking their mate to chop their nut off… but where are the Yukio Mishima’s of today?
*for anyone interested, I was quoted £267, last year it was £157. I paid £220. Business use, fully comp. This was for a Hyundai i20.
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