Today’s Idiot
Rep. Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee). This genius thinks that unused gift card dollars are free money and those big ol’, evil capitalist companies shouldn’t profit from it. No, really:
Kessler said millions of dollars a year go unused by gift card recipients, and retailers are allowed to book the unused values after the cards expire. He cited figures from Consumer Reports showing that 19% of all gift cards are not used because they are lost or expired.
Kessler called that a “windfall,” which he said could be used to support schools, health care or roads. Under his bill, after a one-year expiration date on all cards, 80% of the value of unused cards would go to the state treasury. Merchants could keep 20% of the value of an unused card to pay for processing, Kessler said.
Our good comrade would rather the state take the money than for a company to profit a bit. I think someone should take Mr. Kessler out back and kick him exactly once in each ball.
December 29th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
I’d definitely rather have my money go to a company than my state government.
December 29th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Unbelievable- looters, all of them.
December 29th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
We must find someone with very tiny feet.
December 29th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
He is an idiot. Fighting predatory capitalism with predatory/confiscatory socialism. The right law is one which says, simply, gift cards have no expiration date.
December 29th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
nk: Why should there be a law of any sort for this?
What’s predatory about an expiration date, assuming it’s not un-usably short (most I’ve seen are 6 months to a year, plenty of time)?
There’s no problem here to be solved.
December 29th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Because they already have your money and they have given you nothing. They are using your money for any purpose they please. On the other hand, they give you no guarantee, whatsoever, that what you want will ever be on their shelves. But that’s not enough for them. They want your money even if they never offer you anything you want. Personally, I think gift cards are the absolutely worst gift you can give. If you don’t want to go shopping, give cash. Actually, the very best gift is cash. And it has no expiration date.
December 29th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
I think someone should take Mr. Kessler out back and kick him exactly once in each ball.
LMAO! good one. 🙂
December 29th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Don’t think that will work. If he had any balls he’d do his robbery with a gun and give the victims a shot at doing the right thing.