Getting what you pay for

I don't know how much we really trick people into doing things they don't want to do or being in relationships they don't want to be in. I think the most we can be blamed for is getting people to want things they otherwise wouldn't want. A good example is when I was growing up, a vacuum cleaner salesman came to my house. My mother sat with him for hours, watching his demonstration and trying out the vacuum. The vacuum was absurdly expensive, the price of a cheap used automobile. She is a little bit of a germaphobe, though, with mild allergies. To her, the hope and promise of the vacuum cleaner as panacea was enough so she bought it. That vacuum cleaner worked ok, I guess, but only for a few years before it was relegated to a closet. Was she manipulated into buying it? Yes, but I also think in a way that she got her money's worth.

Now that I write this with my adult mind I wonder if there was something else going on with the vacuum salesman...