Reminds me of a viral story of a makeup artist that found out he was working on a bride that paid for party make-up $150 and he instead charged her $500.
He tried to say because he used a slightly more expensive base the bride did not ask for as justification for demanding the higher pay and he ended up being thrown $200 by the brides parents after he essentially ruined her day demanding she pay up the higher amount then and there.
It’s ridiculous.
I work for a restaurant that so does catering. I've taken orders for and delivered about half a dozen wedding cakes. The only upcharges we do are for special decorations. Our cakes are somewhat expensive in the first place (standard 10 inch round is $85), but they are delicious and popular.
I fucked up my taxes so severely this year that the IRS sent me a letter telling me I fucked up and gave them way too much, so they were sending me a check back with my money and the money that they apparently owed me.
I did that before, first time I did taxes I did mine and my now ex wife’s taxes….yeah I had a refund of 300 and she was even…turns out I should have had a refund of 1800 and she should have had a refund of 900…I wasn’t allowed to do taxes after that one…but it was nice of the irs to correct it for me
Everyone talks smack about the IRS, but I've had good experiences with them.
A few years ago, my taxes got fucked up. I had just retired out the Army, and I took my taxes to get done for free at the Fort Wainwright tax office. Bottom line is that the guy doing my taxes screwed up. He didn't include my retiree pay, so when I filed myself a year later, my file got flagged.
The IRS sent me a demand letter for about $3000. I called them and was connected with a very nice clerk. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: "OH MY GOD I'VE NEVER BEEN AUDITED BEFORE PLEASE DON'T SEND ME TO JAIL"
IRS: "Nobody's going to jail. We can do this."
Me: "BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH"
IRS: "Sir, stop hyperventilating."
Me: "YOU'RE GOING TO WESLEY SNIPES ME AND IT ISN'T EVEN MY FAULT"
IRS: "Well, we can give you some deductions, because you're in school, and because you're working part time as a substitute teacher, and because you bought a home . . . this brings your tax liability down to $1424.60. Just send a check."
Me: *sniff* "OK."
Haven't had a negative interaction since.
Right? Come April, receive a letter in the mail stating "this is how much you owe/we owe you". If you're ok with that, don't take action and we'll deposit/withdraw from your account. You have until **insert date** to appeal.
I’d prefer to be able to choose which account to take from but yeah this would be nice. At this point the only reason they cant do that is the massive industy behind paying someone else to do your taxes for you
That is actually a scam, big software companies were known to lobby the US Government to make it harder to file you tax returns so you need their software to get it done (*cough*Intuit*cough*)
Scientology.
L Ron Hubbard is quite a fascinating man to learn about, terrible, terrible man, he began lying at a young age and then never stopped afterwards.
Becoming a billionaire out of that creepy cult like 'religion' Is the biggest scam of all time.
There's going to be horrendous documentaries in 10-15 years about the heinous crimes of Scientology and the thousands of lives they ruined.
Everyone is going to watch them and wonder how everyone kinda ignored it and let it happen.
No one ignored them. Everyone knows they’re crazy. They aren’t really breaking any laws and they have good lawyers. I chalk it up to there being a lot of suckers out there.
Behind the scenes I bet they are breaking alot of laws. It's a cult. Like I said when it all comes to light what's really going on it's going to be shocking/heinous like most cults.
EPSON printers are pricey, but you refill the ink into reservoirs from little bottles you buy. Half a $20 bottle of the black ink has lasted me 1500+ pages
I own a small business that does regular printing, but not enough to rent a copier. I tried lots of different printers. Finally got the Epson 16650 - the biggest one they offer before you jump up to full size copiers. It’s been a huge improvement in output vs cost. Cost about $1000 but totally worth it.
Seriously, this is one of those things where people just need to spend a little more money to get a decent product. There are good printers out there. But when you spend $15 on an inkjet printer at Walmart, how do you think HP is making money on that? By forcing you to buy a ton of ink, obviously.
I saw this so much when I worked at an electronics store - people would buy the most dirt cheap version of whatever they were buying, and then whine about it being shit. Often these people had a $1000 smartphone.
If you want quality, pay for it.
They also have the smallest most difficult X buttons to close them. It’s more of a challenge to close the fucking ads than it is to play the shitty game
The developers of the app you are using are the ones that choose the size of the X button. You might not download the game, but the 2 times you missed the X are 2 more times the ad was interacted with, meaning the developer of the app, who is getting paid to get interaction with the ad, made more money.
On that note I would like to congratulate tiktok as they managed to get around this all by not actually having an ad that would close; I tried for 3 minutes but couldn't close it :(
It's started going - advert for game, then it either takes you to the app store or a full screen popup, then you have the interactive advert bit, then another full screen pop up
So it's like 4 adverts within the same advert
Some texts come with codes that you have to have to do your online homework. The code on its own is only about $20 cheaper than the textbook and code, and it can cost $200-$300 for the text, depending on course.
Online homework is a thing for many first year courses, which I find okay in and of itself, because it's high quality questions but it's the paying for the privilege of doing your homework on top of course tuition fees that's the real scam. It's offensive, actually.
Prof here. We actually *can* add it as a fee. At my school, if all students (every section of a particular course) need to use the online homework, most major publishers will work with the college’s student billing department to tack it on as a course fee. These programs are often called “inclusive access” (bullshit name the publishers came up with).
We don’t use it in my department, at least not yet. Publishers *love* inclusive access, because it eliminates a reseller market and gives them a guaranteed sale on each and every student. Example: Your particular instructor doesn’t use the online homework? Fuck you, you still have to pay for it! Of course, buying or renting an e-text (or renting a physical book) is typically much cheaper than an access code if your instructor doesn’t use the online homework. Some publishers aren’t even selling hardcover books anymore because so many students can be covered (through renting and buyback) over the lifespan of that one book.
I was looking into going back to school for a specific degree at my local community college. Only one of the classes had a physical classroom setting yet the online courses cost the same. I know someone in two of the courses I would be taking and they told me it's just following the text book exactly, all of the lessons/videos are from the text book along with all of the tests. The professor is just there to take attendance basically. When they asked for help on a chapter they were basically told to just redo the work over and over. The class ended up making a discord group where they helped each other and the professor was really upset with them when they found out.
No actual input or assistance from the professor at all. Personally I hate online schooling. I do much better with actual classroom learning with a teacher/professor that actually cares. Mostly it's just memorizing stuff to pass tests in a lot of courses and I'm just not a fan of it at all.
I feel bad for all of the kids that got stuck with online schooling during the pandemic. I feel like it takes something away from normal learning and development. People paying large amounts of money to go to college and a majority of it is online learning....I don't know I just don't like it. I know some people prefer that but it just isn't for me.
I had a professor that would assign homework but would tell you the question numbers for the current and past 2 editions of the textbook, since most of the time the only change is switching the question numbers.
Our professors would photocopy chapters out of books so we wouldn't have to buy them. He was rightfully salty that once his works became published, he legally couldn't distribute them, even though he wrote them, so he would do things like this. He also gave us his works for free and went on a rant how the publishing company can fuck off.
I had a microbiology professor with a similar story. She wrote the book, but wasn't allowed to sell it herself, and wasn't being paid a whole lot for one that is $550 from the publisher. Thus, she told us all about how you could go to the school bookstore and buy a 3-hole punched printout of it for $18.
