Benedict Arnold Consumers

Word circulated around the blogosphere a while back that Web lender E-Loan has been offering customers the choice of having their paperwork processed in the U.S., or overseas in two fewer days. After three months, 9 of 10 chose to "export America." Can we get a pol with the cojones to inveigh agianst greedy consumers? (Via Marginal Revolution.)

Comments

[Gadfly]

Reminds me of the past periodic calls for "Buy American", usually during recessions of one sort or another. I remember having a patriotic fit in the early '90's and bought a Ford instead of a Honda Accord.

Free markets, free minds.

[The Lonewacko Blog]

I'll investigate this later, but Br'er Drudge remarked that welfare recipients in Florida can call a 1-800 number to ask where their check is, get new benefits, etc. Those staffing that 1-800 number are - you guessed it - in Inja.

The point of this widely-repeated eLoan incident appears to be lost. The real point is that people are greedy, selfish, and short-sighted. Perhaps if they were informed of the long-term consequences of their actions - which might include a cost in the future - they might choose to have their paperwork processed here.

[young mind]

Lonewacko...
Since when is being thrifty and smart with ones money considered selfish? It seems much more selfish and shortsighted to consider jobs within the United States as intrinsically more valuable than those outside of its boarders. Let the market decide where the job will be created, only then will the most people be able to thrive.

[The Lonewacko Blog]

Tap water is free; bottled water is not free. Are you being thrifty and smart if you drink tap water instead of bottled? Perhaps not, if you end up getting a disease.

How much something really costs may only become known after several years.

[Jesse]

When the water quality standards on both are about the same, and much of the bottled water is just bottled tap water, you are just a sucker.

Bad example, but the point still applies.

[joe]

The Boston Globe ran a smart-ass editorial by an economics prof inveighing sarcastically against Benedict Arnold Consumers on Saturday. I think America is getting close to the point of being able to have an informed conversation about these issues.

[Jason Ligon]

We should have learned this when the Japanese were going to destroy our economy by producing too efficiently. Anyone remember "Gung Ho"?

We got Made in America campaigns that everyone ignored then, and maybe we will get the Dobbs Seal of Approval now.

Since demand rests with the consumer, it is fairly obvious that consumers are making these choices every day.

[Pol w/Cojones]

We are too busy dealing with a greater threat to America; WalMart.

[but wait]

If you read the article, the choice for E-loan was: 10 days for overseas processing of your refi, 12 days if a lazy Amuhhrican does it.

You're talking cash here; the choice is really waiting.

I'm not against outsourcing, but rtfa...

[tchiers]

But wait,

Time is money. Duh.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"We are too busy dealing with a greater threat to America; WalMart."

No, we're not; we're too busy shopping there.

[outlet Nike Free Run shoes on]

It makes sense