“…About a third of people considering plastic surgery reported average household incomes below $30,000, according to a survey conducted in 2004 for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
…The car analogy came up frequently in interviews with more than 30 doctors and patients.
… ‘What does it cost to amortize a nose over the useful life of it?’ Dr. Kotler said. ‘It costs 30 cents a day, cheaper than a can of soda, and unlike a car, you get the benefit of a nose for the rest of your life.’
… Lani Guzman, 21, who works part-time jobs as an administrator at a law firm and at a carpet company in South Pasadena, Calif., had surgery in May to smooth a bump on her nose that had been bothering her for years, she said. She put $5,000 on a credit card and took out a three-year loan with a financing firm for the other $5,000.
‘They charged dumb fees like $650 to put the loan together, which is kind of a rip-off,” said Ms. Guzman, who also serves in the Army Reserve. She said she pays $178.01 monthly to the finance company and does not know how long it will take her to pay off the debt on her credit card.
… ‘Financing gives the average person like me the opportunity to do this without having to wait,’ Ms. Cornier [a mother who took out a $10,800 loan for the procedure] said. [Does the average person really need a better than average face?]” From the NYTimes
the empirical skeptic 