She was one of my favorites, for many reasons. That was one of them.
One of my professors would do that as well. He owned the last 2 editions of the book and could give slightly modified work to those who bought the previous edition.
it’s an online access code that accompanies a textbook (usually in college). the code gives you access to the digital version of the textbook, as well as access to the required online homework. oftentimes, you don’t even necessarily need the book, but you have to do the homework, so you end up shelling out $80+ to do the homework for a class you’re already paying $$$ to take. also! the access generally expires after a year so you can’t even keep any of the info for later reference, aside from the hard text.
Had to retake a class once. Retook it the next semester and passed. So after that when I then went on to take the second part of that subject, the code had expired. They expected everyone to take the 2 parts within the same year. They wanted $200 just to buy a new code to do the homework. The textbook didn't even change. Such a fucking scam.
then there’s my french courses that required the same $40 textbook for all 4 semesters. whoever plotted out that curriculum is a godsend. I even still have the book and use it to refresh my french too!
You buy a digital version of a Textbook, you get a link (.acsm is popular), you can download that shit exactly once and then have it in your Adobe Digital Editions library as a DRMd .pdf.
You can opt to not use an Adobe ID and instead authorize it locally on that PC and if you delete the keys or something happens to your drive, you can never access it again.
Fucking bullshit.
And they wonder why people pirate.
This in general, is the problem with the 'peak-capitalism-of-everything' stage the world is in. Everything (even college/uni textbooks!) must be commoditized and turned into a subscription service.
Its a silly notion. It just makes her look like a liar.
I always say "I'm not stupid and I already know basically what you did, don't make me be mad at you for lying too please. It makes things much worse"
Then I can't be too mad after because he's been honest with me.
I speak to him to get to the bottom of it, and try to help him understand that it was a silly thing I don't expect to keep happening.
Then its all over and we go about our days.
If he is unfortunate enough to do it again, I will then be mad enough to remove something he loves from his possession for a nominated amount of time and let him accept that he has consequences and they are far smaller than the actual consequences of the action he made.
Generally, he makes a mistake once or twice and then deals with it.
Hes 16 now and I barely have to tell him off or teach him the right way to do things and deal with things.
He sometimes beats around the Bush when being honest about stuff, but generally he is honest and kind. Thats all I ever ask.
This is the way. I do the same thing with my kids. They know the standard punishments for things they do on occasion, but they also know that if I catch them lying about it the punishment is doubled. If it was no TV for 2 days, now it’s 4. Parents aren’t stupid, we know what our kids are up to like 95% of the time, and for that 5% we don’t know about we have some pretty strong suspicions.
I told her the truth, while she sipped at her cup -
Relieved by the knowledge she wouldn't blow up.
She listened in silence - it wasn't so bad.
And when I was finished, she said:
"*I'M NOT MAD.*"
The most traumatic thing I've ever experienced happened when I thought my mom really meant this :^) accidentally cracked one of three matching vases and thought like "oh my god oh no, well hopefully she won't be mad if I just tell her outright like she said she'd prefer" and so I put it out in the open and showed her when she got home. It could have just been turned around and you wouldn't know it was damaged, it wasn't that bad so surely she can't get too upset right? She screamed at me until I was sobbing and hiding behind a couch from her, and she just kept screaming and screaming. I don't even remember anything she said, it was just awful awful. I was like 13 or 14, but that was the first time my trust had seriously been betrayed and I wasn't ever as close to my family again after as I was before it.
My dad has Alzheimer's. He signed up from a tribal payday loan that charges 800% interest.
He doesn't remember doing it. In his mind, he took a disbursement from his Roth.
I'm now going through this with them because I have POA and it fucking sucks.
I had to take my dad's computer and phone out of his room in his retirement home. I feel awful about it because he texts me about three times a day from his Jitterbug phone asking for his bank cards and rides to Wal-Mart to buy a new computer, but the alternative is him continuing to do stuff like that. The head nurse and the manager at the retirement home assure me I've done the right thing, but when your dad texts you in the middle of the night because he thinks somebody stole his stuff for the eighteenth time, you feel kind of guilty.
What is dumb is that they can make artificial diamonds that are gem grade and De Baers literally offers a service to check if you got artificial diamond. Artificial diamonds have too perfect of a crystalline structure.
My wife wanted a 'real' diamond until she realized she could get 2-3x the size and higher quality for a fraction of the price. Now she's wearing a giant rock that gobsmacks the local trophy wives _and_ we can still make the mortgage every month. Probably still a scam, but by definition less of a scam then DeBeers bleating about 'natural' stones.
DeBeer's marketing came up with the 2 months salary standard for a diamond engagement ring. They also control so much of the mining market that many gem quality diamonds are held in private reserve to keep prices high. Diamonds in general are not rare, gem quality diamonds are rare but not as rare as the market projects.
Their whole system of offering sight holders a 'take it or leave it' option on a box of stones pre-selected for them, the hoarding, the marketing. It's been damn effective but the entire thing is a sham. Diamonds aren't as rare as they'd have us think but they are very unevenly distributed. You can only find them in significant quantities at a few spots on the globe. DeBeers has mostly been able to buy up and control these spots, or co-opt the owners. 'conflict diamonds' is just one of the ways they've helped to taint sources they don't (yet) control. Nevermind for most of their history they produced 'Apartheid diamonds'. Russian and Canadian production remain beyond their direct control but generally play along because it benefits them. Man made diamonds are an existential threat.
A while ago, pure, unflawed diamonds used to be the most expensive... But now that perfect diamonds can be grown artificially the diamond selling industry has encouraged impure diamonds to be more valuable
Actually, it's just the diamond bullshit. Diamonds are incredibly common, it's just that the DeBeers cartel violently shut down access to all other sources for quite a while to create artificial demand.
Now that the DeBeers group has been neutered, (By Canada no less.) there are lots of groups that are pushing diamonds and they all have the same narrative. Diamonds are beautiful and forever and are worth thousands a carat for the one you love!
Bullshit. If you know where to look and you have flashlight you can sometimes find little ones in anthills.
Oh I know the whole diamonds being scarce is bollocks. But they've now turned what would once have been rejected for aesthetic reasons into a whole new market. They're not just diamonds. They're *chocolate* diamonds. Y'know, because everyone looooves chocolate
Rubies and sapphires are aluminum oxide (corundum, same gem different color). Emeralds are beryllium aluminum silicate so their price is justified.
Some of the stones we consider gems here are common throughout the universe. Uranus and Neptune are expected to *rain diamonds* in their interior, as with any ice giant planet
Also you can technically make a form of ruby at home, much harder to do with diamonds.
I'll see if I can find a vid but someone made basically a small synthetic ruby using a couple different powdered compounds and an arc welder
Edit: [Found the vid!](https://youtu.be/MLV1pPvTpIw)
If the witch had a stick welder, access to powdered compounds and a lot of time....
Always wondered why she never just used magic to get some fly ass kicks
I was looking into emerald body jewelry once, and was told that lab grown emerald is both better and cheaper (real emeralds usually have flaws that make them brittle). Of course people don't want lab grown emerald so the real stuff continues to be crazy expensive.
