What things do you buy that are equivalent to paying an "IQ tax"?

IQ tax, what the hell?

Go to Putuo Mountain on New Year's Day and stay overnight in the mountain. On the first night when I arrived at Mount Putuo, it was only 4 o'clock in the morning when I heard the murmuring outside the window and the squeaking of a large group of people moving forward in whispers - where did the night march come from? !

I wonder: It’s so cold! So late? So early? It turns out that these people are rushing to pay the IQ tax just for the sake of getting rich. That's right, this is the IQ tax, which is the tax paid to the country by people with relatively low IQs. Generally, it refers to the money they spent wasted due to lack of judgment when shopping. These wasted money is called Low IQ tax.

Thinking about it carefully, although I think I have a high IQ, I have paid a lot of IQ tax over the years! Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.

For example, back then, I often read real estate forums on the Tianya Forum, and the experts said every day that house prices were going to fall. Then there was Xie Guozhong's blog claiming that China's real estate would fall by more than 50%. I waited until 2005 to buy a house in 2008. As a result, everyone knew it even if I didn’t tell them. It’s not that I have a low IQ, it’s that Niu Dao and Xie Guozhong have low IQs, okay!

Another example is 2008. Watch the stock soar up to 6,000 points. I also rushed in after not investing in stocks for many years. Soon, the stock market began to plummet, from more than 6,000 points in 2008 to below 2,000 points in 2013! Pay a lot of IQ tax again!

Later, I thought about it carefully. The number of IQ taxes that I have been hit with over the years, or the IQ taxes that I have almost been hit with, or the IQ taxes that my friends around me have been hit with, is really "too numerous to list"!

Let me list some of them at will to see if one of them is suitable for you.

1. Double 11, Double 12. Every time, when Double 11 and Double 12 are approaching, the Internet, news, and TV are overwhelming! Their ads are everywhere you look. If you didn’t buy anything during those two days, you would be embarrassed to say hello when you meet. Of course, you bought a lot of things in this day that you may not use at all, just to say: Well, this is my trophy today when you check Moments. It seemed like he had taken a huge advantage - in fact, it just made Jack Ma so happy and the courier guy so tired!

2. eZubao. From the beginning to the end of the year, there are various "XX treasures" and various "XX loans" in 2015. Coming strong. Fortunately, I haven’t played any other treasures except Yu’e Bao. Otherwise, I would have to hang out banners with others these days.

3. Crowdfunding. The story of my crowdfunded cafe from the beginning of the year. Before the end of the year, crowdfund a trip. A journey. It is said that those who participate in crowdfunding cafes can drink coffee for a lifetime! So if I participate in crowdfunding for a hotel once, can I manage the food for the rest of my life? Later, I heard that the owner of the crowd-funded cafe disappeared, and then there was no trace.

4. Jicao (similar to health care products). Whether at the airport or on the high-speed train, the Jicao advertisements there dominate the screen. It is said that people who eat such "the best of grass" will not buy it, and those who buy it will not eat it.

5. Various membership cards. I still remember the year 2009. I got a membership card for a barber shop on Hankou Road in Nanjing. I recharged 500 yuan, but before I went there twice, the boss and the clerk disappeared! It’s not that I have a low IQ, I’m too kind: maybe my boss wants me to keep my hair long?

6. Sell a kidney and buy six apples. When I first saw someone selling a kidney to buy an iPhone in 2014 online, I was shocked! I always thought this must be a soft article from Apple. It's so vulgar! Later it was discovered that it was actually just Apple's distributors in mainland China bragging about themselves.

But is an iPhone really worth selling a kidney for? Does everyone really need an iPhone? Even if you are just a college student with no income at all? Later, I saw the news that a college student borrowed 2,000 from a loan company online to spend a lot of money. Two years later, when the creditor demanded a repayment of 700,000, I didn’t I’m more surprised: there is no lowest IQ, only lower!

7. Thai Buddha amulet. I remember it became very popular in 2013 and 2014. In the circle of friends at that time, I wanted to listen. Some girls said that if you buy a Thai Buddhist amulet, you can get rid of villains. I was thinking at the time, are there so many villains around you? Are there so many villains around us? Isn’t it said that “a firm materialist is fearless”? I see you are obviously not a materialist! At least not firm enough!

