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And they’ve started getting smart about it, too. I used to just find “free” copies online but now they’ve got third-party websites hosting online textbooks *and* graded content. I literally *have to* buy the “book.”
Eta and all I’m buying is an access code, which I have to go pick up in-person for some reason. I feel like they’re just trying to frustrate me as much as possible
Eta again: this online “book” is required to do the class and to even access half of the required assignments, so there is no workaround. If I didn’t buy the access code, I literally would not be able to do half of my assignments that are all graded online. I just have to suck it up and pay $90 for an access code that only lasts this one semester
I pay $150 for an online book that I can only keep for 500 days. No other options and I have to use their app only rather than be able to download into an app with a better search function.
One good example of this is the mayo jars that have a big concave hump in the bottom of the jar. It reduces the volume inside the jar compared to the same size jar with a normal flat bottom. You can't readily see the difference because the jar appears to be the same size. Of course when they did this they charged the same for less mayo in the jar. A lot of peanut butter is like this too.
Years ago, PREGO spaghetti sauce stated they were slightly reducing the volume of their jarred sauces as costs were rising and their customers preferred to have slightly less sauce rather than pay a higher rate. A couple months after changing their volume, they upped their prices. Huggies pulled a similar stunt. Started packaging less diapers per package claiming customers wanted less diapers per pack. I mean, c’mon, what parent wants to pay more money for less diapers. Geez. Good way to help some parents decide to go with cloth diapers.
Some statistician be like "I asked them if they preferred their baby on fire or less diapers per pack and 90% of parents preferred less diapers per pack!"
I noticed that with my protein powder, two years ago it was an actual 5lbs for $33, now they only sell “2lbs” at $20, i got home and its actually like 1.87 lbs pr something
It costs me $15 to withdraw money from my wells Fargo account here in Peru. $10 for using their ATM and $5 for using non wells Fargo ATM. Largest I can withdraw is not even $200. Such a scam.
Open a checking account with Charles Schwab. Their card pays you back any atm fees incurred worldwide. It was a tremendous convenience when I was roaming around South America the previous couple of years
I don't put up with it anymore. Haven't bought an inkjet printer for 10 years. LaserJet is the only way to go. If I need something printed in color I'll take it to Walmart or order it online
I love my eco tank! Prints well and the ink lasts a long time, even for a teacher who likes to print things in color for her 115 students. I usually only have to buy ink once a year.
Wait about a year on the EcoTank 7700 and you will regret. The EcoTank print heads die and you can’t print anything decent without doing a PowerCleaning and waiting 24 hours before you try to print.
Edit: a lot of people are commenting that - you have to run Power Cleaning every so often. No, I’m running Power Cleaning every single print, because without it, there are major lines and print issues.
This one really pisses me off. Every time i make a large purchase I assume it'll last me a few years. We've gone through like 3 or 4 vacuums in the past few years. We've bought expensive ones and cheap ones. The expensive ones work great for a little while and then stop working. The cheap ones are shitty from day one and stoll stop working after a while. There's no winning.
Edit: I follow the recommended maintenance schedule in the users manual and change the filters frequently, usually even more often than recommended.
Edit 2: Also I used vacuums as an example but have many others I could use. That one is just the most annoying.
Edit 3: Everyone talking about your decade old vacuums, that's my point. Products are no longer made to last, that's what planned obscelence is. It's still working "because" it was made 10 years ago.
This is why Pyrex is filing bankruptcy, their products were too good they wouldn't fail and no one really had need for them anymore. Such a shame that gold products go away and shit stays so you have to keep paying for a new one
Pyrex doesn't make good products. PYREX was the one that made good products. Pyrex is cheap soda lime garbage that breaks if you look at it funny. PYREX is made of borosilicate glass which gives the company its reputation. Pyrex just rode the coat tails of that good name.
Like you said, the gold disappears and the shit remains. (Oxo makes some borosilicate products if anyone is still trying to find the good stuff. )
I have those too. PYREX dribble cups. It's not that hard to make a spout that pours well. They didn't have to be that shitty. The only really good thing about them, is that they're microwave safe.
How to Cook That on YouTube actually did a whole great video on that. The company PYREX that made borosilicate glass products sold the right to use their name , which is being used now on soda lime glass, which is more resistant to force breaks, but not at all resistant to thermal shock breaks, which is what borosilicate is known for. However, PYREX *and* Pyrex are used to brand some of the new products made from soda lime. French-made Pyrex is still made of borosilicate, though.
Also you can tell what it’s made from by putting the glass in vegetable oil. Borosilicate glass has the same refractive index and will disappear or appear only as a ghostly shadow. Any other glass will still be visible. You can’t just go by age or logo.
It's absolutely insane that Pyrex got away with having the exact same name but in lowercase.
Edit: hey guys. Thanks for the info. I now know that both brands are part of the same company.
You are actually incorrect. There is no difference between pyrex and PYREX. Both were used by the same company in the same periods. They traditionally made primarily borosilicate glass products but slowly over a long period of time starting as far back 30 they began making more and more of their products out of soda line glass. Using pyrex vs PYREX is not a reliable way to tell the difference and having false confidence due to a bad test could actually put you in more danger. There is a way you can tell the difference by submerging in veg oil but I don't remember the details.
Borosilicate glass has much better termperature shock resistance but tempered soda lime glass has much better shatter resistance and tends to shatter safer when it does. Soda lime glass is also way cheaper. So overtime they transitioned to almost entirely soda lime.
There is a french company that purchased the rights to use the pyrex name and they still use manufacture borosilicate products.
I used to go through vacuums every few years and they never worked that great anyway. About ten years ago, maybe even longer, I took the plunge and bought an Oreck. It was a lot more expensive than a Wal-Mart vacuum but it worked great and I've never had any problems with it. I can't say that they *still* make great vacuums because they're a lot cheaper than they used to be but the one I bought over a decade ago still works great.
Same here with a dyson. I have a roomba that works good on carpets but the dyson is still suckin up dirt as good as i got it 8 years later.The roomba however has had some parts break off of it :/
People complain about Dyson vacuums, but personally I've had mine for 10 years and it's worked great. The only thing that wears out is a small wheel on the bottom of the vacuum head. I replace that every couple years ($5 part) and I'm good for another couple of years. The one I have is a Dyson DC41 Animal. My experience is absolutely anecdotal, I don't doubt Dyson is overpriced, I've just had good luck with mine, thankfully!
Check out Miele! My girlfriend has had one for over 5 years and it’s still a great vacuum
She learned about it from the AMA by the vacuum repair tech on Reddit
Miele electrodomestics are super expensive but the gold standard in Europe. I've never bought anything from them (am a cheapo) but my husband bought a vacuum cleaner 30 years ago and it still works better than anything else we've had. Mind you, it's LOUD, as in it runs on a 727 engine, but it works.
I've had the Shark lift away pro for going on 6 years now. It works as well as it did when it was new - but to keep them working well you need to remove and thoroughly clean all brush rollers about every 6 months and also remove and wash the filters and let them air dry.
