Fun Online Polls: Financial Innovation & Being taken for a mug

It appears that we agree with Paul Volcker - 47% of those who took part in last week's Fun Online Poll thought that cash machines were the most useful financial innovation of the last few decades.

"On-line banking" was an honourable runner-up with 25% of the votes; with "Direct Debits" and "Structured credit default swaps" as distant also rans (I personally really like DD's, but hey). And if anybody happens to know what a SCDS is, then please do your own post explaining the merits and link to it in the comments.
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Returning to my previous post, Adam C, in the comments, insists on perpetuating The Big Fat Lie underpinning VAT - that not only are most individuals prepared to pay more for something than it is actually worth to them personally; but that they can somehow magically spend more money than they actually have available. If either of these assumptions are incorrect (and IMHO both are incorrect) then VAT is the tax which depresses economic activity more than any other.

So that's the question for this week's Fun Online Poll; "In general, are people prepared to pay more for something than its value to them personally?" I accept that everybody makes 'impulse' purchases that they regret later, I mean 'in general, at that point in time and given a limited budget'. And if you are minded to answer "Yes" then please tell me whether they cut back their spending on other items to compensate, or whether the extra money that they have to spend on buying above-market value goods and services magically appears from nowhere.

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