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Most of us like to think the world is a fair place. We rent-to-own appliances to repair the kitchen, pay to set up a router, and pack on ink cartridges for our printers that seem to have an insatiable appetite for these overpriced refills.
And there’s nothing wrong about it until you pause and think for a moment. Are we all just normalizing the ways companies make a profit off us without even realizing it?
When someone posted the question “What is clearly a scam but is so normalized people don’t notice?” on r/AskReddit it surely resonated with many. Amassing 85.7k upvotes and 47.1k comments, we have some of the most interesting and insightful responses that will make you go “wait a moment!”
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Most mega churches... I remember an interview with Kenneth Copeland talking about how he needed a private jet to spread religion
#2
Minimum wages staying the same, while the price of virtually everything else rises
#3
Funerals and everything to do with them. The funeral industry has insane pricing. Some of the funeral homes and vendors are even predatory, getting grieving families to pay upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, because “that’s what the deceased would have wanted”.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
I personally don’t understand the big lavish funerals. Your dead so why do you care how your send of goes. I don’t care if I have a memorial, ceremony etc. I want to be disposed of as cheap as possible coz I don’t want my family to be in debt or pay thousands of dollars to legally dispose of me.
#4
Planned obsolescence, where products are deliberatly designed to have a defect or worse performance shortly after the warranty has expired.
#5
''The customer is always right"
Biggest scam of all- the customer is usually an idiot and looking to get free stuff.
Lunar Bicycle 3 years ago
The original saying made perfect sense: “The customer is always right, in matters of taste.” If a customer wanted wear something ugly or eat something gross, you helped them out with a smile. It’s their money and their business, and you’re just there to facilitate that purchase. But once it got shortened and lost that meaning, it became a huge pain in the ass for employees and businesses, and a license to act like an entitled douche to customers.
#6
The US tax system. “We know how much money you owe, but it’s up to you to figure it out and if it’s not right, we’re going to penalize you for not understanding the convoluted code.”
#7
The fact that so many products require you to create an account and register it just to use it. This is starting to become so widespread. Even CAMERAS are doing that [things] now. Pisses me off so much. I don't want to be tied to some stupid cloud BS I just want to use the damn thing.
Phones themselves are terrible for this too. I should not need an apple or google account to have a phone I should be able to use it as a standalone device with just the cell service and that's it. All this sort of BS is only so they can spy on you.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
I agree 100%, also I hate that you have to give permission to use your data to access most apps, websites etc. You should be able to use them without them selling your info to other parties.
#9
College textbook prices.
It's crazy how ridiculous expensive they are putting even more of a financial burden on students
#10
Unpaid internships. F*ck anyone who gives unpaid internships! People get exploited like sh*t in that and for what? Most times they don't even count. For what purpose?
I get so irritated when someone posts "unpaid but you'll be given a certificate". Shut the f*ck up and do the work by yourself you lazy ass.
#12
Mobile game ads that show gameplay of a Call of Duty or Skyrim style game but in reality are just a spin-off of Candy Crush
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
I have downloaded so many apps from what is advertised in another game and then find out it is nothing like the ad at all. So now I don’t even bother. It’s essentially click bait.
#13
Printer ink.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
Omg yes, it is super expensive. Our old printer was cheap but we didn’t research before hand to find out that the ink for black was $38 and colour was $45.
#15
Bottled water, like Dasani. Especially in places like an amusement park that mark ups the price a shocking amount. Also the average markup of bottled water is 4000%, which is outrageous, bc water is literally free most places
#17
The diamond industry, specifically as it relates to jewelry. Everything that the average person "knows" about it stems from propaganda and advertisements created by DeBeers. They aren't rare, they aren't worth what you pay for them, they don't appreciate in value and are a terrible investment. They aren't special.
#18
Health Insurance in the US. Costs a small fortune, never covers sh*t, and you still end up bankrupt if you're not rich and get sick or hurt.
#19
Apple's headphone jack removal.
Supposedly was to make the phone thinner, but everyone puts a case on anyways. Samsung galaxy S10 was 7.8 mm thick with a headphone jack. Apple removed the jack with iPhone 7, which was 7.1 mm thick. That's great, but every iphone since has been thicker.
And very convenient to remove that, wait till the annoyance died down, then release airpods.
The whole thing was clearly a scam to artificially make bluetooth a borderline necessity right before releasing Apple bluetooth earbuds.
And everyone ate it up.
Ozacoter 3 years ago
And the removal of the chargers “for the environment”. If it was for the environment then you would reduce the cost of the charge from the phones and also give the option to buy them for a small price. Now they charge the same without it and then charge you like 40 euros for the charger.
