First to hit the scene was the prepaid phone. Remember that? You could get a low-grade refurbished phone, put like 30 minutes for $30 on it and suddenly you were mobile. Just like that! No social security number. No deposit and still you were finally apart of the 21st century. The downside was the phone itself and of course the amount you were paying to charge it up- both was a hot mess but we got over that. We’ve been living bare minimum since we got off the boat in chains, so what did that mean to us? We almost weren’t talking at all. Are we really going to throw a fit about not having the latest tech-savvy phone to hit the market?
Oh but now! Now you can get some of the hottest phones that even contract phones offer and the loading cost is ten times better. For a flat fee, you can get unlimited everything and be done. The only potential downside left is that you usually have to buy the phone outright but even that is starting to disappear. We can go to Wal-Mart and buy a sweet phone for an awesome price now and T-Mobile extends the ability to pay for a phone over time instead of upfront.
Now that prepaid sales have exceeded contract sales, other services are jumping on the bandwagon and even white folks are beginning to see the beauty in it. Prepaid electricity is even catching on, but prepaid electric is still in its beginning stages and isn’t always such a great idea. It really depends on your situation. If you suck up a lot of energy for whatever reason, I wouldn’t go prepaid energy. Otherwise, prepaid can be a sweet deal.
Let’s face it, as black people we really don’t care much for commitment and we look at long-term responsibility sideways. I think it’s embedded in us from 400 years of enslavement. The energy of it strikes up an ancestral memory that innately sends us running and we can’t even explain why. Tell us we are indebted to faceless white folks for a locked in 2-years that will come at a hefty price to break, charge us well over $100 monthly and then leave us stuck with the same phone even after a newer, better version comes out a month after you bought that one, and something about it will speed up the heart rate. Feet get to itching to run and we usually do. And definitely don’t fix your mouth to start asking for social security numbers and driver’s license and going on. We will soon be out of your store!
But thank the Lord some genius thought of prepaid. Some greedy, money-hungry genius sat up trying to figure out how to get all the money from everywhere he could, including the broke and bad credit- well thank God for you. Where would black folks be without it? Because of prepaid, I can see my broke brothers and sisters walking down the sidewalk, they ain’t got no car… but they sho’ can talk!
