Points for Idiots

I love President's Choice products and all, but PC points seem highly questionable! I recently received a letter in the mail stating that if you spend more than $75 on a visit at the grocery store, you would earn an extra 500 points! If you spend another $75 dollars on a second visit you earn an extra 2,000 points, a third visit 5,000 points, and a fourth visit 10,000 points!!! (and hurry offer expires July 31st). That sounds great, but when you do the conversion (i.e., 10,000 points equals $1 in free groceries), it means that if you spend $75 on your first visit, they'll give you an extra 5 cents, $75 on a second visit, you get 20 cents, a third visit 50 cents, and a fourth visit 1 full dollar.

Has it really come to the point in our society where the majority of citizens cannot see through these point systems? The fact that these systems exist suggests that they probably do work in general. I 'm trying hard to imagine the scene where clever individuals are sitting around a board room table ironing the logic behind these schemes. Perhaps it goes something like this: "OK, all we have to do is make people think MANY POINTS = GOOD, and then make the points worth next to nothing, but because we're given them so many points (e.g., 10,000!), they'll buy into it!" This seems scarily reminiscent of the movie Idiocracy....