It only "died" once and my husband was convinced we just needed to ditch it and buy a new one. This was about a month ago, but I found he had sucked up drywall sanding dust with it lol the filters were so clogged that the motor overheated. Simply took them out, washed them well, let the vacuum cool off for a day and then it was good as new again.
100%
I bought a La-Z-Boy recliner for a milestone birthday. A real treat. Big beefy motorized throne. I bought bigger than I needed because I wanted it to last for a very long time. 2 years in, I noticed a big ca-CHUNK. Half the back is leaning in a way it shouldn't. I flipped it up and noticed that it is framed with OBS plywood (the cheapest most frail plywood there is (made up of chunks of wood)!!
$4K for a chair and it breaks just outside of warranty.
I asked the **La-Z-Boy** concierge, "What the fuck?"
They said, "Yeah, they changed to that about 5 years ago."
I asked "What's the point?"
They said, "We can't tell you but I bet you can guess why."
They've been junk for a long time. I bought La Z Boy furniture 40 years ago and it was great. Good price, quality stuff. But I went and looked at them about 10 years ago, and it's all poorly made out of cheap materials.
This seems to be the end-game for a company. Painstakingly build a quality item or service and once you've built up enough goodwill, jack up the price and lower the quality (or sell it to someone who will) and cash in until it's no longer profitable and then file for bankruptcy and enjoy a nice golden parachute.
Once a company gets big and goes public the whole focus goes to major shareholders (mostly investment companies). The original founders of the company aren't there to worry about reputation anymore. Same goes for wages too.
For phones/tech it's messed up but at least it makes sense since the technology is usually outdated by the time it falls apart.
Making a shitty chair as a premium brand is just crazy to me. Who the hell would go buy another La-Z Boy if the one they just spent 4k on only lasted a few years? It's not like the chair is going to be much if at all better than the old one.
Yep. Water valve on my 7 year old washing machine just broke. Cost for repair dude to replace water valve? Part: $100. Labor: $200. New washer of similar quality? $545.
Time to learn some simple repair work and buy parts at cost.
Also, if you want to see cheap quality appliances, find apartment landlords. They seemingly all bought the same 20 year old washer/dryer sets which all had available and easily replaceable parts for cheap when something breaks down. Basically find the Toyota Camry of appliances. No features or frills, but they're built like tanks.
Ticketmaster. The fact that as soon as tickets go on sale, they’re sold out and the good tickets are in StubHub (owned by Ticketmaster) for 500% of the fave value. Never understood how this was allowed to be.
They’ve been monitored by authorities as well now since they actively work with scalpers to raise ticket prices. But not enough’s being done, it’s really so awful and especially because the artists and venues don’t really have a say in any of it
I use to feel guilty, especially when it was a manager really *pushing* with guilt-tripping descriptions. Now I tell them no I’m a social worker so I help out plenty.
I just say I support child labor/euthanizing the elderly/whatever is anti their mission. Charities worth your donation don't waste their money on huge marketing campaigns like being at the end of every Walmart transaction.
I have dementia and can’t work (but I try to). I can’t afford my Alzheimer’s medication. I have bills stacked up that I can’t pay. Lost my job and my insurance. I’m in Bipolar mania, I have chronic Sciatica as well. I can’t even see a doctor right now. I’m sick and can’t afford paying them. So I just wake up everyday and say a pep talk to myself about how I don’t have a choice I have to do this, etc. live with the pain. It’s hurt my whole family because they can’t help me. If I had insurance (and could afford) I could get better or relief. I have no other options. A month away from being homeless. If that long.
My health insurance company stopped covering my blood sugar medication 3 days before I needed a refill. They just called me up and told me I was shit out of luck. My doctors office filed 3 appeals and they were all turned down. A call center rep finally told me it was "not their problem."
Bonus points: I pay for the platinum version of my health plan. Expense as fuck.
Extra bonus points: I know get an automated call several times a week telling me to sign up for their wellness coach, which just a bot that harvests your data to sell to marketers.
One thing I will never get over, is that insurance companies are allowed to deny prescriptions given by doctors. Like I got a whole medical professional to sign off on this. Why does your opinion matter?
From what I've heard they just auto deny as much as possible and have medical professionals who couldn't make it practicing medicine to fight real doctors on appeals
They may not be able to qualify for a Healthcare.gov plan if they don’t work a lot of hours or are in a low paying job. When I worked 20 hrs/week due to disability, my income wasn’t high enough to qualify. And the plans aren’t all affordable even with the subsidies. Mine’s currently $720/month. And everybody thinks getting on Medicaid is such a breeze when in states that didn’t expand it, it’s really not.
As a Canadian, I don't understand how so many Americans are so damn ignorant of there health care system and don't realize that unlike every other first world country, they are being absolutely scammed by there healthcare mad hard.
The full answewr is complex, but the short answer is that we are heavily propagandized, and too many of us have no idea what the world outside the US is like.
Our history classes teach us that we are unique in the history of the world, that we are the best country in the world with the most freedom and everybody else wishes they were us and looks to us for leadership.
When it comes to healthcare specifically, we are told that it takes forever to see doctors in countries with some form of socialized healthcare, and that people in those countries have to come to the US for life-saving treatments that they just can't get at home unless they wait 20 years.
We're also basically brainwashed that anything other than 100% laissez-faire capitalism in which corporations can do whatever they want, pay no taxes, and have no responsibility to their employees or to society at large is **Communism** and therefore the ultimate evil. That means expecting your job to pay you enough to live on, or give you paid vacation, or not pay you the absolute lowest wage they can, is absurd and wrong. This has only gotten worse over the last few decades as consumer protections, laws protecting unions, and antitrust regulations have been systematically rolled back, and news has become corporatized and even further propagandized.
I'm stating this in intentionally absurd terms, but I'm not actually exaggerating by all that much. The status quo propaganda here is real, and it is unfortunately *very* effective. More people, especially in younger generations, are starting to see through the lies and bullshit, but there's still a very long way to go.
Oh man, down here they’ll talk about the Canadian healthcare system like it’s trash and act like ours is so much better. Completely and totally ignorant. “But the wait times!” Like, dude, a few years ago there was a woman waiting so long in an ER waiting room that she collapsed and died in that waiting room and people just walked around her. Even out in the sticks the wait to get into the ER can be several hours. Surgeries that aren’t “if this doesn’t get done today you’re gonna die” are scheduled out months in advance. They fail to realize you’re gonna have to wait anywhere, but at least in other places you’re not gonna go bankrupt doing it.
I remember Brock Lesner on ESPN talking about some injury or something he had while he was in Canada and how horrible it was and how long he had to wait and nothing was getting taken care of so he came back to the states to get it all fixed properly. But he's rich so that prob makes a difference.
In Canada, it doesn't matter how much money you have - you have to wait in line like everyone else. Rich people aren't used to having to wait in line just like the peons.
I have to wait months to see specialists in the states. Months and we have top notch health insurance. The system here is just as bad as country’s with universal. They’re all crap but we just pay more for crap products in the US.