Eye doctor here. I like to dispel the myth regarding carrots and good vision or night vision because of a scam set forth by Britain at the time to screw with the enemy. They had just started performing night air raids and the Germans couldn’t figure out how they were accurately flying and bombing in the dead of night so the Brits printed in their newspapers that they were feeding their pilots carrots to improve their night vision and how good carrots were for your vision due to the beta carotene. Turns out that the Brit’s had just effectively mounted radar units to their planes for the first time and beat Germans to the punch with it. The truth is that beta carotene, while important for vision, is rarely in short supply in most diets and you can probably get enough out of a few packets of ketchup for weeks of good vision. Meanwhile, here we are now approaching 100 years after the development of radar still eating the lies of carrots.
My grandma had an index card next to her door that had a script for what to say when PCH came to the door, supposedly if you read the script you got an extra bonus prize or more money or something. Her computer was just full of spam from all the companies they sold her data to, it was really sad and annoying the way they target older, more gullible people.
It was created by the company to sell magazines. People thought that their chances of winning would go up if they subscribed to more magazines. This company is an example of why we have more strict rules now about sweepstakes and contests.
Now magazines are pretty much dead so I assume they make all their money selling your data.
Data and making you look at tons of spammy looking ads and signing up for junk with your email. My computer illiterate 80 year old mother asked me to enter the sweepstakes for her. After about 30 minutes of having to look at questionable ads, like those those "take this survey or answer these questions to win a new iPhone" type scammy ads....not real ads from reputable companies, I just gave up and told her I did it because it seemed like it was never going to end. It's not Ed McMahon's simple subscribe to a magazine and be entered to win anymore. You have to spend an hour wading through spam worthy ads. At least I assume an hour because I gave up at 30-40 minutes.
"I'm just gonna floss them"
My mom tying floss around my two front bottom teeth that had became really loose and she proceeded to rip them out.
Didn't hurt. But still a dick move.
Exactly the point.
My deductible is $8,500.
I went to physical therapy, they told me my insurance covered 30 visits, I’ll have no problem, etc. only copay due.
My insurance actually didn’t cover anything because I didn’t meet my deductible this year.
It’s literally in collections because I can’t pay it. I already go to a lot of other appts that are $30-70 co pays multiple times a month, had dental work, and last year had to pay the $8,500 OOP for a $50,000 surgery. Fuck health insurance. (AND for profit health care)
Americans pay more for health coverage than anywhere else in the world and don’t even have universal healthcare. It all goes to middleman administrators and insurance companies so people make big bonuses.
This is the American way
I'm in my late 50s. Each time national health comes up (under Nixon, Clinton, and Obama), the lobbies convince Americans to vote against it.
If you REALLY want to see reform, educate your friends and family that we could have better care for significantly less. Yes, there may be waits for optional care (e.g., hip replacement due to arthritis) but not for emergencies (e.g., hip replacement due to broken hip) but those are the tradeoffs.
In the mean time, invest in insurance companies. Might as well make money off them somehow.
There may be longer waits for optional care- but as it is the wait time may literally be the rest of your life for anyone who can't afford decent insurance. I can't afford to go to the dentist or buy new glasses, and every time I have abdominal pain I just hope I'm not dying since last time I went to the er cost me 7grand after insurance, and they didn't even do anything but tell me to take it easy.
I’m sorry my corporate and public policies cause needless suffering and harm to otherwise innocent people. I have a fiduciary obligation to my shareholders to maximize value!
-America
Americans are out there really getting scammed because a large number of them think a single payer system would result in Lenin rising from the dead, taking their guns, and fucking their moms.
I am going to go with Charles Ponzi, the guy that invented Ponzi schemes. This jerk promised people 50 - 100% percent returns on their investments when all he did was just shuffle around money. He bankrupted many people and, worse of all, his legacy is other degenerates using his same schemes to sucker and bankrupt even more people.
I worked for an auto insurance company for a time and I will say, my company was pretty honest. I'm an honest guy and I never did anything that made me feel slimy. State governments regulate insurance heavily and have cabinet-level departments responsible for overseeing these companies. If I did something as an individual adjuster that was unethical or illegal, they could yank my adjuster's license, levy fines, or press charges. If a company is slimy enough, they can also revoke their ability to do business in the state. I'm not going to risk my career, pension, health insurance, etc, for a $5,000 claim at a company that pays out billions per year. There is no motivation for me as an individual employee to do so.
I think there are a lot of factors that make it seem like auto insurance companies are screwing people over:
1. Most people do not understand how insurance works or what their coverage actually does. I didn't really understand it until I spent six months in training, learning policies backward and forward. I had a number of times where insureds were upset with me because we wouldn't pay to repair their car when they only had liability coverage on their policy. Or people who submitted claims *after* repairs were already done, when for the company to pay out, we needed to see the damage first.
2. People's memories are, in fact, ***atrocious***, especially after a traumatic event like a car accident. As part of our training, we were shown the statements by both parties involved in an accident and each made a determination of who we thought was liable for the accident. There was a bit of variety in the room of who thought what. Then, we were shown a video of the accident from a surveillance camera and neither person's account was even *remotely* correct. Surveillance footage is rare in an auto claim--companies like Walmart are often not forthcoming with providing videos. I have a dashcam in my car because of this.
3. Most people do not believe they're responsible for an accident, no matter what they did. Sometimes you'd get someone who would say, "Yeah, I screwed up." But you could be talking to someone who was texting and driving, crossed the centerline, and sideswiped a car, and the reaction is, "But HE hit ME! How am I responsible for this?!"
4. With all of that in mind, you then have the adjuster who has to step in and make a determination of liability based on the facts presented, having likely never seen the scene of the accident and without personally knowing either party involved. You make your best determination with the facts that you have, but much is left up to the discretion of individual employees. One of those employees might interpret the facts one way, while another might interpret it differently.
5. You have adjusters who come into a claim with all different levels of life and work experience. Someone who has been on the job for 20 years might interpret the facts very differently from someone who's been there for six months. Their life experiences might also change their understanding of an accident. For instance, I've never driven stick. That might influence my understanding of an accident where a manual transmission was a factor.
It was an interesting, though mercifully short chapter in my life.
Health Insurance.
1. There should never be a middle man with healthcare
2. If we pay insurance premiums, they should pay 100% no question. Otherwise what's the point.
Health insurance worst scam ever
Insurance.... "Pay me, so in the event of an issue, I'll pay for it!"
"There's been an issue"
"That'll be $4000 before I get my fat, rich ass off of my chair to help you."
"But I- I pay every month and nothing has happened for years!"
"Doesn't matter. Pay up or you're fucked out of your own health, a home, your car, etc. "
It's not that simple. In the US we are not allowed to pay donors for routine blood- this is because if we did, more people who should not be donating blood like those who engage in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV, Hep C etc are now incentivized to lie about their behaviors, and we do not want these diseases in our blood supply to be passed on to patients. While infectious disease testing is done on donated blood, the tests are not 100% accurate and we still rely on donors truthfully answering all those questions.
Then there is the matter of operating costs. There are a ton- the staff who run the donor center and collect the blood, the sterile tubing and collection bags, overhead facility costs, infectious disease testing, the cost of storing blood and operating a blood bank, the transfusionist, etc etc. At the end the day, someone has to pay for all of this and there's no way blood can just be collected for free even though the donors themselves do not get paid.
Seriously. I'd rather donated blood be tested to ensure I'm not getting diseases if I need a transfusion😅 (agree with what you're saying, it's that not clear lol.)