8. Masters such as Zhang Wuben provide us with health-preserving prescriptions. There are also thick health books like "It is Better to Seek Medical Treatment than to Seek Yourself", which provide us with health care plans. Before I had time to read them, before I had time to believe them, they were already being stripped off by the TV stations and newspapers, and their skin was peeled off, layer after layer. Its rise and fall are also sudden!

9. Various "super memory methods", "speed reading methods", and "reading a book in 10 minutes". If it is really that great, then mom will no longer have to worry about our studies! When I was 15, I was doing mail order. It cost 20 yuan. I bought a set of super memory methods. But after looking at it for 3 days, I threw it away. Because I found that I still have to memorize a word 10 times before I can remember it.

10. "Earn 1,000 Yuan a Day" and "Secrets to Earn 500 Yuan a Day." Price: 198 yuan. It was sold so cheaply that I was embarrassed to buy it.

11. Hotel, male and female public relations recruitment. The salary is 800 yuan per day, paid daily. When I was in college, I heard that one of my classmates applied for a job. I was defrauded of 800 in one day. It seems that my IQ is still a little higher than his.

12. Unsecured loans. Place payment on the same day. Starting from 200,000! Handling fee is also waived. What's going on? Is it really true that running into communism?

13. You can win 10 million with 2 yuan. I see news every day in the newspapers about winning jackpots of millions or tens of millions by buying lottery tickets. I wonder why no one around me has ever won a grand prize of even 100,000 yuan. Why do those who win the lottery only live in newspapers and in the news?

(A few items will be omitted hereafter)

In fact, is there any "IQ tax"? All those who have been deceived, cheated, deceived, and spent money in vain are, in the final analysis, nothing more than "greed", "laziness", and "vanity."

Therefore, Tang Bohu wrote in "Peach Blossom Temple": "Others laugh at me for being too crazy, but I laugh at others because they can't see through it. There are no tombs of heroes in Wuling, and there are no flowers and no wine for hoeing."

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1. Go to the cinema to watch bad movies with touching ratings such as Grand Mir and Little Times;

2. Grab tickets from scalpers and go to the venue to cheer for the national pig. , even if they lost, they would not comment, and the players would choke back: "You can do it, you can do it";

3. I watched Korean dramas and thought Korea was very good, but when I went there I found that the scenery was all small counties, and the food was all instant noodles;

4. My little boy works so hard. He still practices dancing when he has a fever of 40 degrees. Why do you still resent him? . . It's the same as saying others don't work hard. . .

5. Not using Huawei is unpatriotic. . .

To put it bluntly, the most common ones are the following three, all of which are paying IQ tax. 1. Stock up on goods due to various merchant promotions.

For example, our common super discounts, large package purchases, membership memberships, interest-free installments... these all seem to be great ways to save money. But it actually cost you a lot more money.

I have a friend who often complains about her mother, who always likes to stock up: "Buy three get one free on supermarket tissue paper, can I stock up two boxes for you?" "50% off laundry detergent, how much can I stock up for you? Bottle? ”

This kind of buy-three-get-one-free, 50% off everything, made her mother waste a lot of money.

Some time ago, a friend of mine was telling me that her mother saw yams being sold in bundles on a cart on the roadside, half the price than in the supermarket, so she bought three big bundles in one go.

The next daily breakfast was steamed yam, boiled yam, yam porridge, yam pork rib soup... After a week of eating, the whole family felt like vomiting when they saw the yam. Moreover, the uneaten yams became moldy and were all thrown away. Counting these, dozens of dollars were actually wasted.

2. Purchase various types of stored-value cards

There should be many people who apply for stored-value cards, but they are all gray.

A girl in our company applied for a card at a beauty salon next to the community. She bought 10 times for 5,000 yuan and got 5 free gifts. Not long after I bought it, I moved, and the remaining 9 times in the card were never used again, which was a waste of 3,000 yuan.

The same goes for fitness cards. Many people practice once on the same day they buy the card. Later, the coach calls every day and urges them to go to the gym, but they don’t want to go. There are also various store value cards: 500 stored value, 100 free, etc. After recharging, you will not go back after using it once or twice.

The price may be a good deal and the things are really needed, but if you buy too much, it becomes a burden. 3. Things that are frequently purchased online.

Online shopping is indeed cheap and convenient. But, you know what? In fact, you have paid a lot of IQ tax without realizing it.

Platforms like Taobao have big data teams. Their purpose is to:

Constantly test various Choose posters, colors, gimmicks, and see which one makes you buy more and more.

When you put the product into the shopping cart, a whole column of product recommendations will pop up, called:

"People who are interested in this product also bought these ...".