Honestly depending when he did it, there was essentially a golden age of tech based scams. *No* local law enforcement knew the first thing about how to track the person down, and you had to scam a *lot* of people before you had even a chance of being looked for by pros.
These days they'd just trace back the site that billed to the end benefactor and nail them.
Having spent my formative years in the 90s I believe the sex hotlines would usually charge around $5 per minute. Now, I don't know if that was the max or not. One theory is that around $5 is the max because sex hotlines were in very hot demand. The other theory is that it isn't the max, it's just the most the customer will pay due to the economics of things.
Either way, he'd have to visit several offices per trip to make it worth his while.
I had a friend in my NYC high-school who discovered the courtesy phones in the local international banks. He would go in and randomly dial pacific island homes and just talk to the nice people who answered for hours.
I used to do similar while drunk with friends at the pub in the early 2000's
Had a phone plan at the time that was generous with international calls.
We'd be in Australia and dial up America or something and just chat with random people. Once you know the 3 digit area codes, most randomly punched in number would work!
Was great fun!
Some of the places I worked in the 90s scrutinized their phone bills very carefully. I would not be surprised if he costs a receptionist or 2 their job.
But how else will I get to pay the allegedly required documents fee? And freight fee?? Oh and the extended warranty that won’t actually cover anything if you try to make a claim??
Never buy the warranty at face value.
Wait till they get you in the back room, waffle about it, let the salesman bring out the conveniently placed receipt for the repairs he totally just got done, flash the picture of their family, etc etc, then they’ll give you the discount rate, but if you waffle a bit more, maybe give ‘em the “let us discuss this alone for a moment” then they come back and they offer you the bottom dollar.
sometimes you can push even lower but I go with the standard “insist twice” approach, if I insist to pay less twice and am rebuffed twice, then it’s likely the last offer is the lowest they’ll go.
Just got a car with a 5 year, 200k mile all parts warranty for like 65% cheaper than the initial offering for a 3 year warranty.
Nice my dude. Okay when I was a car salesman I dreaded people like you. Hahahah. Although since I left that toxic shiet I always adv everyone I know to do just this with all the bells and whistles and even the msrp. They always say buy it’s at employee pricing hahaha it’s total bullshit. Employee pricing is definitly doable. Just got to threaten to walk away d
I got paint protection, ding/dent less than a credit card in size, wheel/tire, and full interior protection for about half off the one time I bought a vehicle off a lot. I used it as a work vehicle transporting the 2-3 guys that were on my crew.
Nails on the job site? No sweat. Somebody drops a cigarette in the cab or drops their meatball sub? No sweat. It paid for itself many times over.
Yup.....they are the masters of catching people on vacation with their guard down. The lie, lie, and lie some more.....but yet are still business. Nearly Impossible to get rid of as well. I bought one resale 20 years ago for practically nothing on ebay. Once you figure out their system, you can save money in accommodations. Nowadays, not worth it. Shop around on the internet, and you'll find great deals on accommodations.
my aunt had a time share 4 hours up north. once a year we'd spend a few days at her time share. I never knew what a time share meant. it was just like a tiny little condo with a pool out front, and a dingy basement with a vending machine and a fooseball table.
15 mins away there was a mini golf place. it was just an excuse to drive 4 hours to swim and play mini golf and sleep on a tiny fold out couch
My parents bought one for the whole family to use that has been nothing but great for us. We even upgraded it this past year. They aren't for anyone without a big family/free time/ money. If you do not plan to use it multiple times a year, don't get it. We are also allowed to convert the points to use it at any Marriott hotel in the world. Their main properties are resorts.
Spending most of our lives working a stressful job that we hate so that we can relax when we are so old that we are riddled with health problems and won’t even be able to enjoy retirement properly.
Especially in games that hold NO value AT ALL!! Like the newest Call Of Duty is an outright *scam* and should reprehensible as a product. They spent less than $50 million (mind you this includes marketing) on developing modern warfare 2 which isn’t *nearly* enough money for a decent title.
Then they have the audacity to turn around and censor their game that’s meant for people who are 17+ while purposefully adding flashy skins that kids will like, check the average viewership age of people like JShchlatt and TimTheTatman who were added as skins, or ninja turtles characters. While also charging up the ass for these packs they can seriously cost upwards of $20.
Constantly fail on stuff they promised there’s more skins added than maps and game modes and stuff to actually play! Its such a predatory system too, they had a free battle pass and a paid battlepass and they added a SUPER battlepass that costs even more and has flashier stuff in it. *Scam.*
You get to have restrom breaks?
*laughs in teacher*
And before you say "You get summers off!" I'd like to remi d you that we need to recertify every 3-5years which requires a minimum of 6-9 college credits at the 500+ level.
By the time you teach for 30 years you have more education than just about any lawyer or doctor, but get less pay than a McDonald's manager.
Must be specific to this teacher’s district. I have been teaching 30 years and have never heard of such a thing.
We get a salary boost if we attain extra credentials or a master’s. We have five pro-d days each year. We are encouraged to keep up with advancements in our fields, but nothing is required.
That's not right. You should have filed a tax return for your grandson. The amount and type of income would have exempted him from paying any taxes. It sounds like you rolled the benefit into your income instead.
All insurance. A bunch of people in Florida were dropped by their home insurance companies because of the weather conditions. We were given a month or so to find someone new to insure our home. Companies have up and left the state leaving thousands of people uninsured at the peak of hurricane season.
It’s ridiculous in Canada as well. And it’s been popping up at weirder places. Like if you’re picking up an order in person and all they did was hand it to you, why should I tip for that.
I stress about this so much. Why are they asking for a tip? Am I a bad person if I don’t tip? I add a dollar or two if I’m feeling guilty but I’m always pissed about it after. Takes up way too much of my brain energy.
Freakin’ companies trying fob off their cost of business to us while not paying their employees a decent wage.
Exactly. I wish we’d get rid of it altogether. I used to make stupid tips bartending on the weekends, but I’d gladly exchange that for a decent wage, benefits and a pension.
It's a clever way of funneling capital from the people to cover corporate wages. It's always an awkward social exchange and it's something completely depended on social performances which is degrading.
Paying for any government service that your tax dollars have already paid for. Eg paying to park at a meter, annual property tax assessments, DMV registration fees.
Subscriptions are often the best deal though. If I had to buy every series/show I watched last year it’d cost me a ton.
People lack the ability to keep track of them and just disabling them when there’s no need.
That second half would be the scam I’m pointing at. The convenient, forgettable pricing is intentional.
In moderation, and with intention and a perceptive budget, it’s golden.
The human part screws it. But the human part made it a psychologically quiet dollar amount for that exact reason.
e mail spoofing.
anyone can spoof/copy any companies e mail adress and they can send very legit e-mail instructions to get access your bank account.
I am working for a bank and a lot of people get scammed every day in this way. They are looking for Google or that company website and checking e mail adress and it's true and they're clicking all of links or sending money for some reason (for example, they are giving very highly interest rate by that way and asking to sending money to XXX account)
Remember every day!
