Do you have your membership card?

I have a sore back this morning. I went to the doctor about it and he told me I have fat wallet syndrome. My wallet is so fat that it makes me sit at an angle which hurts my posture and hence causes back pain.

So I looked through my wallet to try to make it thinner. It was not excess amounts of cash causing the problem. First I threw out lots of old worthless receipts. Then I reduced to three the number of my own business cards. That left me with: a drivers license, debit card, credit card, disabled ID card, four health insurance cards, Neptune society card (in case I croak I have already made my own arrangements), my doctor's card with appointment info, an emergency information card, library card, Target card, Walgreen's card, Safeway card, Albertson's card, Starbucks card and coffee punchcard, coffee punchcard from the corner store, a few more membership cards and finally my gun safety ID card.

Most of those I need to carry but there are all those grocery store and pharmacy membership cards that are forced on you in order to buy bread for three bucks instead of five bucks and so forth. I am tired of having to carry all of these membership cards!!! Why do I need a card to buy bread cheaper? Or my prescriptions? Why can't the stores just offer one low price for all? Well the answer of course is because the stores want to track your purchases and spy on your personal life. They keep track of every single item you buy and then profile you for targeted marketing. Big brother is watching you and never forgets what you bought.

I hate this part of our modern society. Everybody wants to track and profile me. Do I buy generics or name brands? Am I a careful price aware shopper or am I impulsive? The stores all know. Or at least they think they know. All these retailers tracking me combined with Facebook and Google and every other web site I go to with all their tracking cookies and copious records of my purchases and internet usage makes it seem like I and my habits are really valuable. But all I get out of all these cards is a fat wallet that causes my back to get sore. They can all go to hell with their membership cards and tracking cookies.