My Hope For The Future

I lost my car key. Luckily, I had a duplicate, however, since I lost one key it was seems probably that I might lose another key. Therefore, I had to go down to the dealer to get a new duplicate. The days of going to a hardware store to get a copy of your car key made are over. The keys these days have computer chips in them that need to be programmed. As I drove down there I joked that since cars are selling so poorly that they'd charge me $16,000 for the key, or I could buy a brand new car for $15,500 which comes with two sets of keys. Turns out my joke wasn't such a joke. The dealership charge me $97.53 for...a...key. No, it's not a magic key that drives the car for you. Nor does the key come with free therapy sessions so you can come to terms with the price of the replacement key. And yes, this happened in 2009 a year when computer chips and computer memory costs less than it costs the Christian Child Fund to feed a hungry child in a 3rd World country for a day. The hefty price would make sense if it were 1979 when computer technology was expensive.

And yes, I realize I screwed up. I lost my key and the punishment for that should be $10 for a replacement key and the time taken from my day to replace the key. But $97.53 seems cruel and unusual. OK not unusual as being monetarily raped by a car dealership is pretty common place.

But what really struck me was how this could happen during the Obama administration. He had been president a day and yet this kind of bad business was still going on. I hope that Obama forms a task force to deal with car industry corruption.