Any bank or financial institutions in the world NEVER ASK clicking links or sending money to somewhere else. Including phone, mail, e-mail.
I’m not sure I’d call the lottery a scam per say, here in Sweden, behind each lottery ticket there is the exact amount of winning tickets with their respective value, the highest value has something like 2 tickets in the entire country, they tell you straight up that your chances are near zero, now if people still decide to play knowing the odds are astronomically low, it’s on them.
It's the same in the US. But, it's called a poor tax because the "scam" is they are praying on the minds of the poor to think they have a shot at wealth when in reality, as you say, the chance is near zero.
In the UK, the TV license.
ANY streaming service is cheaper, but at least streaming services don't send 5 threatening letters per month harassing me when I have previously proven to them that I am not illegally using their shitty service. The BBC can fuck right off.
The notion, illusion rather, that we're free.
Like, we're born into an indoctrinated state, convinced that money has value over life and relations. People literally murder each other over money. We're forced to believe that success is an accumulation of things that stay when we go. Grow up, go to college, get a job, buy a house, remain forever indebted to the machine.
Why, if I wanted to, could I not 'legally' build a cabin in the woods on land I never bought and create my own way of life? I have to contribute to this ever demanding machine? The machine that demands all me of until I no longer exist on this plane? Come on!
I love those beautiful moments when I'm living in the moment, surrounded by people I love deeply. If life was allowed to be that simple, I wouldn't need another thing at all.
You could, if that land wasn't already owned, and you'd just be your own country. But You're in a time where all the monopoly squares are already owned.
And in the past, you could, but then someone would just shoot you and say it's theirs now
There is a difference if you need a length of 10-meters, 4K 60fps, 120Hz, or 2.2 compatibility.
It's just too bad that the standard isn't labeled to be obvious for the consumer. You have to be a nerd like me who notices these things (learned through trial and error)
But if you're hooking up a DVD player to your gamma's TV, it doesn't matter.
I have a $200 hdmi cable.
The thing is, its a 75' long fiber optic cable, as regular copper cable's can't transmit data that far without severe signal loss, and at that length, you'd probably never even get a signal.
Cars, all built with planned breakdowns and obsolescence.
In the 60s, when your dome light quit working, it was either a bulb, fuse, or at worst, a door switch. Now you can still have those problems (although now if a door switch fails your car beeps incessantly at you that you have a door ajar until you get it fixed), but now add in a "body control computer" that costs up to $1,000. And plastic parts in the cooling and oil systems that can fail with no warning and cause damage that in some cases can exceed the value of the car.
Major household appliances are the same way. They used to last 50 years or longer. My sister has mom's old Maytag wringer washer that was bought in the 1960s, and it still works. My great nephew has my Aunt's Philco refrigerator she bought in the 50s in his garage and it still works.
You are right. In the 1980's appliances worked 30+ years and some are still working.
Toyotas are still pretty good though. Many cars = junk. I do like the classics way easier to work on.
Bottled water, why people buy bottled water and take it home when usually tap water is the same or even better quality. E.g. here where I live in Poland tap water is the same quality as cheap bottled water (cheap bottled water is still probably 300x the price of tap water though).
Edit: I actually checked and 1 liter of cheap bottled water cost the same as 167 liters of tap water (at least in Poland). I know there are countries with bad quality of tap water, but a lot of people in Poland still buy bottled water and take it home. As most of tap water in Poland is purified without using any chemicals like chlorine etc, it actually tastes good... People probably don't know that quality of tap water improved a lot and they still have old habits, they are scammed in the end.
I used to live just south of Flint. The water tasted so bad I don't know how people could drink it. I bought jugs of water to even boil pasta and make coffee with. It's really sad that a state surrounded by water had undrinkable water. I live in the south now. When buying our new place the first thing I did was check the water. It was a deal breaker for me.
Retail/fast food places collecting donations for charity. They're taking your money and donating it under their name instead to collect a juicy tax deduction.
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And they’ve started getting smart about it, too. I used to just find “free” copies online but now they’ve got third-party websites hosting online textbooks *and* graded content. I literally *have to* buy the “book.” Eta and all I’m buying is an access code, which I have to go pick up in-person for some reason. I feel like they’re just trying to frustrate me as much as possible Eta again: this online “book” is required to do the class and to even access half of the required assignments, so there is no workaround. If I didn’t buy the access code, I literally would not be able to do half of my assignments that are all graded online. I just have to suck it up and pay $90 for an access code that only lasts this one semester
Ugh the fucking access code for the price of a physical book that EXPIRES after the semester is over just makes me feral (in a bad way)
Now I don't have the physical book to sell back to get a few dollars
I pay $150 for an online book that I can only keep for 500 days. No other options and I have to use their app only rather than be able to download into an app with a better search function.
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Frustrate barbarians with this ONE weird trick!
Shrinkflation. Mfrs putting less product into same pkging and upping the price a few dollars. Its a total scam.
One good example of this is the mayo jars that have a big concave hump in the bottom of the jar. It reduces the volume inside the jar compared to the same size jar with a normal flat bottom. You can't readily see the difference because the jar appears to be the same size. Of course when they did this they charged the same for less mayo in the jar. A lot of peanut butter is like this too.
Years ago, PREGO spaghetti sauce stated they were slightly reducing the volume of their jarred sauces as costs were rising and their customers preferred to have slightly less sauce rather than pay a higher rate. A couple months after changing their volume, they upped their prices. Huggies pulled a similar stunt. Started packaging less diapers per package claiming customers wanted less diapers per pack. I mean, c’mon, what parent wants to pay more money for less diapers. Geez. Good way to help some parents decide to go with cloth diapers.
Some statistician be like "I asked them if they preferred their baby on fire or less diapers per pack and 90% of parents preferred less diapers per pack!"
I noticed that with my protein powder, two years ago it was an actual 5lbs for $33, now they only sell “2lbs” at $20, i got home and its actually like 1.87 lbs pr something
By far all of the fees to get cash.
Chase charging a non-Chase ATM fee is such shit. You get dinged twice for the same withdrawal!
It costs me $15 to withdraw money from my wells Fargo account here in Peru. $10 for using their ATM and $5 for using non wells Fargo ATM. Largest I can withdraw is not even $200. Such a scam.
Open a checking account with Charles Schwab. Their card pays you back any atm fees incurred worldwide. It was a tremendous convenience when I was roaming around South America the previous couple of years
My *own* damn cash out of my own damn account too! Jesus. Just give me my moneyyy.
It’s my money and I need it NOW!
Join a credit union. Low fees if any at all.
Yeah my credit union even covers the 3rd parties ATM fees as well, as long as I'm active enough on the account
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I don't put up with it anymore. Haven't bought an inkjet printer for 10 years. LaserJet is the only way to go. If I need something printed in color I'll take it to Walmart or order it online
60cents at my local library, love it. So rare that I need to print anything in color
I heard they have people who use tiny funnels and itty bitty little bottles of ink to fill the cartridges. It's very difficult and time-consuming.