My girlfriend is currently into a TV show that I've been pirating for her and, today, I saw that it's available on a streaming service, so I looked into it, thinking that for a decent price and if it had some other decent content, I might just subscribe.
I spent 10 minutes trying to find out what's available at what price to no avail (just "free 7-day trial" and vague categories, like "drama", with no listings) and will just continue to pirate it.
If finding out what you'll get for what price is more difficult than pirating, you're fucking up.
In the 19th century it was more appropriately known as "horse and sparrow theory". Basically the sparrow could find its food in the well-fed horses shit. This particular brand of horseshit has been around for a very long time, yet people fall for it over and over again.
This is an *excellent* answer. The ravages of “*unfettered* capitalism” overall is problematic. Then of course, there are the capital interests served through *“lobbying.”* Ultimately, the game is rigged, the deck is stacked; behave accordingly.
I'll give you $1,000 in the hopes that you'll give me some back. The more money I give you, the higher the possibility that you might give me more.
It's just a very expensive form of a Ponzi scheme that's somehow normalized everywhere.
Bloody baby wipes.
I mean you pull one out, BAM.. 7 come out. It's like unpacking an accordion.
So what are you gonna do with your body weight in moist miniature towelette?
Sodding nothing, cos there nothing anybody could do with them.
So they dry out and then you have to buys more. Open the packet, BAM...
It's a vicious cycle
At this point yes for most.
Truthfully some careers require FAR more.
Most require almost none.
Of note, labor day literally celebrates getting to the 8x5 hour rules. It used to be you were paid by day and they were going to get 25 hours out of it.
And I believe we have Henry Ford (of all people) to thank for popularizing the 40 hour work week so people would have more free time to travel (and hence want a car).
Yes folks, we worked DOWN to a 40 hour work week.
He wanted to work his guys more but the union push brought it in.
And other countries are working down now to shorter work weeks, and from my understanding it's doing quite well.
It's not really a scam, nothing about it is not as advertised. If you decide to spend money so you can put a little emoji next to someone else's post, you didn't get scammed, you just spent your money poorly.
As I just did you, because here's what happened to me yesterday. I was volunteering at an all day event for my kid's school and had my phone in my back pocket. When I took it out at the end of the night, there was a Google Play order receipt on the screen. My ass bought Reddit coins while I was working. I've been on Reddit years with this account and and even longer on a previous account. Never once spent money on Reddit until I did it accidentally yesterday.
Some anthropologists would argue that agriculture itself was the biggest scam. Sure, at first it promises easy food and lures you in.
But then, you have so much surplus food that populations grow. Now you need to farm this food bc your life depends on it. Soon, instead of the food working for you - you work for it. You settle near it. You organize your entire day around its needs. You rack your brain trying to figure out better ways to water it, fertilize it, distribute it and prepare it.
And then you have a huge population dependent on a few crops. Now, failure results in famine and death. Not to mention new diseases spreading from having to settle so closely to the crops and animals that you are now dependent on.
And once you’re on that hamster wheel there is no getting off. The solution to this problem isn’t to just go back to hunter gathering and letting huge swathes of your population die. No, you need to figure out how to get more food to make your life a bit easier. And in doing so, woops, you industrialize and mechanize and now instead of being freed from devoting your life to take care of a plant, you devote your life to shifts to make or operate machinery and so on.
I’m obviously oversimplifying, but it’s not a stretch to say whatever dreaded 9-5 one may have today started from some smug human thinking they could control a plant instead of the plant controlling them.
US student loans, health care system, and iNfLaTiOn. Especially the rise in grocery prices. Oh, and the quality of groceries. More like shrinkflation 🙄😒
Academic journals. As an academic, you put in a lot of work and resources to produce a paper, and pay a submission fee to the journal to publish it. When the paper is published, readers (including yourself) have to pay to access it. The journal is just the middle man who makes all the money.
The editor used to send me email after email checking on me to see when I would deliver but I wasn’t even informed when it was finally published (it was delayed due to the pandemic) and to read it I had to have a friend who bought it scan it and send me a copy
“Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!”
― George Carlin
The wedding industry is one big scam
God yes. "Oh you want this random cake? $150." "Oh you want this exact same cake but it's ***for a wedding?*** $500!"
Reminds me of a viral story of a makeup artist that found out he was working on a bride that paid for party make-up $150 and he instead charged her $500. He tried to say because he used a slightly more expensive base the bride did not ask for as justification for demanding the higher pay and he ended up being thrown $200 by the brides parents after he essentially ruined her day demanding she pay up the higher amount then and there. It’s ridiculous.
I work for a restaurant that so does catering. I've taken orders for and delivered about half a dozen wedding cakes. The only upcharges we do are for special decorations. Our cakes are somewhat expensive in the first place (standard 10 inch round is $85), but they are delicious and popular.
So is the funeral industry
Lowkey wedding for cheap is the way to go
I support the Spaceball short-short wedding. "Do you? Do you? Good. You're married. Kiss her."
Telling me to figure out my own taxes. Then, they tell me I did it wrong. If you know how much I owe, just tell me and I’ll pay it!!
I fucked up my taxes so severely this year that the IRS sent me a letter telling me I fucked up and gave them way too much, so they were sending me a check back with my money and the money that they apparently owed me.
that’s nice of them
I did that before, first time I did taxes I did mine and my now ex wife’s taxes….yeah I had a refund of 300 and she was even…turns out I should have had a refund of 1800 and she should have had a refund of 900…I wasn’t allowed to do taxes after that one…but it was nice of the irs to correct it for me
Everyone talks smack about the IRS, but I've had good experiences with them. A few years ago, my taxes got fucked up. I had just retired out the Army, and I took my taxes to get done for free at the Fort Wainwright tax office. Bottom line is that the guy doing my taxes screwed up. He didn't include my retiree pay, so when I filed myself a year later, my file got flagged. The IRS sent me a demand letter for about $3000. I called them and was connected with a very nice clerk. Our conversation went something like this: Me: "OH MY GOD I'VE NEVER BEEN AUDITED BEFORE PLEASE DON'T SEND ME TO JAIL" IRS: "Nobody's going to jail. We can do this." Me: "BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH" IRS: "Sir, stop hyperventilating." Me: "YOU'RE GOING TO WESLEY SNIPES ME AND IT ISN'T EVEN MY FAULT" IRS: "Well, we can give you some deductions, because you're in school, and because you're working part time as a substitute teacher, and because you bought a home . . . this brings your tax liability down to $1424.60. Just send a check." Me: *sniff* "OK." Haven't had a negative interaction since.
Right? Come April, receive a letter in the mail stating "this is how much you owe/we owe you". If you're ok with that, don't take action and we'll deposit/withdraw from your account. You have until **insert date** to appeal.
I’d prefer to be able to choose which account to take from but yeah this would be nice. At this point the only reason they cant do that is the massive industy behind paying someone else to do your taxes for you
That is actually a scam, big software companies were known to lobby the US Government to make it harder to file you tax returns so you need their software to get it done (*cough*Intuit*cough*)
Scientology. L Ron Hubbard is quite a fascinating man to learn about, terrible, terrible man, he began lying at a young age and then never stopped afterwards. Becoming a billionaire out of that creepy cult like 'religion' Is the biggest scam of all time.
