Reaping the rewards of stupidity

I loved this piece from the South African Times last week, claiming that stupidity is our biggest renewable resource. It’s certainly true that many corporations make a healthy profit from human stupidity. And I don’t sit in judgement on the stupids: we all have tendencies towards this behaviour, after all. Even someone with a high IQ could have a healthy dose of added stupidity – the kind that dupes that person into (for instance) telephoning to save a Welsh person on Strictly Come Dancing, failing to double-check the car breakdown policy, or convincing themselves that they shouldn’t see out their youth without driving the new Jaguar. Any of these stupid mistakes equates to lucrative profit for the big guys. That’s why Channel 4 made £3 million from the Big Brother phone lines in 2006 (for those wondering, that’s why they’re broadcasting yet another series this week). What do you mean stupid? We’re all human. And that’s a resource that will never run out on us.

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