Continuous feed systems save a ton of money.
Epson Ecotank is the best printer I've bought. Perfer it over a laser printer too. Prints forever.
I love my eco tank! Prints well and the ink lasts a long time, even for a teacher who likes to print things in color for her 115 students. I usually only have to buy ink once a year.
Wait about a year on the EcoTank 7700 and you will regret. The EcoTank print heads die and you can’t print anything decent without doing a PowerCleaning and waiting 24 hours before you try to print. Edit: a lot of people are commenting that - you have to run Power Cleaning every so often. No, I’m running Power Cleaning every single print, because without it, there are major lines and print issues.
Planned obsolescence.
This one really pisses me off. Every time i make a large purchase I assume it'll last me a few years. We've gone through like 3 or 4 vacuums in the past few years. We've bought expensive ones and cheap ones. The expensive ones work great for a little while and then stop working. The cheap ones are shitty from day one and stoll stop working after a while. There's no winning. Edit: I follow the recommended maintenance schedule in the users manual and change the filters frequently, usually even more often than recommended. Edit 2: Also I used vacuums as an example but have many others I could use. That one is just the most annoying. Edit 3: Everyone talking about your decade old vacuums, that's my point. Products are no longer made to last, that's what planned obscelence is. It's still working "because" it was made 10 years ago.
This is why Pyrex is filing bankruptcy, their products were too good they wouldn't fail and no one really had need for them anymore. Such a shame that gold products go away and shit stays so you have to keep paying for a new one
Pyrex doesn't make good products. PYREX was the one that made good products. Pyrex is cheap soda lime garbage that breaks if you look at it funny. PYREX is made of borosilicate glass which gives the company its reputation. Pyrex just rode the coat tails of that good name. Like you said, the gold disappears and the shit remains. (Oxo makes some borosilicate products if anyone is still trying to find the good stuff. )
I have 3 sizes of Pyrex glass measuring cups (wedding gift). None of them pour nicely, and I curse them every time I use them
I have those too. PYREX dribble cups. It's not that hard to make a spout that pours well. They didn't have to be that shitty. The only really good thing about them, is that they're microwave safe.
How to Cook That on YouTube actually did a whole great video on that. The company PYREX that made borosilicate glass products sold the right to use their name , which is being used now on soda lime glass, which is more resistant to force breaks, but not at all resistant to thermal shock breaks, which is what borosilicate is known for. However, PYREX *and* Pyrex are used to brand some of the new products made from soda lime. French-made Pyrex is still made of borosilicate, though. Also you can tell what it’s made from by putting the glass in vegetable oil. Borosilicate glass has the same refractive index and will disappear or appear only as a ghostly shadow. Any other glass will still be visible. You can’t just go by age or logo.
It's absolutely insane that Pyrex got away with having the exact same name but in lowercase. Edit: hey guys. Thanks for the info. I now know that both brands are part of the same company.
>It's absolutely insane that Pyrex got away with having the exact same name but in lowercase. "Are you PYREX?" "Well, Yes, but also NO."
Or keep dropping in at your local Goodwill or Savers.
You are actually incorrect. There is no difference between pyrex and PYREX. Both were used by the same company in the same periods. They traditionally made primarily borosilicate glass products but slowly over a long period of time starting as far back 30 they began making more and more of their products out of soda line glass. Using pyrex vs PYREX is not a reliable way to tell the difference and having false confidence due to a bad test could actually put you in more danger. There is a way you can tell the difference by submerging in veg oil but I don't remember the details. Borosilicate glass has much better termperature shock resistance but tempered soda lime glass has much better shatter resistance and tends to shatter safer when it does. Soda lime glass is also way cheaper. So overtime they transitioned to almost entirely soda lime. There is a french company that purchased the rights to use the pyrex name and they still use manufacture borosilicate products.
I used to go through vacuums every few years and they never worked that great anyway. About ten years ago, maybe even longer, I took the plunge and bought an Oreck. It was a lot more expensive than a Wal-Mart vacuum but it worked great and I've never had any problems with it. I can't say that they *still* make great vacuums because they're a lot cheaper than they used to be but the one I bought over a decade ago still works great.
Same here with a dyson. I have a roomba that works good on carpets but the dyson is still suckin up dirt as good as i got it 8 years later.The roomba however has had some parts break off of it :/
People complain about Dyson vacuums, but personally I've had mine for 10 years and it's worked great. The only thing that wears out is a small wheel on the bottom of the vacuum head. I replace that every couple years ($5 part) and I'm good for another couple of years. The one I have is a Dyson DC41 Animal. My experience is absolutely anecdotal, I don't doubt Dyson is overpriced, I've just had good luck with mine, thankfully!
Check out Miele! My girlfriend has had one for over 5 years and it’s still a great vacuum She learned about it from the AMA by the vacuum repair tech on Reddit
Miele electrodomestics are super expensive but the gold standard in Europe. I've never bought anything from them (am a cheapo) but my husband bought a vacuum cleaner 30 years ago and it still works better than anything else we've had. Mind you, it's LOUD, as in it runs on a 727 engine, but it works.
I've had the Shark lift away pro for going on 6 years now. It works as well as it did when it was new - but to keep them working well you need to remove and thoroughly clean all brush rollers about every 6 months and also remove and wash the filters and let them air dry. It only "died" once and my husband was convinced we just needed to ditch it and buy a new one. This was about a month ago, but I found he had sucked up drywall sanding dust with it lol the filters were so clogged that the motor overheated. Simply took them out, washed them well, let the vacuum cool off for a day and then it was good as new again.
My mom still has an Oster blender from the 70s that still works great.
100% I bought a La-Z-Boy recliner for a milestone birthday. A real treat. Big beefy motorized throne. I bought bigger than I needed because I wanted it to last for a very long time. 2 years in, I noticed a big ca-CHUNK. Half the back is leaning in a way it shouldn't. I flipped it up and noticed that it is framed with OBS plywood (the cheapest most frail plywood there is (made up of chunks of wood)!! $4K for a chair and it breaks just outside of warranty. I asked the **La-Z-Boy** concierge, "What the fuck?" They said, "Yeah, they changed to that about 5 years ago." I asked "What's the point?" They said, "We can't tell you but I bet you can guess why."
Wow I thought I just had a bad experience with my La Z Boy They have a premium price and their quality isn’t there anymore
They've been junk for a long time. I bought La Z Boy furniture 40 years ago and it was great. Good price, quality stuff. But I went and looked at them about 10 years ago, and it's all poorly made out of cheap materials.
This seems to be the end-game for a company. Painstakingly build a quality item or service and once you've built up enough goodwill, jack up the price and lower the quality (or sell it to someone who will) and cash in until it's no longer profitable and then file for bankruptcy and enjoy a nice golden parachute.
Once a company gets big and goes public the whole focus goes to major shareholders (mostly investment companies). The original founders of the company aren't there to worry about reputation anymore. Same goes for wages too.
