satori writes:
“I was just printing out my new car insurance card (and freaking out about the fact that I had previously been driving without it,
unbeknownst to me) and remembered this fall at the licensing office when I registered my son’s new used car. The woman who sold it to me told me we could write in whatever value we wanted and greatly reduce the tax paid. I told her no, I wanted to do it as written. She was really peeved for some reason and incredulous that I would pay more when I didn’t have to. As much as I’m a people pleaser and didn’t like the fact that she was looking down on me I held my ground. My integrity is worth far more than a few hundred dollars…
While my Capricorn moon hates having someone form a negative impression of me, I can deal far better with that than a negative
impression of myself. To me it was the right thing to do however, no one else but us would have known and she approved…”
I wish I could say I’d have done the same (the soldier would have) but I am pretty sure I would not have, for a few reasons.
For one thing, the gal was peeved because in her mind she was trying to do you a favored and you thanked her by pointing out her lack… of integrity. Anticipating this reaction and not wanting to embarrass her so I’d have probably gone along – Your basic Libra co-dependence.
But on a lower octave, I probably would have not minded the extra bucks on my pocket, and the fact it is a rebellion against the government would have played as well. But most of all…
Most of all I am a born (and bred) “partner in crime” and strangely enough had there been 3 people involved – well forget about it! Triangles never have interested me.
What would you have done in this situation?
Becca – OMG! ::faints::
I didn’t even know there were 27 of you! 🙂
::blushes at her own lawlessness::
Saturn sq my Sun says the fear/guilt would be too much for me.
But, if I was having a sly kind of day, I might take it/view it as the universe giving me a tax rebate. (I often overpay because audits terrify me).
LOL. Yeah people here drive like shit. They really do – They are so entitled! No matter how many lanes you give them, they block them all by driving abreast. “What passing lane?” the oblivious driver seems to be thinking. “This is MY mf lane and I will drive it in as I damned well please!”
Oh I would doubtless have thanked her and been grateful. I’m not amoral (I hope) but lawless, you bet!
😛 I’m pretty sure none of the 27 are in Colorado, except when I’m visiting my brother there.
Yeah, I’d probably have done it according to her – let her have the bad karma (codependent) and then walked away beating myself up for “getting away with it.”
Healthy. I know.
Yikes.
But I do like how you weren’t willing to trade your integrity for a few hundred. I’ll remember that.
Loonsounds – *snort!
I probably would have said “Does fifty dollars sound too low?”
If I had a couple hundred dollars to spare I might be more concerned about my integrity. My integrity is measured in how well I can take care of my family and that would certainly make an impact one way or another. I share your mistrust of the government Elsa and wouldn’t be too concerned about getting one over on them. They’ve gotten over on me a couple of times with those cursed red light cameras so fuck ’em.
I wouldn’t think twice about it. I wouldn’t feel guilty and I would appreciate someone cutting me a break.
If it was someone I knew well and trusted, I’d probably have gone along…question my integrity if you will, but I have bills to pay and gas to buy for that car so I can get back and forth to work (to get money to pay more bills and buy more gas), and at the rate it’s going, I’m getting close to having to choose one or the other on occasion. 😛
Anyone else feeling disillusioned and rebellious today?
I’m one of the 27, much to the chagrin of the cars behind me.
What a question. I absolutely would have written $1.00 and gone on my merry way. I hate taxes, mismanagement of public funds and all that. If there is a loophole and it’s legal, damned if I won’t take them up on it. My being honest is not going to repair a flawed system; in fact, I don’t think it should be supported at all, I see it as a form of protest.
And I speed within reason, but I’m a very good and safe driver and wouldn’t take chances if there were even a hint of danger. I’m not into physical risks at all.
I would do what Satori did being a capricorn moon myself. I would be very tempted to do the “naughty” being very Plutonic and a Scorpio Sun but everytime I do something like this it bites me in the arse which I believe has to do with my Capricorn. So I would do the right thing to save me double trouble in the future.
This post made me laugh because I know my mum would to the opposite
i probably would have taken the discount, and not felt bad about it at all. i mean, if a clerk gives me back too much change or something, i return it. that’s honest, and someone could get in trouble for the shortage. that impacts people. but not with car taxes, no. the government demands plenty of money from me already, and I don’t find it consistently well used. i could do more good with it; i’d probably keep some, and donate some to charity. 🙂
I think I would’ve written in the correct amount (I also have Capricorn Moon, as well as Taurus Sun square Saturn).
When I was flying home I had to pay excess baggage, and the woman forgot to charge me after saying I had to pay. I reminded her, then spent 20 minutes struggling with the broken VISA machine. Super annoying. They got my money in the end, and I ended up super-stressed out because I was worried about missing my flight.
It was an interesting lesson, to say the least.
I was over paid by work for 4 months once, and I kept it, but only after telling my boss’s wife (!) that I was being grossly overpaid. They finally figured it out in accounting, and asked me to work for free for one whole day and never asked for the money back. In fact, it was never mentioned again, although I have told them on at least 3 occasions I had been overpaid.
Yes, they need a new accountant. She’s about 105 and bat shit crazy.
This is funny to me. The state I live in changed the laws a few years ago to deal with just this problem. Any car over 10 years old or under a certain value pays transfer fees but no extra tax. People used to lie and the clerks got so tired of dealing with outragous claims of low price that they would tax based upon the bluebook value unless both parties were standing there saying that it was a gift from father to daughter or somesuch. The whole thing became this charade and hassle for the clerks.
Somehow that message actually reached our political-critters and they changed the law… within our state.
Really nice when you’re the type like me that buys beaters and drives em into the ground and then buys another.
How interesting, mudlike!
My dad gave me an extra car of his when ours got totalled in return for my old guitar that he was already using to take lessons with. I wrote “guitar” for the purchase price on the title and the clerk never batted an eye.
Makes me wonder what else she’d seen … .
I would have done what the woman said and fudged the amount, most definitely.
When I was younger I thought that you always had to be scrupulously honest or the government would somehow FIND you and put you in jail.
Now I know that self-made millionnaires got there EXACTLY BECAUSE of situations like this.
I mean, think about it! WHO is going to come back and CHECK how much you paid for the used car? The licensing lady? The Big Bad Government People who make the laws in the first place? Would any of them care if Miss Satori didn’t tell the truth on the “Amount Paid” line?
NO. So that basically means that if the front line worker doesn’t care, NOBODY CARES. That’s like a gift from above: “Here you go! You get to keep your hard earned money. JACKPOT!”
This new awareness that “nobody is watching” was taught to me by my ex, who, amusingly enough, has a Capricorn moon just like satori!