#20
Gerrymandering. In most representative democracies, voters choose their elected officials. In the US, elected officials choose their voters.
#21
Cat food. Look at the cat food at a random store, and see how the design brags about all the healthy vegetables they've crammed into your obligate carnivore's diet. Then check out the ingredients and see how corn, rice, etc. are often the first ingredients. Pet foods market toward humans by trying to appeal to human sensibilities, not genuine desire to provide your cat with the best diet.
Ozacoter 3 years ago
When you buy kibble look at the ingredients. Like this post said the first ingredients are the ones that have a bigger %. You want the first ingredients to be meat and it to not contain a lot of wheat, beets, corn, flour or ash. Most fancy commercial brands are really poor in composition.
#22
Members of Senate, Congress, and Presidential candidates, collecting money from corporations, big donors, and hiding it in campaign accounts, Pac's and Super Pac's, and then doling it out as they like. They no longer act as a government of the people and for the people.
#23
Giving credit card details for a "free trial" and auto renewal fine print.
Heck, stop it after my trial ends. If I really liked it, I'll pay for it.
#24
Manufacturers refusing documentation to private repair enterprises and requiring you to get your products fixed by the dealer. Basically, the reason for the "Right-to-repair" movement
Malakai 3 years ago
YES. And making products "seamless" so that you CAN'T open them up to repair them (I'm looking at you, Apple), at least not without a ton of effort and higher than average risk.of damaging the product doing it yourself. This refusing documentation and all is just yet another scheme for them to wring money out of consumers and away from small businesses
#25
The school picture industry. $80 for an awkward picture of my baby? Nah, thanks
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago (edited)
$80 is insane. I would never pay that. Thankfully the average cost I pay is $35 for a basic pack which includes a class photo and about 10 individual photos of various sizes.
#26
Application fees for colleges, apartments, etc.
#27
HOSPITALS OMG
Lol ask them for an itemized bill (like everything they gave you and how much it costs) and they'll cut the bill down by like 50%.
#28
Weddings. My wife and I got married in a post office and could not have asked for a better ceremony. It cost us the price of notary services and that’s it.
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
The exhorbitant sums spent on weddings, specially second marriages or where couples have lived together for years and often already have children, has become rediculous.
#29
Working 40 hours a week
Vorknkx 3 years ago
Or the entire concept of having to work, in order to justify being alive... many years ago I came across a quote by some economist (can't remember the name, sadly) who argued that most job positions are totally superfluous, but are maintained because of the whole "everyone has to have a job" thing.
#31
Fashion, but also just clothing in general. No pockets on female clothes? More purses get sold. Thinner layers for women? Have to buy more layers. It gets marketed as being fashionable, but the clothing industry could roll out a marketing campaign for baggy rugged clothing tomorrow and get it trending if they wanted to.
Also, the clothing industry is a cesspool of child labor, human trafficking, and it has some of the highest carbon emissions and water waste of any industry on the planet, way worse than flying. One cotton t-shirt takes thousands of gallons of water to produce. Almost any synthetic fabric is a type of plastic, and you release microplastics upon washing.
On top of all that, we have repressive cultural norms and laws regarding the necessity of wearing clothing that come from Puritans and Victorians who thought table legs had to be covered and ankles were sexy. The idea that you should be embarrassed to be naked in front of other people is a cultural phenomenon, not instinct, and you can look at pretty much any tropical tribe to verify this fact that humans are actually generally normal around other naked humans.
#32
Social media. From their happy beginnings they are now mostly a funnel used to ram as many advertisements into your mind as inhumanly possible. “Sponsored Posts” every third or fourth item - I see you, IG/FB/Red/etc. And that’s not even mentioning the extensive filtering network that “curates” the information you get to see when you are looking for something. “Curated information” is just a nice expression for you being conditioned to form certain opinions / buy more stuff. Social media groom minds
#33
Reducing a price by 1 cent to trick our brains into thinking a product costs less than it actually is.
#34
Starbucks. I pay $9.99 for 51 oz of Folgers Ground Coffee, roughly 380 8 oz cups. That comes out to about $0.02 per cup of coffee. At Starbucks, a Tall Dark Roast costs $1.85. I could have 92.5 cups of Folgers at home before I pay for 1 Starbucks. My tub of Folgers is worth $703.00 if I were to sell it at the same price as Starbucks. AND I’m using reusable cups every day.