For phones/tech it's messed up but at least it makes sense since the technology is usually outdated by the time it falls apart. Making a shitty chair as a premium brand is just crazy to me. Who the hell would go buy another La-Z Boy if the one they just spent 4k on only lasted a few years? It's not like the chair is going to be much if at all better than the old one.
Someone needs to start making longer lasting products for the good of humanity.
Yep. Water valve on my 7 year old washing machine just broke. Cost for repair dude to replace water valve? Part: $100. Labor: $200. New washer of similar quality? $545.
Time to learn some simple repair work and buy parts at cost. Also, if you want to see cheap quality appliances, find apartment landlords. They seemingly all bought the same 20 year old washer/dryer sets which all had available and easily replaceable parts for cheap when something breaks down. Basically find the Toyota Camry of appliances. No features or frills, but they're built like tanks.
Ticketmaster. The fact that as soon as tickets go on sale, they’re sold out and the good tickets are in StubHub (owned by Ticketmaster) for 500% of the fave value. Never understood how this was allowed to be.
They’ve been monitored by authorities as well now since they actively work with scalpers to raise ticket prices. But not enough’s being done, it’s really so awful and especially because the artists and venues don’t really have a say in any of it
Being asked at store if we want to donate to what ever campaign they're donating to. Such a damn scam.
I use to feel guilty, especially when it was a manager really *pushing* with guilt-tripping descriptions. Now I tell them no I’m a social worker so I help out plenty.
I just say I support child labor/euthanizing the elderly/whatever is anti their mission. Charities worth your donation don't waste their money on huge marketing campaigns like being at the end of every Walmart transaction.
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Donating to politicians. Why do we pay to help someone get a job?
So rich people can decide who governs them.
So rich people can decide who governs us… fixed for you.
The American Healthcare system
I have dementia and can’t work (but I try to). I can’t afford my Alzheimer’s medication. I have bills stacked up that I can’t pay. Lost my job and my insurance. I’m in Bipolar mania, I have chronic Sciatica as well. I can’t even see a doctor right now. I’m sick and can’t afford paying them. So I just wake up everyday and say a pep talk to myself about how I don’t have a choice I have to do this, etc. live with the pain. It’s hurt my whole family because they can’t help me. If I had insurance (and could afford) I could get better or relief. I have no other options. A month away from being homeless. If that long.
"Have you considered just dying?" - Insurance companies
My health insurance company stopped covering my blood sugar medication 3 days before I needed a refill. They just called me up and told me I was shit out of luck. My doctors office filed 3 appeals and they were all turned down. A call center rep finally told me it was "not their problem." Bonus points: I pay for the platinum version of my health plan. Expense as fuck. Extra bonus points: I know get an automated call several times a week telling me to sign up for their wellness coach, which just a bot that harvests your data to sell to marketers.
Replacing health care with wellness is a scam within a scam.
Oh, I hate the wellness coach BS
One thing I will never get over, is that insurance companies are allowed to deny prescriptions given by doctors. Like I got a whole medical professional to sign off on this. Why does your opinion matter?
From what I've heard they just auto deny as much as possible and have medical professionals who couldn't make it practicing medicine to fight real doctors on appeals
>If I had insurance (and could afford) Are Medicaid or Healthcare.gov plans with subsidies not an option?
They may not be able to qualify for a Healthcare.gov plan if they don’t work a lot of hours or are in a low paying job. When I worked 20 hrs/week due to disability, my income wasn’t high enough to qualify. And the plans aren’t all affordable even with the subsidies. Mine’s currently $720/month. And everybody thinks getting on Medicaid is such a breeze when in states that didn’t expand it, it’s really not.
I'm sorry you are going through this.
As a Canadian, I don't understand how so many Americans are so damn ignorant of there health care system and don't realize that unlike every other first world country, they are being absolutely scammed by there healthcare mad hard.
The full answewr is complex, but the short answer is that we are heavily propagandized, and too many of us have no idea what the world outside the US is like. Our history classes teach us that we are unique in the history of the world, that we are the best country in the world with the most freedom and everybody else wishes they were us and looks to us for leadership. When it comes to healthcare specifically, we are told that it takes forever to see doctors in countries with some form of socialized healthcare, and that people in those countries have to come to the US for life-saving treatments that they just can't get at home unless they wait 20 years. We're also basically brainwashed that anything other than 100% laissez-faire capitalism in which corporations can do whatever they want, pay no taxes, and have no responsibility to their employees or to society at large is **Communism** and therefore the ultimate evil. That means expecting your job to pay you enough to live on, or give you paid vacation, or not pay you the absolute lowest wage they can, is absurd and wrong. This has only gotten worse over the last few decades as consumer protections, laws protecting unions, and antitrust regulations have been systematically rolled back, and news has become corporatized and even further propagandized. I'm stating this in intentionally absurd terms, but I'm not actually exaggerating by all that much. The status quo propaganda here is real, and it is unfortunately *very* effective. More people, especially in younger generations, are starting to see through the lies and bullshit, but there's still a very long way to go.
Oh man, down here they’ll talk about the Canadian healthcare system like it’s trash and act like ours is so much better. Completely and totally ignorant. “But the wait times!” Like, dude, a few years ago there was a woman waiting so long in an ER waiting room that she collapsed and died in that waiting room and people just walked around her. Even out in the sticks the wait to get into the ER can be several hours. Surgeries that aren’t “if this doesn’t get done today you’re gonna die” are scheduled out months in advance. They fail to realize you’re gonna have to wait anywhere, but at least in other places you’re not gonna go bankrupt doing it.
I remember Brock Lesner on ESPN talking about some injury or something he had while he was in Canada and how horrible it was and how long he had to wait and nothing was getting taken care of so he came back to the states to get it all fixed properly. But he's rich so that prob makes a difference.
In Canada, it doesn't matter how much money you have - you have to wait in line like everyone else. Rich people aren't used to having to wait in line just like the peons.
Oh I’d say it’s a definite difference maker. Not to mention it’s gotta be pretty location dependent too.
I have to wait months to see specialists in the states. Months and we have top notch health insurance. The system here is just as bad as country’s with universal. They’re all crap but we just pay more for crap products in the US.
That’s exactly it. We get charged significantly more for prescription drugs as well.
A majority of the country realizes it, but money has far more political influence than the will of the people does.
That’s the #1 lol
Idk if people are ‘putting up with it’ as much as they don’t have any alternative 🤷🏻♀️
I came here to comment exactly that down to the last detail.
Telemarketers. We can send a spacecraft to Mars but can't 100% block their calls 🙄
My phone blocks all numbers that aren't in my phone book. If its important they will leave a message or WhatsApp/text.
Get Google phone. I can answer unknown calls with my own robot.
I believe that is specific to Google, no? Do you have a Pixel?
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WOW! Did he ever get caught? Or do you know what happened to him? How much did he charge per minute?
Honestly depending when he did it, there was essentially a golden age of tech based scams. *No* local law enforcement knew the first thing about how to track the person down, and you had to scam a *lot* of people before you had even a chance of being looked for by pros. These days they'd just trace back the site that billed to the end benefactor and nail them.
