Have Faith in Your Government

Even the Treasury, it seems, is not without a sense of humor. Included with my refund check (WOOHOO!) was an informational flier with the title "Don't Be a Victim of Predatory Lending or Other Bad Deals," which at first glance seemed like a thoughtful thing for the Treasury Department to include in this Era Of Madoff. Further inspection, however, revealed this delight in small print at the bottom:

For more free information, the U.S. Department of Treasury invites you to: visit www.mymoney.gov or text* "smart" to 22122 on your mobile phone.
* Standard message rates apply. Other charges may apply.

Now, if you're like me, and you stay up way past your bed time watching television programs that you could probably live without, you're well familiar with what "other charges may apply" tends to mean. For the uninitiated, it means that the recipient of your text will not only sell your phone number, they will also automatically sign you up for their own dodgy subscription service at an outlandish monthly rate. It seems like kind of a bad deal to me that the Treasury Department has been reduced to such practices to pay off the bailouts, but I guess everyone's just trying to get by as best they can these days.

Jerks.