At this time, you will be curious and go in and look at them one by one. In the end, they are all lined up and put into your shopping cart.

This is the routine of e-commerce big data. They use massive consumption data to calculate everyone's consumption habits and preferences, and push things you don't need at the moment but are very interested in, to your eyes.

You may unknowingly buy a lot of things you don’t need.

How to avoid this happening? I can teach you a method:

Put something in the shopping cart, don’t place an order and pay for it, let it sit for a week.

After a week, those things that are not necessary will lose their appeal.

There is another way to avoid these IQ taxes. When making purchases, ask yourself a question -

Which one do you choose between giving you this thing or giving you an equal amount of money? ?

If you choose something, it means you really need it.

If you choose money, it means you have been tricked.

It is very effective. After many people try this method, they rarely buy random things again.

In fact, the IQ tax is a very vivid abstract concept. Let me explain it to you. To put it bluntly, many people call the IQ tax the low IQ tax.

That is to say, because you lack the ability to judge during shopping, you will spend more money. This unnecessary money is called low IQ tax. Let me give you some examples:

First, for example, some people don’t need a product at all, but they can’t help but buy it when they go to the store. After that, they have no use at all. The main money is actually equivalent to paying taxes to the merchant.

Second, many people blindly enter the stock market or futures market, but do not consult and learn from professional knowledge at all. They blindly trade stocks and end up losing money. This is also a low IQ tax.

Third, house prices are rising every day, but many people listen to experts and say that they are going to fall. In the end, they endure it for countless years and are forced to sell houses with high housing prices. This is also a kind of redundant consumption. Those with low IQ pay taxes.

Fourth, people who like to follow trends are basically people who pay low IQ taxes. For example, they follow the trend on Double Eleven, follow the trend on Christmas, travel on National Day, and spread money on May Day. They are all blindly consuming, which means they belong to the category of low-IQ people, which is equivalent to paying low-IQ taxes.

Based on the above situations, you can see that in fact, the IQ tax is an abstract concept. As long as we carefully calculate our own funds and consume reasonably, then your expenses will be wasted. , now that the economy is in decline, we must cherish our own funds and control our consumption.

If we say that we have paid the largest IQ tax in our lives, I think my mother-in-law is a classic.

I don’t know if it exists in other places.

In our area, something called “Xilaijian” is very popular.

It sells massages. Bed. Treats cervical spine, lumbar spine, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high blood lipids, back pain,,,,

In short, all the diseases you can think of can be treated by lying on this bed.

How about it? Amazing, right? Incredible, right?

No way, it’s such a good effect.

Their store is free to try,

There are so many old men and old ladies,

My mother-in-law starts queuing up every morning at 9,

You can experience it once from morning to 12 o'clock.

What do you do at other times?

Listen to the lecture, the so-called experts are telling you common sense about health care.

When it is not too busy in the afternoon, you can also queue up and wait for the experience.

If you are lucky, you can experience it once. If you are not lucky, if there are many people, you will have to wait in vain.

Oh, no, the wait is not in vain, there are experts who are continuing to brainwash you.

Just like that, after three months of insisting on trying it, my mother-in-law finally told us that we wanted to buy this bed.

There was no way, in her mind, buying it meant making money. There is no.

To live frugally for the rest of my life is just such a wish,

His eyes are pitiful and his voice is full of emotions.

My husband and I knew we were being deceived,

so we tried our best to stop it.

Forgot to mention, a so-called massage table is like a single chair that accompanies a bed in a hospital.

It costs 30,000 yuan.

I thought that if I tried to persuade her, she would give up.

Who knows, one day half a month later, someone suddenly brought the bed to their home. ,

By the way, I gave away a lot of so-called gifts

They were all very small trial items such as soaps and hand creams.

Let’s talk about this bed,

I feel that the only function is that it can be heated by electricity,

As for other things,,,,

It’s really I can't feel it, okay.

Just think of it as paying an IQ tax.

I always thought that only by purchasing those "three-no" products and various "artifacts" distributed by micro-businesses can I pay the IQ tax. In fact, there are still many pitfalls in real life... IQ tax products.

Let’s give a few examples. The first one is health care products for middle-aged and elderly people.

I don’t want to say that all health products are rubbish. After all, some vitamin X is still useful. but! Most of the health products on the market are really only harmful to the body! If something really goes wrong with your body, you can only go to the hospital! Stop taking health supplements! It is better to maintain a healthy eating and living habits and a balanced diet than to take health supplements, which is best for the body.

