Rant: A Cable Dilema/Best Advice?
Ashton Kutcher dispenses credit advice to teens. Photo: Getty
Let’s preface this conversation by admitting two things. One. I don’t care for cable TV. I think television is a waste of time – at least, for me it is. It never seems to end. With the exception of Local news, I’d rather watch a movie that I really want to see for one dollar at the Redbox, than to sit and watch 5 hours of mindless programming. Also, I would rather read an article or a book instead. I find it more stimulating and less asymmetric.
For some reason, cable TV always turns into a snowballing effect of cheap consumerism and an infinite loop of similar formatting. What? Law an Order was a hit? Well, let’s make three more. Then comes CSI, and CSI, and CSI, and NCIS, and Bones, and Cold Case, and so on, and so on…
In fact, I’m now going to describe a show that will debut sometime next year with a hundred percent accuracy: Some form of law enforcement stitches together a crime using minute details and an ensemble of would be motives, peppered with one-liner quips, and it all culminates in a twisty ending of resolution. Maybe I should head out to Hollywood and write pilots and scripts? No thank you. I don’t think there is parking for high horses in Hollywood. Wait, what am I saying? Of course there is.
Which brings us to our next admittedly, embarrassing guilty point. Two. While flicking between two local news stations last night, I happened to watch, for a whole hour, the Teen Choice Awards. I know, I know. Enough said. I said I felt guilty already.
So, I was watching the Teen Choice Awards long enough to learn that Will I Am will stick anything on his head, and that Ashton Kutcher poked some congressional ribs with the guise of shelling out the ‘best advice he ever received’ to the teens present and viewing. Ashton Kutcher said, “Don’t ever charge anything on a credit card if you don’t already have the money in the bank to pay for it.”
Having studied journalism and PR, I instantly started to think about the venue and delivery of the message. After overanalyzing the bit, I came to an understanding. Although I would ‘generally’ — emphasis on the generality — agree that this information is sound advice. Seeing as how we are a consumeristic society, I’d say that’s great advice to hand out to teens coming into the marketplace and, most notably, this economy. I’d also say that, like most generalities, that was a really simplistic view. I’d say that there is some merit to responsible borrowing. I think there are plenty of lawyers, doctors and mortgage holders (assuming they were given prime rates and realistic lending) that could prove that point.
Seeing as how the average credit debt among card holders is $6,500 a year, and that 46-percent of American carry a balance and 13-percent cary a balance over 10,000, that seems to be sound advice (although, most statistics I’ve seen, even surveys, place this estimate at ‘very conservative’). So, this ‘sound,’ if not overly simple, advice seems to be receiving a welcome, or at least tacit, reception from what I’ve read online. I would, however, ask why no one cares that it comes from someone who doesn’t really ever need to borrow money and who’s sole deserving function of that merit is screen acting. And, of course, the big question:
What does it mean when American teenagers are receiving their credit advice from a wealthy-elite actor who has been selected to replace ‘resident bad boy’ Charlie Sheen on “Two and Half Men”?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Ashton Kutcher. In fact, I like his acting. In all accounts, he seems like a smart and likable guy. I didn’t watch “No Strings Attached,” but I’m one of the few people that loved and still like “The Butterfly Effect.” I’d still rather live in a world where actors didn’t have to deliver apparently-not-so-common-sense to teens and politicians could sort out America’s issues without the decorum of a kindergarden name calling match… Beep.