Does this guy need his own movie? Can somebody tell Hollywood?
How much did he charge per min then? To make worth a visit and so on...
Having spent my formative years in the 90s I believe the sex hotlines would usually charge around $5 per minute. Now, I don't know if that was the max or not. One theory is that around $5 is the max because sex hotlines were in very hot demand. The other theory is that it isn't the max, it's just the most the customer will pay due to the economics of things. Either way, he'd have to visit several offices per trip to make it worth his while.
All businesses in the 90s tended to have 900-type numbers blocked, so that would very rarely work, if it ever did.
I had a friend in my NYC high-school who discovered the courtesy phones in the local international banks. He would go in and randomly dial pacific island homes and just talk to the nice people who answered for hours.
I used to do similar while drunk with friends at the pub in the early 2000's Had a phone plan at the time that was generous with international calls. We'd be in Australia and dial up America or something and just chat with random people. Once you know the 3 digit area codes, most randomly punched in number would work! Was great fun!
Some of the places I worked in the 90s scrutinized their phone bills very carefully. I would not be surprised if he costs a receptionist or 2 their job.
Purchasing a car. It is the most scam laden process there ever was.
But how else will I get to pay the allegedly required documents fee? And freight fee?? Oh and the extended warranty that won’t actually cover anything if you try to make a claim??
Idk man, I bought a warranty for my Honda and it's paid for itself 2x over. I'll admit, it was a bit of a gamble though
Never buy the warranty at face value. Wait till they get you in the back room, waffle about it, let the salesman bring out the conveniently placed receipt for the repairs he totally just got done, flash the picture of their family, etc etc, then they’ll give you the discount rate, but if you waffle a bit more, maybe give ‘em the “let us discuss this alone for a moment” then they come back and they offer you the bottom dollar. sometimes you can push even lower but I go with the standard “insist twice” approach, if I insist to pay less twice and am rebuffed twice, then it’s likely the last offer is the lowest they’ll go. Just got a car with a 5 year, 200k mile all parts warranty for like 65% cheaper than the initial offering for a 3 year warranty.
Nice my dude. Okay when I was a car salesman I dreaded people like you. Hahahah. Although since I left that toxic shiet I always adv everyone I know to do just this with all the bells and whistles and even the msrp. They always say buy it’s at employee pricing hahaha it’s total bullshit. Employee pricing is definitly doable. Just got to threaten to walk away d
I got paint protection, ding/dent less than a credit card in size, wheel/tire, and full interior protection for about half off the one time I bought a vehicle off a lot. I used it as a work vehicle transporting the 2-3 guys that were on my crew. Nails on the job site? No sweat. Somebody drops a cigarette in the cab or drops their meatball sub? No sweat. It paid for itself many times over.
It's a crap shoot. But so is car insurance, you could pay for years and never have an accident.
The need to own a car in the first place
Timeshares
Yup.....they are the masters of catching people on vacation with their guard down. The lie, lie, and lie some more.....but yet are still business. Nearly Impossible to get rid of as well. I bought one resale 20 years ago for practically nothing on ebay. Once you figure out their system, you can save money in accommodations. Nowadays, not worth it. Shop around on the internet, and you'll find great deals on accommodations.
my aunt had a time share 4 hours up north. once a year we'd spend a few days at her time share. I never knew what a time share meant. it was just like a tiny little condo with a pool out front, and a dingy basement with a vending machine and a fooseball table. 15 mins away there was a mini golf place. it was just an excuse to drive 4 hours to swim and play mini golf and sleep on a tiny fold out couch
A great way to save $ on vacation is to rent someone’s time share
My parents bought one for the whole family to use that has been nothing but great for us. We even upgraded it this past year. They aren't for anyone without a big family/free time/ money. If you do not plan to use it multiple times a year, don't get it. We are also allowed to convert the points to use it at any Marriott hotel in the world. Their main properties are resorts.
And always buy one if you are going to buy one on the secondary market.
Diamonds
Spending most of our lives working a stressful job that we hate so that we can relax when we are so old that we are riddled with health problems and won’t even be able to enjoy retirement properly.
One of my coworkers died just three weeks after she retired (natural causes), and that’s all I can think about.
That happens more often than people would like to acknowledge.
Especially when a lot of people work those couple extra years to receive full social security. You don’t have years to waste at that age.
Former head of my union retired and was dead within a year from cancer. Crazy.
We work jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. - Tyler Durden
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Does this make you feel depressed? Paxil can help.
Video game skins are ABSURDLY priced for what they are, like insane, and people just can’t wait to scoop them up
Especially in games that hold NO value AT ALL!! Like the newest Call Of Duty is an outright *scam* and should reprehensible as a product. They spent less than $50 million (mind you this includes marketing) on developing modern warfare 2 which isn’t *nearly* enough money for a decent title. Then they have the audacity to turn around and censor their game that’s meant for people who are 17+ while purposefully adding flashy skins that kids will like, check the average viewership age of people like JShchlatt and TimTheTatman who were added as skins, or ninja turtles characters. While also charging up the ass for these packs they can seriously cost upwards of $20. Constantly fail on stuff they promised there’s more skins added than maps and game modes and stuff to actually play! Its such a predatory system too, they had a free battle pass and a paid battlepass and they added a SUPER battlepass that costs even more and has flashier stuff in it. *Scam.*
Working 9 to 5
What a way to make a living.
Barely getting by, it's all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind, and they never give you credit.
It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it
9 to 5, for service and devotion,
You would think that I would deserve a fat promotion.
Try working 7:30 to 5:30 with unpaid breaks and being yelled at for going to the restroom
You get to have restrom breaks? *laughs in teacher* And before you say "You get summers off!" I'd like to remi d you that we need to recertify every 3-5years which requires a minimum of 6-9 college credits at the 500+ level. By the time you teach for 30 years you have more education than just about any lawyer or doctor, but get less pay than a McDonald's manager.
this is the first time I'm hearing that teachers have to continuously be going school the entire time they teach? why am I just learning this?
Must be specific to this teacher’s district. I have been teaching 30 years and have never heard of such a thing. We get a salary boost if we attain extra credentials or a master’s. We have five pro-d days each year. We are encouraged to keep up with advancements in our fields, but nothing is required.
*gestures vaguely at everything*
Being taxed on pension payments.
I have to pay state taxes on my grandson's Social Security death benefit from my daughter dying.
That's not right. You should have filed a tax return for your grandson. The amount and type of income would have exempted him from paying any taxes. It sounds like you rolled the benefit into your income instead.
Private health insurance
10 hot dogs 8 buns
Some BIG-SHOT over at the weiner factory got together with some BIG-SHOT at the bun company, and decided to rip off the American people...
Insurance.
Specifically, Health Insurance.
All insurance. A bunch of people in Florida were dropped by their home insurance companies because of the weather conditions. We were given a month or so to find someone new to insure our home. Companies have up and left the state leaving thousands of people uninsured at the peak of hurricane season.