If you, as a child, really want to care about your parents, you might as well buy some truly useful supplements and healthy food to show your concern. If conditions permit, it is best to take the elderly to a regular hospital for physical examinations regularly. This way, you can truly be responsible for the elderly and reassure the elderly that they are no longer so "fearful of death." But I was deceived by those on the market that increase bone density, cod liver oil, etc.

Second, there are unknown beauty clinics, massage tubes, and traditional Chinese medicine clinics offering acupuncture, cupping, and massage.

The services at these places are quick! What does "crash" mean? It means paying for three or four days of training, finding a job, and then coming to trick you! It can be said that they have no understanding of medicine! If there is no problem, let’s talk about it later! The point is, the price is still very high! It can easily cost several hundred! Did you know that these services only cost a few dozen yuan when going to a tertiary hospital and are guaranteed?

Third, this is probably my recent experience of being cheated. It’s the cinema card of xx Cinema! Cinema card!

As a young person, it is impossible not to watch movies! So I bought movie tickets online and found that the movie downstairs has long-term discounts if I use a cinema card. After purchasing the cinema card, the price is very attractive, and it is a few dollars cheaper. It will also be a few bucks cheaper in the future! So I bought it. Unexpectedly, after purchasing it! The price of movie tickets has suddenly increased by 10 yuan! It was supposed to be a few bucks cheaper in the future, but now it's a few bucks more expensive. and! It will cost a few bucks more to buy movie tickets in the future! Doesn’t it sound silly to think about it this way, or am I just too naive?

All cosmetics and health products

In today's society, as long as you are willing to spend money, there is no problem that cannot be solved. People are induced or deceived by fictitious facts or hidden truths to invest time and money in certain products and services. These are called IQ taxes. These IQ taxes come in all varieties. For example, TV medical advertisements, radiation-proof clothing for pregnant women, remote infrared therapy devices for the elderly and other medical devices can cure cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, vitiligo, androtropy and other difficult and complicated diseases, increase height, increase weight, and lose weight without side effects. , body beauty and breast augmentation, Qigong treatment: one shot of gonorrhea is effective, etc. Star chasing. Buying expensive cosmetics can delay aging and improve your appearance. Various financial products, small investment, high returns. Various cram schools, college entrance exams, civil service exams with guaranteed scores and guaranteed passes, and contract appraisals. Various breeding training courses will ensure you make a fortune and become a boss. Various training agencies guarantee technical training, guarantee supply of raw materials, guarantee you make money, etc. Seeking wealth is a normal wish of every person, but pie will not fall in the world. Love of beauty is also human nature, and the desire to relieve the pain of illness is the greatest hope of human beings. However, the development of science is far behind the lies of liars. Studying and becoming an official will not be easy in one day. Jumping out of the dragon's gate is everyone's dream. If you can do it, all the teachers' sons will be officials. If you understand this, you won't pay taxes on your IQ.

From personal experience, I received a call from bank customer service in 2017 and spent nearly 6,000 yuan. In 20 years, I felt it was of no use, so I found someone to sell it for 900 yuan.

In 2017, I once received a sales call from a bank, saying that they were selling a set of commemorative coins. They were Belt and Road commemorative coins, a complete set.

Actually, I like collecting commemorative coins, but I don’t know much about them.

The salesman said that One Belt One Road is very popular. If you keep it for a few years, its value will increase greatly in the future.

I knew about the Belt and Road Initiative, so I believed in it.

At that time, more than 5,500 was directly deducted from the credit card, and it was in installments.

After that, something good came in the mail. It was a big box. I happily took it home, and it was also very heavy.

I couldn’t wait to open it when I got home. It’s really beautiful. There are currencies from various countries along the Belt and Road (both banknotes and coins), stamps, commemorative coins, etc. There are quite a lot of things. When I saw it was worth it, I put it away.

Later, I asked a friend about it, and he said that it was worthless.

Later, I checked the information one after another, and it was very unsatisfactory.

Later, I saw someone collecting commemorative coins on WeChat Moments, so I added him on WeChat and took a photo. He said he would give me 800 at most, which made me angry, so I said he would give me more. , he said up to 900.

So, I bought this thing for more than 5,000 yuan, collected it for three years, and finally sold it for 900 yuan. Can you understand my feelings?

I will never buy commemorative coins again.