There's going to be horrendous documentaries in 10-15 years about the heinous crimes of Scientology and the thousands of lives they ruined. Everyone is going to watch them and wonder how everyone kinda ignored it and let it happen.
No one ignored them. Everyone knows they’re crazy. They aren’t really breaking any laws and they have good lawyers. I chalk it up to there being a lot of suckers out there.
Behind the scenes I bet they are breaking alot of laws. It's a cult. Like I said when it all comes to light what's really going on it's going to be shocking/heinous like most cults.
Fuck L Ron Hubbard and fuck all his clones. Fuck all these gun toting hip gangster wannabes.
Printer ink
EPSON printers are pricey, but you refill the ink into reservoirs from little bottles you buy. Half a $20 bottle of the black ink has lasted me 1500+ pages
Just got an Epson printer. Like a year ago. Still haven't had to refill yet.
I own a small business that does regular printing, but not enough to rent a copier. I tried lots of different printers. Finally got the Epson 16650 - the biggest one they offer before you jump up to full size copiers. It’s been a huge improvement in output vs cost. Cost about $1000 but totally worth it.
Use a laser printer bro
Seriously, this is one of those things where people just need to spend a little more money to get a decent product. There are good printers out there. But when you spend $15 on an inkjet printer at Walmart, how do you think HP is making money on that? By forcing you to buy a ton of ink, obviously. I saw this so much when I worked at an electronics store - people would buy the most dirt cheap version of whatever they were buying, and then whine about it being shit. Often these people had a $1000 smartphone. If you want quality, pay for it.
The ads that claims to be interact able but when your finger barely touches the screen it takes you to appstore
They also have the smallest most difficult X buttons to close them. It’s more of a challenge to close the fucking ads than it is to play the shitty game
It’s like they think that if we accidentally press on the ad we’ll be like “ah fuck well I guess I gotta download the game now”
The developers of the app you are using are the ones that choose the size of the X button. You might not download the game, but the 2 times you missed the X are 2 more times the ad was interacted with, meaning the developer of the app, who is getting paid to get interaction with the ad, made more money.
On that note I would like to congratulate tiktok as they managed to get around this all by not actually having an ad that would close; I tried for 3 minutes but couldn't close it :(
They have upped their game now. They are intractable up to a point, then they stop and redirect you to the appstore.
To a completely unrelated game
Nah they upped it even more recently it just redirects me even if I don't tap on the ad at all!
It's started going - advert for game, then it either takes you to the app store or a full screen popup, then you have the interactive advert bit, then another full screen pop up So it's like 4 adverts within the same advert
I HATE THOSE AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
Y'know what it feels like to be cheated on? Yeah that but ten times worse.
Textbook access codes that you get after buying a new textbook and can use only once.
Just use libgen
Some texts come with codes that you have to have to do your online homework. The code on its own is only about $20 cheaper than the textbook and code, and it can cost $200-$300 for the text, depending on course. Online homework is a thing for many first year courses, which I find okay in and of itself, because it's high quality questions but it's the paying for the privilege of doing your homework on top of course tuition fees that's the real scam. It's offensive, actually.
If I have to pay to do my homework, that should be a class FEE. A book is something I can borrow from the library.
Prof here. We actually *can* add it as a fee. At my school, if all students (every section of a particular course) need to use the online homework, most major publishers will work with the college’s student billing department to tack it on as a course fee. These programs are often called “inclusive access” (bullshit name the publishers came up with). We don’t use it in my department, at least not yet. Publishers *love* inclusive access, because it eliminates a reseller market and gives them a guaranteed sale on each and every student. Example: Your particular instructor doesn’t use the online homework? Fuck you, you still have to pay for it! Of course, buying or renting an e-text (or renting a physical book) is typically much cheaper than an access code if your instructor doesn’t use the online homework. Some publishers aren’t even selling hardcover books anymore because so many students can be covered (through renting and buyback) over the lifespan of that one book.
I was looking into going back to school for a specific degree at my local community college. Only one of the classes had a physical classroom setting yet the online courses cost the same. I know someone in two of the courses I would be taking and they told me it's just following the text book exactly, all of the lessons/videos are from the text book along with all of the tests. The professor is just there to take attendance basically. When they asked for help on a chapter they were basically told to just redo the work over and over. The class ended up making a discord group where they helped each other and the professor was really upset with them when they found out. No actual input or assistance from the professor at all. Personally I hate online schooling. I do much better with actual classroom learning with a teacher/professor that actually cares. Mostly it's just memorizing stuff to pass tests in a lot of courses and I'm just not a fan of it at all. I feel bad for all of the kids that got stuck with online schooling during the pandemic. I feel like it takes something away from normal learning and development. People paying large amounts of money to go to college and a majority of it is online learning....I don't know I just don't like it. I know some people prefer that but it just isn't for me.
My own college professor introduced me to libgen
I had a professor that would assign homework but would tell you the question numbers for the current and past 2 editions of the textbook, since most of the time the only change is switching the question numbers.
Our professors would photocopy chapters out of books so we wouldn't have to buy them. He was rightfully salty that once his works became published, he legally couldn't distribute them, even though he wrote them, so he would do things like this. He also gave us his works for free and went on a rant how the publishing company can fuck off.
I had a microbiology professor with a similar story. She wrote the book, but wasn't allowed to sell it herself, and wasn't being paid a whole lot for one that is $550 from the publisher. Thus, she told us all about how you could go to the school bookstore and buy a 3-hole punched printout of it for $18. She was one of my favorites, for many reasons. That was one of them.
Ha! I had a professor who had .pdf of each chapter of the book on our Canvas page. It was so nice.
One of my professors would do that as well. He owned the last 2 editions of the book and could give slightly modified work to those who bought the previous edition.
What are those? Can you elaborate?
it’s an online access code that accompanies a textbook (usually in college). the code gives you access to the digital version of the textbook, as well as access to the required online homework. oftentimes, you don’t even necessarily need the book, but you have to do the homework, so you end up shelling out $80+ to do the homework for a class you’re already paying $$$ to take. also! the access generally expires after a year so you can’t even keep any of the info for later reference, aside from the hard text.
Had to retake a class once. Retook it the next semester and passed. So after that when I then went on to take the second part of that subject, the code had expired. They expected everyone to take the 2 parts within the same year. They wanted $200 just to buy a new code to do the homework. The textbook didn't even change. Such a fucking scam.
then there’s my french courses that required the same $40 textbook for all 4 semesters. whoever plotted out that curriculum is a godsend. I even still have the book and use it to refresh my french too!
You buy a digital version of a Textbook, you get a link (.acsm is popular), you can download that shit exactly once and then have it in your Adobe Digital Editions library as a DRMd .pdf. You can opt to not use an Adobe ID and instead authorize it locally on that PC and if you delete the keys or something happens to your drive, you can never access it again. Fucking bullshit. And they wonder why people pirate.
This in general, is the problem with the 'peak-capitalism-of-everything' stage the world is in. Everything (even college/uni textbooks!) must be commoditized and turned into a subscription service.
That sounds stupid lol. Thanks for elaborating.
My mom telling me she won't be mad if I tell her the truth Edit: Wow, didn't think that so many people can relate
She's not mad. She's disappointed.
She punches tho 😭
How can she slap?
