Toyota Repair: 96 Toyota Camry V6 LE trouble code P0420, toyota camry v6, power steering pumps

Question
Dear Sir,

I have taken the liberty of reading the past Q & A regarding this P0420 trouble code, so you won't be hopefully repeating yourself too much.  Here's the deal.  I bought the car used at 87,500 miles.  After 100 miles, check engine light came on, it was this P0420 code, which refers to the cat converter.  Great, right?  I absolutely refuse (sort of) to get the cat converter fixed/replaced this soon after purchasing the car.  Especially since I simply cleared the code and it pass smog just fine (incidentally, if the cat converter is bad, how can it pass smog?).  Anyway, why should I replace the cat converter, if it passes smog?  I mean, perhaps, at a later point and as cheap as possible, I might repair it, but why should I?  If when the car needs to be smogged again, I need to fix it, then so be it, but I don't care about the environment enough to spend $1,000 for a stupid new cat converter that apparently doesn't have much purpose.  Anyway, I feel like I got cheated on this car, that the seller new about this and was pawning off the car to me on purpose, so why should I fix it?  My main question amongst the others, is will this do the car any harm if I do not or delay fixing this stupid, stupid cat converter?  Also, are there any service bulletins on this subject on the 96' Camry V6 LE?  I've heard these camry's are top of the line, but I've also heard this P0420 code is common (not to mention the power steering pumps commonly going out), so what's the deal?  That doesn't say "top of the line" to me...if it's a common problem.....?  Please, please, HELP!?

Answer
There were no service bulletins issued for the 1996 Camry regarding the P)420 dtc, the catalityc converter's sole reason for existing is to reduce emissions from the engine, the onboard computer sees an inefficient cat as a problem and turns the light on, it is possible that the emission limits in your state are higher than the computer's built in parameters so it is possible to pass the smog test with a somewhat inefficient cat, one concern with a cat that is becoming inefficient is that it may start to disintegrate and start to clog itself up, this may take some time but it can happen, then there will be a noticeable loss of power. There are aftermarket converters availbale at most muffler shops for about half the price as the OEM so you may want to consider going that way.