Retribution or Redistribution?

I was cheated today... of about $7. In a few months time, $7 will be the GST for any $100 purchase... $7 can buy me a nice meal with a second can of drinks... or it can take me on a taxi ride to IKEA... or almost a kilo of fresh beef from the market... or a week's supply of galangal to be made into beras kencur... but is $7 worth sulking for... to some yes, to others its probably peanuts...

In my haste to get a pair of badminton rackets for my daughters... I was offered a special price set of two rackets for $26, instead of purchasing two junior ones for $12.90 each. Later, when I returned home, I checked the papers only to realise that the same set is now sold for $19.90 a pair with two shuttlecocks F.O.C.

I have two choices... accept the loss or return the rackets for a refund... but I have a problem... I was not given a receipt. I heard that in some countries it is an offence for shops not to issue receipts. To go to the shop again will cost me almost the same amount of loss- both in monetary and opportunity costs.

And even if I managed to get back my loss, I would have not gained anything but the satisfaction of attaining 'justice'. Some say its not the cost or the price but the principles. However, I've learnt in numerous occassions that principles (such as hope) cannot feed you. It's money that feeds, especially on this small capitalist island. To get monetary benefits, you first need to deposit money... to those who really needs money, I wonder if they do get their share of the benefits...

I can see it in another way in which the additional $7 that the shop took from me goes into the slow process of income redistribution... or subsidises the increase in GST for the shopowner and his very effective salesperson who sold me that set of rackets (That guy should get a bonus!)

Or I can apply my usual method of seeking divine retribution for those who cheats... it may be pure coincidence that such individuals or companies who had done so in the past are in pretty bad shape... some of them do not exist anymore (the companies I mean)...

...but then again, it may be done without malicious intent and I have only myself to blame for not becoming a more discerning consumer. As self-blame seems to be the norm these days, I might as well join in the forray. In this island, if you do not succeed, you only have yourselves to blame.

This episode see the return of a part of me that had hibernated for a long time- the compulsive and hasty shopper...