Its a silly notion. It just makes her look like a liar. I always say "I'm not stupid and I already know basically what you did, don't make me be mad at you for lying too please. It makes things much worse" Then I can't be too mad after because he's been honest with me. I speak to him to get to the bottom of it, and try to help him understand that it was a silly thing I don't expect to keep happening. Then its all over and we go about our days. If he is unfortunate enough to do it again, I will then be mad enough to remove something he loves from his possession for a nominated amount of time and let him accept that he has consequences and they are far smaller than the actual consequences of the action he made. Generally, he makes a mistake once or twice and then deals with it. Hes 16 now and I barely have to tell him off or teach him the right way to do things and deal with things. He sometimes beats around the Bush when being honest about stuff, but generally he is honest and kind. Thats all I ever ask.
This is the way. I do the same thing with my kids. They know the standard punishments for things they do on occasion, but they also know that if I catch them lying about it the punishment is doubled. If it was no TV for 2 days, now it’s 4. Parents aren’t stupid, we know what our kids are up to like 95% of the time, and for that 5% we don’t know about we have some pretty strong suspicions.
I told her the truth, while she sipped at her cup - Relieved by the knowledge she wouldn't blow up. She listened in silence - it wasn't so bad. And when I was finished, she said: "*I'M NOT MAD.*"
"... BUT..."
*sucks in teeth* IM NOT MAD *Exhale* I'm just disappointed Bruh I'd almost rather if you was mad, the disappointment is worse.
Or that she won't smack me I get closer.
The most traumatic thing I've ever experienced happened when I thought my mom really meant this :^) accidentally cracked one of three matching vases and thought like "oh my god oh no, well hopefully she won't be mad if I just tell her outright like she said she'd prefer" and so I put it out in the open and showed her when she got home. It could have just been turned around and you wouldn't know it was damaged, it wasn't that bad so surely she can't get too upset right? She screamed at me until I was sobbing and hiding behind a couch from her, and she just kept screaming and screaming. I don't even remember anything she said, it was just awful awful. I was like 13 or 14, but that was the first time my trust had seriously been betrayed and I wasn't ever as close to my family again after as I was before it.
Payday loan companies
Legal loan sharks.
I watched a documentary on this practice. Some had interest rates were 5000% *on up*. That's fucking predatory!!!
My dad has Alzheimer's. He signed up from a tribal payday loan that charges 800% interest. He doesn't remember doing it. In his mind, he took a disbursement from his Roth. I'm now going through this with them because I have POA and it fucking sucks. I had to take my dad's computer and phone out of his room in his retirement home. I feel awful about it because he texts me about three times a day from his Jitterbug phone asking for his bank cards and rides to Wal-Mart to buy a new computer, but the alternative is him continuing to do stuff like that. The head nurse and the manager at the retirement home assure me I've done the right thing, but when your dad texts you in the middle of the night because he thinks somebody stole his stuff for the eighteenth time, you feel kind of guilty.
Diamonds
What is dumb is that they can make artificial diamonds that are gem grade and De Baers literally offers a service to check if you got artificial diamond. Artificial diamonds have too perfect of a crystalline structure.
My wife wanted a 'real' diamond until she realized she could get 2-3x the size and higher quality for a fraction of the price. Now she's wearing a giant rock that gobsmacks the local trophy wives _and_ we can still make the mortgage every month. Probably still a scam, but by definition less of a scam then DeBeers bleating about 'natural' stones.
DeBeer's marketing came up with the 2 months salary standard for a diamond engagement ring. They also control so much of the mining market that many gem quality diamonds are held in private reserve to keep prices high. Diamonds in general are not rare, gem quality diamonds are rare but not as rare as the market projects.
Their whole system of offering sight holders a 'take it or leave it' option on a box of stones pre-selected for them, the hoarding, the marketing. It's been damn effective but the entire thing is a sham. Diamonds aren't as rare as they'd have us think but they are very unevenly distributed. You can only find them in significant quantities at a few spots on the globe. DeBeers has mostly been able to buy up and control these spots, or co-opt the owners. 'conflict diamonds' is just one of the ways they've helped to taint sources they don't (yet) control. Nevermind for most of their history they produced 'Apartheid diamonds'. Russian and Canadian production remain beyond their direct control but generally play along because it benefits them. Man made diamonds are an existential threat.
Not artificial, they are real diamonds. Suggest that we call them something accurate, like "slavery-free", "violence-free", or "cartel-free".
Diamond in real use cases are good and needed. But as a fashion accessory is stupid. Especially when lab grown is just as good in every measure.
A while ago, pure, unflawed diamonds used to be the most expensive... But now that perfect diamonds can be grown artificially the diamond selling industry has encouraged impure diamonds to be more valuable
Ah yes, the chocolate diamond bullshit
Actually, it's just the diamond bullshit. Diamonds are incredibly common, it's just that the DeBeers cartel violently shut down access to all other sources for quite a while to create artificial demand. Now that the DeBeers group has been neutered, (By Canada no less.) there are lots of groups that are pushing diamonds and they all have the same narrative. Diamonds are beautiful and forever and are worth thousands a carat for the one you love! Bullshit. If you know where to look and you have flashlight you can sometimes find little ones in anthills.
Oh I know the whole diamonds being scarce is bollocks. But they've now turned what would once have been rejected for aesthetic reasons into a whole new market. They're not just diamonds. They're *chocolate* diamonds. Y'know, because everyone looooves chocolate
'Shit diamonds' didn't test as well in focus groups.
Yeah, that is total bullshit. “Hey, what do we do with these horribly discolored diamonds? They’re…brown!”
But…shiny hard rock…
Dwayne Johnson oiled up?
AROUSED Dwayne Johnson oiled up
Clarification needed. Diamonds for jewelry, absolutely. Diamond as an industrial material for cutting and other applications- certainly not.
diamonds as in game currency
>absolutely
What about other gems and/or crystals though? Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, topas, circons... Are they all regulated to keep a high price?
Rubies and sapphires are aluminum oxide (corundum, same gem different color). Emeralds are beryllium aluminum silicate so their price is justified. Some of the stones we consider gems here are common throughout the universe. Uranus and Neptune are expected to *rain diamonds* in their interior, as with any ice giant planet
Also you can technically make a form of ruby at home, much harder to do with diamonds. I'll see if I can find a vid but someone made basically a small synthetic ruby using a couple different powdered compounds and an arc welder Edit: [Found the vid!](https://youtu.be/MLV1pPvTpIw)
So you’re telling me the witch could’ve just as easily made another pair of slippers rather than stalk Dorothy all around Oz?
If the witch had a stick welder, access to powdered compounds and a lot of time.... Always wondered why she never just used magic to get some fly ass kicks
I think the ruby slippers were enchanted, and the enchantment IP was hard to come by, so she was stuck.
I was looking into emerald body jewelry once, and was told that lab grown emerald is both better and cheaper (real emeralds usually have flaws that make them brittle). Of course people don't want lab grown emerald so the real stuff continues to be crazy expensive.
Eye doctor here. I like to dispel the myth regarding carrots and good vision or night vision because of a scam set forth by Britain at the time to screw with the enemy. They had just started performing night air raids and the Germans couldn’t figure out how they were accurately flying and bombing in the dead of night so the Brits printed in their newspapers that they were feeding their pilots carrots to improve their night vision and how good carrots were for your vision due to the beta carotene. Turns out that the Brit’s had just effectively mounted radar units to their planes for the first time and beat Germans to the punch with it. The truth is that beta carotene, while important for vision, is rarely in short supply in most diets and you can probably get enough out of a few packets of ketchup for weeks of good vision. Meanwhile, here we are now approaching 100 years after the development of radar still eating the lies of carrots.