#35
Homeowner's insurance:
"Sorry, we're not selling new policies in Your Area right now because Thing just happened" where Thing = earthquake, wildfire, flood, and other things you might ... want to insure against?
"We don't cover That Sort of Problem." where That Sort of Problem = anything that actually happens to your house, due to weasel-wording loopholes
"You submitted a claim? We're going to triple your rates FOREVER after this."
#36
Those registries that people pay money to “name a star”
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
The thing is no registry owns the stars so just because you name it, doesn’t mean it is actually named that or that you are the only person to name that specific star. You may call it Fred whilst someone has called that same star Wilma. You are literally paying for a piece of paper, nothing more.
#39
Doing your own taxes, and paying to use a privately-owned software (or a service) when the government could totally do it for you, send you the details, and ask if it’s correct.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
I would rather use an accountant, especially when our tax is a bit more complicated with all the deductions.
#40
Annual college tuition increases. Why aren’t they held to a competitive pricing model as opposed to having to take out a mortgage to go to school? Everyone wants to talk about government paying for college education, but there is no conversation on why is it that expensive anyway? Especially when some unis have endowments in the billions that just the interest on those funds could literally pay the tuition for everyone that goes through the door.
#41
Social media looks like free, harmless fun, but is more like selling your soul (and data), makes you addicted and sad. Most people notice, probably, but don't care enough.
#42
Paying for cable tv. The whole idea of paying was to create a revenue stream separate from that of marketing. There are a few out there (HBO, I think) but generally we pay to access the content and still have to spend 20% of the time sitting through commericals.
Then streaming comes in and were free of advertisements again, for a bit. Now YouTube has tons of ads and other streaming services are talking about adding ads as well
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
I would never get Foxtel coz it is approx $60 a month when I can get Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime video, Stan etc plus all the catch up tv and YouTube for at least $20 less a month. They are an absolute rip off.
#43
Most modern manufactured goods. Designed to not last, so you keep buying more.
#44
EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the Internet that sells some sort of „millionaire education“ .
Every single one of them. They are all liars, most of them are not even rich to begin with! They fake it enough that some idiots buy it. You are customers to them. Nothing more.
pusheen buttercup 3 years ago
A lot of self-help unfortunately is based on the falsehood that you can "accomplish it with this one trick." The One Trick will not get your weight healthy, get you that relationship with that person, put money in your pocket or make you happier. Real life requires nuance and complexity. And things that are hard and take time and effort. I wish there were One Trick but we need to deal with the situation we have, not the situation we wish it was.
#45
Toothpaste commercial were actors filled their toothbrush with toothpaste too much which is unnecessary
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
You should only use about a pea size amount. In saying that though, I am just as bad as the actors and put on almost as much as what is pictured lol.
#48
The fact that you have to pay to bury loved ones
chi-wei shen 3 years ago
I don't think the mere fact that you have to pay for burials is a scam, but the often high prices are equivalent to a scam.
#49
Rent-to-own furniture and appliances.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
I understand why it’s a thing coz some people can’t afford to pay for those big items upfront so rent to buy is one of their only options.
#50
Lootboxes in videogames.
What do you think ?
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
So called influencers only exist because fools "follow" them.
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hi myself 3 years ago
I hate you look something up once, and then everywhere else you go there are ads for it. This just proves that Google is stealing your information.
person (i think) 3 years ago
Look up random stuff to throw them off. Once I looked up a Breyer Horse figurine I still had as a kid (to see if it was worth selling). I had Breyer Horses ads for 2 months. I’ve had that happen with other things too. It is always great to throw off your algorithm because then you are not tempted to buy anything
Load More Replies...
Vanta Black 3 years ago
The biggest scam ever was Moon Boots. They didn't make me weigh less, and float for a little bit, I just bounced a couple inches off the ground, and returned almost immediately. I'd rather have had a Pet Rock, even though that was also a scam.
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
So called influencers only exist because fools "follow" them.
Load More Replies... hi myself 3 years ago
I hate you look something up once, and then everywhere else you go there are ads for it. This just proves that Google is stealing your information.
person (i think) 3 years ago
Look up random stuff to throw them off. Once I looked up a Breyer Horse figurine I still had as a kid (to see if it was worth selling). I had Breyer Horses ads for 2 months. I’ve had that happen with other things too. It is always great to throw off your algorithm because then you are not tempted to buy anything
Load More Replies... Vanta Black 3 years ago
The biggest scam ever was Moon Boots. They didn't make me weigh less, and float for a little bit, I just bounced a couple inches off the ground, and returned almost immediately. I'd rather have had a Pet Rock, even though that was also a scam.
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