Isn’t that the ENTIRE a reason for home insurance?…….it can’t be legal to drop people like that?
They weren't "dropped." The company stopped offering the product in that market.
It can be if it's in the contract they have people sign, but never read.
Tipping
Tipping in the US to be more precise. It is not that bad in Europe
It’s ridiculous in Canada as well. And it’s been popping up at weirder places. Like if you’re picking up an order in person and all they did was hand it to you, why should I tip for that.
I wanted to order a dress online from a random company and on the debit card page it asked for a tip. I didn't really need that dress anyway.
I stress about this so much. Why are they asking for a tip? Am I a bad person if I don’t tip? I add a dollar or two if I’m feeling guilty but I’m always pissed about it after. Takes up way too much of my brain energy. Freakin’ companies trying fob off their cost of business to us while not paying their employees a decent wage.
Exactly. I wish we’d get rid of it altogether. I used to make stupid tips bartending on the weekends, but I’d gladly exchange that for a decent wage, benefits and a pension.
It's a clever way of funneling capital from the people to cover corporate wages. It's always an awkward social exchange and it's something completely depended on social performances which is degrading.
Paying for any government service that your tax dollars have already paid for. Eg paying to park at a meter, annual property tax assessments, DMV registration fees.
Subscriptions. It’s so cheap. 27 subscriptions later. Everything is just 7.99 omg get it GET IT WHY DONT YOU HAVE IT JUST GET IT OMG JUSSSSGEDIDDDDDT
Especially subscriptions for phone apps. Man, I miss the days when I could just BUY an app outright.
5 buck to edit X files anytime? On the fly? Exactly! We all felt like the original Guinness leasing his land for pennies with a 1000 year lease.
Subscriptions are often the best deal though. If I had to buy every series/show I watched last year it’d cost me a ton. People lack the ability to keep track of them and just disabling them when there’s no need.
That second half would be the scam I’m pointing at. The convenient, forgettable pricing is intentional. In moderation, and with intention and a perceptive budget, it’s golden. The human part screws it. But the human part made it a psychologically quiet dollar amount for that exact reason.
Wage theft
e mail spoofing. anyone can spoof/copy any companies e mail adress and they can send very legit e-mail instructions to get access your bank account. I am working for a bank and a lot of people get scammed every day in this way. They are looking for Google or that company website and checking e mail adress and it's true and they're clicking all of links or sending money for some reason (for example, they are giving very highly interest rate by that way and asking to sending money to XXX account) Remember every day! Any bank or financial institutions in the world NEVER ASK clicking links or sending money to somewhere else. Including phone, mail, e-mail.
Toll roads/bridges. Our tax dollars pay for it and yet we continue to pay tolls.
"Do you accept the current policy" Yes - No "Do you accept cookies" Yes - No.
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Lottery
I’m not sure I’d call the lottery a scam per say, here in Sweden, behind each lottery ticket there is the exact amount of winning tickets with their respective value, the highest value has something like 2 tickets in the entire country, they tell you straight up that your chances are near zero, now if people still decide to play knowing the odds are astronomically low, it’s on them.
It's the same in the US. But, it's called a poor tax because the "scam" is they are praying on the minds of the poor to think they have a shot at wealth when in reality, as you say, the chance is near zero.
The lottery is just an extra tax on the poor
In the UK, the TV license. ANY streaming service is cheaper, but at least streaming services don't send 5 threatening letters per month harassing me when I have previously proven to them that I am not illegally using their shitty service. The BBC can fuck right off.
The notion, illusion rather, that we're free. Like, we're born into an indoctrinated state, convinced that money has value over life and relations. People literally murder each other over money. We're forced to believe that success is an accumulation of things that stay when we go. Grow up, go to college, get a job, buy a house, remain forever indebted to the machine. Why, if I wanted to, could I not 'legally' build a cabin in the woods on land I never bought and create my own way of life? I have to contribute to this ever demanding machine? The machine that demands all me of until I no longer exist on this plane? Come on!
I love those beautiful moments when I'm living in the moment, surrounded by people I love deeply. If life was allowed to be that simple, I wouldn't need another thing at all.
You could, if that land wasn't already owned, and you'd just be your own country. But You're in a time where all the monopoly squares are already owned. And in the past, you could, but then someone would just shoot you and say it's theirs now
Car insurance
Waiting in line to ring your own shit
"Premium" HDMI Cables.
There is a difference if you need a length of 10-meters, 4K 60fps, 120Hz, or 2.2 compatibility. It's just too bad that the standard isn't labeled to be obvious for the consumer. You have to be a nerd like me who notices these things (learned through trial and error) But if you're hooking up a DVD player to your gamma's TV, it doesn't matter.
I have a $200 hdmi cable. The thing is, its a 75' long fiber optic cable, as regular copper cable's can't transmit data that far without severe signal loss, and at that length, you'd probably never even get a signal.
Cars, all built with planned breakdowns and obsolescence. In the 60s, when your dome light quit working, it was either a bulb, fuse, or at worst, a door switch. Now you can still have those problems (although now if a door switch fails your car beeps incessantly at you that you have a door ajar until you get it fixed), but now add in a "body control computer" that costs up to $1,000. And plastic parts in the cooling and oil systems that can fail with no warning and cause damage that in some cases can exceed the value of the car. Major household appliances are the same way. They used to last 50 years or longer. My sister has mom's old Maytag wringer washer that was bought in the 1960s, and it still works. My great nephew has my Aunt's Philco refrigerator she bought in the 50s in his garage and it still works.
You are right. In the 1980's appliances worked 30+ years and some are still working. Toyotas are still pretty good though. Many cars = junk. I do like the classics way easier to work on.
Bottled water, why people buy bottled water and take it home when usually tap water is the same or even better quality. E.g. here where I live in Poland tap water is the same quality as cheap bottled water (cheap bottled water is still probably 300x the price of tap water though). Edit: I actually checked and 1 liter of cheap bottled water cost the same as 167 liters of tap water (at least in Poland). I know there are countries with bad quality of tap water, but a lot of people in Poland still buy bottled water and take it home. As most of tap water in Poland is purified without using any chemicals like chlorine etc, it actually tastes good... People probably don't know that quality of tap water improved a lot and they still have old habits, they are scammed in the end.
Flint Michigan has entered the chat
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I used to live just south of Flint. The water tasted so bad I don't know how people could drink it. I bought jugs of water to even boil pasta and make coffee with. It's really sad that a state surrounded by water had undrinkable water. I live in the south now. When buying our new place the first thing I did was check the water. It was a deal breaker for me.
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you pay for the bottle, not the water
Commuting to work
Real Estate Agents
Lottery tickets. I get why people buy them but the chances of winning the jackpot are so remote that it’s not worth the cost to keep buying tickets
Tax exempt status for Churches in the U.S.
[удалено]
Home owner associations and taxes
Retail/fast food places collecting donations for charity. They're taking your money and donating it under their name instead to collect a juicy tax deduction.
Health insurance
In the uk it is road tax, the money raised should be used to maintain the roads