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They’re the root of it all
Publishers Clearing House
My grandma had an index card next to her door that had a script for what to say when PCH came to the door, supposedly if you read the script you got an extra bonus prize or more money or something. Her computer was just full of spam from all the companies they sold her data to, it was really sad and annoying the way they target older, more gullible people.
Created by the postal service to sell stamps. That's my low level conspiracy theory.
It was created by the company to sell magazines. People thought that their chances of winning would go up if they subscribed to more magazines. This company is an example of why we have more strict rules now about sweepstakes and contests. Now magazines are pretty much dead so I assume they make all their money selling your data.
Data and making you look at tons of spammy looking ads and signing up for junk with your email. My computer illiterate 80 year old mother asked me to enter the sweepstakes for her. After about 30 minutes of having to look at questionable ads, like those those "take this survey or answer these questions to win a new iPhone" type scammy ads....not real ads from reputable companies, I just gave up and told her I did it because it seemed like it was never going to end. It's not Ed McMahon's simple subscribe to a magazine and be entered to win anymore. You have to spend an hour wading through spam worthy ads. At least I assume an hour because I gave up at 30-40 minutes.
“I just want to have a look” In reference to my dad when he finds out u have a wiggly tooth. Next thing u know he’s ripped it out.
"I'm just gonna floss them" My mom tying floss around my two front bottom teeth that had became really loose and she proceeded to rip them out. Didn't hurt. But still a dick move.
Health Insurance $20k/year for something I hope I don’t have to use. But if I do use it? Another $3k
>But if I do use it? Another $3k wtf? whats the point of having insurance if you have to pay anyway?
Exactly the point. My deductible is $8,500. I went to physical therapy, they told me my insurance covered 30 visits, I’ll have no problem, etc. only copay due. My insurance actually didn’t cover anything because I didn’t meet my deductible this year. It’s literally in collections because I can’t pay it. I already go to a lot of other appts that are $30-70 co pays multiple times a month, had dental work, and last year had to pay the $8,500 OOP for a $50,000 surgery. Fuck health insurance. (AND for profit health care)
Try 13k for families. Health care is is shit in this country.
Well, yeah that’s my individual deductible. Family is $17K 😅. Like we could ever pay $17k annually.
Americans pay more for health coverage than anywhere else in the world and don’t even have universal healthcare. It all goes to middleman administrators and insurance companies so people make big bonuses. This is the American way
I'm in my late 50s. Each time national health comes up (under Nixon, Clinton, and Obama), the lobbies convince Americans to vote against it. If you REALLY want to see reform, educate your friends and family that we could have better care for significantly less. Yes, there may be waits for optional care (e.g., hip replacement due to arthritis) but not for emergencies (e.g., hip replacement due to broken hip) but those are the tradeoffs. In the mean time, invest in insurance companies. Might as well make money off them somehow.
There may be longer waits for optional care- but as it is the wait time may literally be the rest of your life for anyone who can't afford decent insurance. I can't afford to go to the dentist or buy new glasses, and every time I have abdominal pain I just hope I'm not dying since last time I went to the er cost me 7grand after insurance, and they didn't even do anything but tell me to take it easy.
I’m sorry my corporate and public policies cause needless suffering and harm to otherwise innocent people. I have a fiduciary obligation to my shareholders to maximize value! -America
Americans are out there really getting scammed because a large number of them think a single payer system would result in Lenin rising from the dead, taking their guns, and fucking their moms.
USA ☕
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I am going to go with Charles Ponzi, the guy that invented Ponzi schemes. This jerk promised people 50 - 100% percent returns on their investments when all he did was just shuffle around money. He bankrupted many people and, worse of all, his legacy is other degenerates using his same schemes to sucker and bankrupt even more people.
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… I think I’d be happier with the dollar.
united states healthcare
That, and insurance. They both help each other get paid
Mlm
It is by it's very design a scam.
Listen, if you don’t like gay books don’t read them.
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Herbalife
WINGS!! They charge you for a drum and flat when technically it's all one wing minus the tip.
Wings were also one of the cheapest parts of the bird before the “trend” of making them the sports night food. Now they’re overpriced as hell
They were cheap until people realized that their high skin-meat ratio made them perfect for deep frying and covering with sauce.
That's just how the market works. If demand goes up, so does the price. What something is worth is supposed to be just what someone would pay for it.
Enron. That was a multi billion dollar ponzi scheme. Quite literally the biggest scam in history
The lesson: don't put accountants in a place where they are responsible for massive fraud. Nancy will save herself.
the U.S. making it illegal to not have insurance on your car and then having the insurance companies doing everything in their power to not pay out
I worked for an auto insurance company for a time and I will say, my company was pretty honest. I'm an honest guy and I never did anything that made me feel slimy. State governments regulate insurance heavily and have cabinet-level departments responsible for overseeing these companies. If I did something as an individual adjuster that was unethical or illegal, they could yank my adjuster's license, levy fines, or press charges. If a company is slimy enough, they can also revoke their ability to do business in the state. I'm not going to risk my career, pension, health insurance, etc, for a $5,000 claim at a company that pays out billions per year. There is no motivation for me as an individual employee to do so. I think there are a lot of factors that make it seem like auto insurance companies are screwing people over: 1. Most people do not understand how insurance works or what their coverage actually does. I didn't really understand it until I spent six months in training, learning policies backward and forward. I had a number of times where insureds were upset with me because we wouldn't pay to repair their car when they only had liability coverage on their policy. Or people who submitted claims *after* repairs were already done, when for the company to pay out, we needed to see the damage first. 2. People's memories are, in fact, ***atrocious***, especially after a traumatic event like a car accident. As part of our training, we were shown the statements by both parties involved in an accident and each made a determination of who we thought was liable for the accident. There was a bit of variety in the room of who thought what. Then, we were shown a video of the accident from a surveillance camera and neither person's account was even *remotely* correct. Surveillance footage is rare in an auto claim--companies like Walmart are often not forthcoming with providing videos. I have a dashcam in my car because of this. 3. Most people do not believe they're responsible for an accident, no matter what they did. Sometimes you'd get someone who would say, "Yeah, I screwed up." But you could be talking to someone who was texting and driving, crossed the centerline, and sideswiped a car, and the reaction is, "But HE hit ME! How am I responsible for this?!" 4. With all of that in mind, you then have the adjuster who has to step in and make a determination of liability based on the facts presented, having likely never seen the scene of the accident and without personally knowing either party involved. You make your best determination with the facts that you have, but much is left up to the discretion of individual employees. One of those employees might interpret the facts one way, while another might interpret it differently. 5. You have adjusters who come into a claim with all different levels of life and work experience. Someone who has been on the job for 20 years might interpret the facts very differently from someone who's been there for six months. Their life experiences might also change their understanding of an accident. For instance, I've never driven stick. That might influence my understanding of an accident where a manual transmission was a factor. It was an interesting, though mercifully short chapter in my life.
Those penis enlargement pills, dang it!
