In the past three years, I've submitted something like 125 rebates. I'll admit that my record-keeping hasn't been flawless, but I bet I'm getting about an 85% hit rate, and for substantial rebates (> $25), I'm getting a 100% rate of return.
So, I for one will miss rebates. If you're diligent about them (I print out the form as soon as I purchase online, and I fill out the forms as soon after purchasing as I can) you can get some incredible bargains, plain and simple.
I see them as a subsidy for the non-lazy, borne on the backs of the lazy. It's a tax on other people, I acknowledge, but a tax that redounded to my benefit. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to slow down my electronics purchases. I'm sure the wife won't mind.
"Anyone know where that "cities will be built" quote came from?"
Maybe it wasn't a review -- it was a warning! People once planned cities around cars, and look where it got us. A Segway-centric city will have narrower sidewalks, a too-large-for-ordinary-pedestrian scale, and lots of rich and middle-class people zooming past the poor.
Steve might've said both things without being contradictory: these things suck, and they've the potential to screw up our cities, and just after we started to rediscover our wonderful downtowns. Steve was warning us. We should listen.
In the past three years, I've submitted something like 125 rebates. I'll admit that my record-keeping hasn't been flawless, but I bet I'm getting about an 85% hit rate, and for substantial rebates (> $25), I'm getting a 100% rate of return.
So, I for one will miss rebates. If you're diligent about them (I print out the form as soon as I purchase online, and I fill out the forms as soon after purchasing as I can) you can get some incredible bargains, plain and simple.
I see them as a subsidy for the non-lazy, borne on the backs of the lazy. It's a tax on other people, I acknowledge, but a tax that redounded to my benefit. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to slow down my electronics purchases. I'm sure the wife won't mind.
Maybe it wasn't a review -- it was a warning! People once planned cities around cars, and look where it got us. A Segway-centric city will have narrower sidewalks, a too-large-for-ordinary-pedestrian scale, and lots of rich and middle-class people zooming past the poor.
Steve might've said both things without being contradictory: these things suck, and they've the potential to screw up our cities, and just after we started to rediscover our wonderful downtowns. Steve was warning us. We should listen.