You ordered a side of soup. They gave you fries. You like fries. You eat the fries.

The farther you are above the poverty line, the more likely you are not to pursue reparations that clink in a piggy bank. The justification: it’s not worth your time.

From a purely rational economic standpoint, that’s probably true. Your time is worth $X per hour, and it would take Y too many hours to pursue, where Y × X is too big to measure in nickels and dimes.

There’s another view worth considering.

Every time you get stiffed, whether it’s because your cable provider raised your monthly bill by $1.19 or because a gas pump said you put 20.7 gallons in your 20-gallon tank, it’s an opportunity. A drill.

It’s a chance to practice one of the most valuable skills anyone can possess: knowing how to ask for what you want. And getting it more often than not.

The immediate dollar value of righting a tiny little wrong is small, but the downstream payoff can be immense if you get good at it. And by good, I mean comfortable.

Today it’s about $1.05. One day it could be about $1.05 million. Practice may not make perfect, but it usually makes money.