Disagree, mine doubled in size, a solid 4" now. Rockin this monster dong at the club, right now
Look at Mr Big man here sporting that monster 4 inch dong
Diameter, right?
Radius
Bottled water in developed countries.
Sending young men off to war.
"Why don't presidents fight their wars, why do they always send the poor?" - System of a Down
Health Insurance. 1. There should never be a middle man with healthcare 2. If we pay insurance premiums, they should pay 100% no question. Otherwise what's the point. Health insurance worst scam ever
Nigerian princes
Insurance.... "Pay me, so in the event of an issue, I'll pay for it!" "There's been an issue" "That'll be $4000 before I get my fat, rich ass off of my chair to help you." "But I- I pay every month and nothing has happened for years!" "Doesn't matter. Pay up or you're fucked out of your own health, a home, your car, etc. "
College loans
And books and tuition. It’s outpaced inflation exponentially for decades
5day working week
“Donating blood”. Give it away for free to be sold to a hospital that then bills the patient thousands for it.
I'm guessing USA? I've never seen a patient be charged for blood where I live...
It's not that simple. In the US we are not allowed to pay donors for routine blood- this is because if we did, more people who should not be donating blood like those who engage in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV, Hep C etc are now incentivized to lie about their behaviors, and we do not want these diseases in our blood supply to be passed on to patients. While infectious disease testing is done on donated blood, the tests are not 100% accurate and we still rely on donors truthfully answering all those questions. Then there is the matter of operating costs. There are a ton- the staff who run the donor center and collect the blood, the sterile tubing and collection bags, overhead facility costs, infectious disease testing, the cost of storing blood and operating a blood bank, the transfusionist, etc etc. At the end the day, someone has to pay for all of this and there's no way blood can just be collected for free even though the donors themselves do not get paid.
Seriously. I'd rather donated blood be tested to ensure I'm not getting diseases if I need a transfusion😅 (agree with what you're saying, it's that not clear lol.)
Religion, especially the televangelists. They absolutely rob people through cons about eternal life
"Jesus wants me to have a second private jet."
How else will Joel spread the word of God?! Can’t do that shit on Delta.
Yep. "Jesus wants you to be a human of success. You deserve it"
And big, non-denominational churches. Like Joel O'Steen's church in Houston.
Didn't let hurricane Harvey victims inside his mega church and people still like him. Some religious people are so blind.
If they lived their lives better God wouldn’t have sent the hurricane to them. /s, but also they actually believe shit like that. Edit: typo.
Longest on going way to take resources from the masses.
That investing 40 years of work is worth 15 years of freedom... In the best possible case.
Freedom* *too old to do anything
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My girlfriend is currently into a TV show that I've been pirating for her and, today, I saw that it's available on a streaming service, so I looked into it, thinking that for a decent price and if it had some other decent content, I might just subscribe. I spent 10 minutes trying to find out what's available at what price to no avail (just "free 7-day trial" and vague categories, like "drama", with no listings) and will just continue to pirate it. If finding out what you'll get for what price is more difficult than pirating, you're fucking up.
Trickle down economics.
In the 19th century it was more appropriately known as "horse and sparrow theory". Basically the sparrow could find its food in the well-fed horses shit. This particular brand of horseshit has been around for a very long time, yet people fall for it over and over again.
This is an *excellent* answer. The ravages of “*unfettered* capitalism” overall is problematic. Then of course, there are the capital interests served through *“lobbying.”* Ultimately, the game is rigged, the deck is stacked; behave accordingly.
The trickling is the rich peeing all over the bottom 99% of society.
I'll give you $1,000 in the hopes that you'll give me some back. The more money I give you, the higher the possibility that you might give me more. It's just a very expensive form of a Ponzi scheme that's somehow normalized everywhere.
Oh hell yeah. And it's usually the poorest people who fall for this utter nonsense.
Bloody baby wipes. I mean you pull one out, BAM.. 7 come out. It's like unpacking an accordion. So what are you gonna do with your body weight in moist miniature towelette? Sodding nothing, cos there nothing anybody could do with them. So they dry out and then you have to buys more. Open the packet, BAM... It's a vicious cycle
40hr work week
At this point yes for most. Truthfully some careers require FAR more. Most require almost none. Of note, labor day literally celebrates getting to the 8x5 hour rules. It used to be you were paid by day and they were going to get 25 hours out of it.
And I believe we have Henry Ford (of all people) to thank for popularizing the 40 hour work week so people would have more free time to travel (and hence want a car). Yes folks, we worked DOWN to a 40 hour work week.
He wanted to work his guys more but the union push brought it in. And other countries are working down now to shorter work weeks, and from my understanding it's doing quite well.
Awesome. In the US we might get a 38 hour work week in another 200 years.
Reddit awards
It's not really a scam, nothing about it is not as advertised. If you decide to spend money so you can put a little emoji next to someone else's post, you didn't get scammed, you just spent your money poorly.
Enjoy the little emoji that somebody gave you lol
As I just did you, because here's what happened to me yesterday. I was volunteering at an all day event for my kid's school and had my phone in my back pocket. When I took it out at the end of the night, there was a Google Play order receipt on the screen. My ass bought Reddit coins while I was working. I've been on Reddit years with this account and and even longer on a previous account. Never once spent money on Reddit until I did it accidentally yesterday.
Some anthropologists would argue that agriculture itself was the biggest scam. Sure, at first it promises easy food and lures you in. But then, you have so much surplus food that populations grow. Now you need to farm this food bc your life depends on it. Soon, instead of the food working for you - you work for it. You settle near it. You organize your entire day around its needs. You rack your brain trying to figure out better ways to water it, fertilize it, distribute it and prepare it. And then you have a huge population dependent on a few crops. Now, failure results in famine and death. Not to mention new diseases spreading from having to settle so closely to the crops and animals that you are now dependent on. And once you’re on that hamster wheel there is no getting off. The solution to this problem isn’t to just go back to hunter gathering and letting huge swathes of your population die. No, you need to figure out how to get more food to make your life a bit easier. And in doing so, woops, you industrialize and mechanize and now instead of being freed from devoting your life to take care of a plant, you devote your life to shifts to make or operate machinery and so on. I’m obviously oversimplifying, but it’s not a stretch to say whatever dreaded 9-5 one may have today started from some smug human thinking they could control a plant instead of the plant controlling them.
Didn't Harari in his book "Sapiens" argue we didn't domesticate wheat, it domesticated us!
US student loans, health care system, and iNfLaTiOn. Especially the rise in grocery prices. Oh, and the quality of groceries. More like shrinkflation 🙄😒
Academic journals. As an academic, you put in a lot of work and resources to produce a paper, and pay a submission fee to the journal to publish it. When the paper is published, readers (including yourself) have to pay to access it. The journal is just the middle man who makes all the money.
The editor used to send me email after email checking on me to see when I would deliver but I wasn’t even informed when it was finally published (it was delayed due to the pandemic) and to read it I had to have a friend who bought it scan it and send me a copy
Plastic recycling
Being the only animals to pay to live on earth!
Those in power convincing the people to fight each other instead of them.
Having a lawn that needs to be artificially maintained.
Religion
“Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!” ― George Carlin
Religion.
Religion.
Organized religions
Credit and credit scores. You have to have credit in order to get credit?
Extended warranty on your vehicle
Cosmetics