But did you check?

A colleague of mine spends a great deal of her free time rehabilitating injured native animals. It's a worthy pursuit and in pursuance of that pursuit she recently bought 2000 worms to provide as food for an injured plover - which I'm led to understand is some kind of bird and not, as I first thought, an assistant tractor driver. And I asked her, in a moment of "oh God, it's still only Tuesday" ridiculousness whether she had, in fact, actually counted the worms to ensure that she'd been given full measure for her money.

And she vouchsafed to me that she had not, in fact, counted the little fellas but had estimated, based on the fact that the quantity was about twice as many as she'd been previously sold as 1000 worms, that she'd got what she paid for.

The obvious failing in that check mechanism will be immediately apparent.

As we discussed these weighty matters, it occurred to me that worm vendors are probably not the only people counting on the fact that we don't count. Or measure. Or check a before and after state to see if we have, in fact, gotten the benefit that we paid for.

Are your teeth noticeably whiter in only 14 days? Did you take a photo at the start of the treatment and then, in comparable lighting conditions, take another photo at the end of the fortnight to check? Or, have you, like most of us, kind of done it most days in the two week period then stood, turning to catch the light, in front of the mirror so that you can delude yourself that the caffeine and nicotine stains are half a shade of putrescense lighter?

Or, even more likely, did you go one step of self-delusion further an ask a person whose sex life depends on being supportive and sympathetic about it?

While we're on "noticeable", what about those abs? Only 15 minutes a day. Are your abs noticeably firmer? They're certainly noticeably completely unlike those on the man with with the rigor mortis smile who was using the thing on TV,. but are they noticeably anything at all other than that? Did you take some photos to support you claim for your money back (less postage, handling and shipping to the warehouse in Zaire)? Hmmm

Of course, there are times when not checking is a self-preservative - such as when you give a gift. On the rare occasions when we select a gift carefully - and don't grab the least inappropriate object at Target and, post purchase, convince yourself that the receiver will love it - you don't really know if it's something that they will cherish.

The conveyed first impression is no guide as I've yet to come across a person who tore through the wrapping and greeted the contents with an honest "Well, I hope that didn't cost you much." They say it's wonderful, we feel the self-righteous glow of giving. We do not need that glow to be diluted by the reality that the receiver's life has not been transformed by a kind-of-hand-made bright red coffee mug with Santa bells on it - so we don't go back and check.

Government grants programs work in a similar way. The minister announces something - a nice big headline number with the word "millions" after it, there's a launch and the relevant rent seekers stakeholders are there for the photo op. No one but no one wants to know if the money achieved what it was earmarked for. That wasn't the purpose of the program.

We don't check because we don't want to know. Subconsciously we fear that most of the things we spend money on are pointless, useless, ill-received, misguided or rip-offs.

Better not to know.