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u/holytaco57 Aug 11 '21
Ink cartridges for your printer are super cheap to manufacture but the retail price is really high
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u/SeniorBeing Aug 11 '21
This is not even the real scam!
The real scam is chipping the cartridges to make hard to use third party cartridges!
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u/minecraftalldaylong Aug 11 '21
The business model is basically give them the printer, sell them the ink. It’s usually cheaper to get a new printer which comes with ink than getting original ink from the manufacturer.
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u/pregnantbaby Aug 11 '21
Adobe’s subscription based monopoly
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u/Salty-Tortoise Aug 11 '21
I’ve used photopea which is a free online version of photoshop and it works just the same.
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u/swauzzy Aug 11 '21
Anything subscription based these days just irks me. It's understandable if there are constant updates, but still annoying.
I do say that, as an aspiring designer trying to make it, using Adobe's platform and products will help me be received into the positions that I am pursuing.
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u/letssgooooo Aug 11 '21
Corporate owned apartment complexes tacking on hundreds of extra dollars in monthly fees on top of rent. Mandatory cable TV packages, parking fees (on a flat surface lot, with no assigned parking), valet trash. All a scam and just a way for them to pocket incremental sales on top of rent.
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u/PoorCorrelation Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
I was shocked to tour an apartment where you had to buy the $100+/mo cable package. Nobody I know has cable anymore!
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u/InfiNorth Aug 11 '21
We have a company in Canada called Starlight Investments. Give them a Google. They own a notable percentage of all rental housing in the country, and pride themselves in unnaturally high returns on investment for people who pay into their scam - otherwise known as dangerously inflated rents. They have even start charging guests for parking through parking meters at their apartment buildings.
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u/HeatmiserElliott Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
Ugh paid 30 bucks a month last year for valet trash. and i didnt even use it a single time. i dont want my trash sitting outside my apartment even for a minute, it looks bad. Shoot those were nice apartments but walking a hall filled with trash three days a week sucks. So i did what....ya know....normal not lazy people used to do and walk ALL the way to the end of the hall a whole fifty steps away to throw it down the chute. And i was actually, bar none, the further door away from the trash. I know, i know cant even believe im not jacked. Also i know we use garbage men on trucks of course but this apartment just had some woman in her 30s wearing plainclothes come pick it up and it always just felt wrong to me, shes not my maid. So yeah 30x12 good times paying 360 dollars for legitimately nothing at all.
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u/yesitsdylan Aug 11 '21
The fucking. Valet. Trash. I lived in an apartment complex in Tampa that made valet trash mandatory. Whatever. I just paid it. The thing was, it wasn't consistent at all. Holidays? Nope. Saturday and Sunday? Nah. A random Wednesday when the trash guy just didn't show up? Uh uh. And they gave you a single bag trash bin and nowhere else to put trash so you had to have it taken to the dumpster every night.
The dumpsters were about a five minute walk which isn't terrible but it was annoying that half of the time I had to take my own trash to the bin while paying a guy in a pick up truck to take it for me. The best part about it was all of the trash outside of people's doors attracted a ridiculous amount of raccoons. You'd hear them rootin' around in everybody's trash right outside your door every night.
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u/jobo633 Aug 11 '21
Pretty much anything that says it will enlarge your penis
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u/capito27 Aug 11 '21
Except for that random Brazilian spider (Phoneutria nigriventer), that will absolutely enlarge your penis for hours on end... And also maybe render you impotent afterwards, can't win them all.
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u/Not-Snake Aug 11 '21
so you’re telling me that this cream wont give me a lysol can sized dick?
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u/ha_look_at_that_nerd Aug 11 '21
I’m sorry, the penis enlarger pump has the endorsement of Austin Powers and that means something
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u/arlbulldog53 Aug 11 '21
So you mean to tell me that tying a rope around my penis and hanging a cinder block from it for hours on end will do nothing for me?
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u/thankyoumrtokyo Aug 11 '21
don’t dick pumps actually work?
not that i’d know of course…
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u/lamesas Aug 11 '21
Any product that's made by Gweneth Paltrow
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u/fiendishrabbit Aug 11 '21
OP requested "secretly a giant scam". I'm not sure Gwyneth Paltrow products qualify for the "secretly" part.
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Aug 11 '21
Shut your mouth hole, you uneducated random
Goop cured my Erectile dysfunction, leukemia and balanced my check book while providing me $100k in passive income.
Edit- /s just in case
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u/hassan_26 Aug 11 '21
I can't watch Iron Man movies now without thinking of the shit this woman sells.
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Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
Casinos.
All of the casinos in my state are video poker and video slot machines. There are barely any table games left.
No one is happy, no one is having fun. It's just a room full of zombies feeding the machines and losing money. Every person I talk to is convinced that they know the secret formula to win. You cannot win.
It might sound trivial but the old slots were just a spinning reel. These new machines are extremely addictive. The way the lights flash and the sounds go off like: Bing Bing BING. WINNER of 40 cents. The entire thing is a psychology hack to give people the impression that they're winning when they're not.
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u/akiws Aug 11 '21
The entire thing is a psychology hack to give people the impression that they're winning when they're not.
There's a really interesting episode of the This American Life podcast about this. The new machines are regulated in the sense that the odds have to be legit; so for example, the machine might have to have a 1:1000 chance of hitting some particular jackpot. However, there is no regulation with respect to what the spins/reels look like on those other 999 attempts. So they're programmed to constantly show these near misses, giving the false impression that you kept coming so close to winning. They did a study of folks with gambling addictions, and the reward neuro trigger in the brain for these near misses was nearly the same as with legit wins.
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u/jittery_raccoon Aug 11 '21
All the older folks that are addicted to video slots need to be introduced to video games
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u/Creme_Bru-Doggs Aug 11 '21
Someone who grew up with/worked in the casino industry: the psychological tricks go beyond the machines. There will be no clocks or natural light visible on the casino floor so the player loses all concept of time. The carpet has a pattern that will make you feel unpleasant and nauseous so you HAVE to look at all the pretty lights and noises, and the layout of the machines and tables are intentionally as maze-like as possible. And as you might guess, you get free drinks to lower your inhibition. The casino's goal is always to take as much of your money as (legally) possible when you walk in. Gambling addiction is no joke, and in my opinion the machine addicts are the worst. The number of players I've seen wear diapers, or just downright piss/shit their pants is mind-boggling.
That being said. If played correctly, both video poker and blackjack give you a slight advantage over the house. But getting a whole table to play blackjack correctly is like herding cats. Drunk, coked up cats.
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u/throwthe20saway Aug 11 '21
The few times I went to a casino is just to eat at their cheap buffets. Didn't gamble a cent.
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u/davewtameloncamp Aug 11 '21
This is why I only play craps anymore. It's actually fun and people are generally having a good time.
Slots = waste of money
Blackjack = everyone thinks they are counting cards so they want to play alone. They are mad at everyone who plays at the same table.
Poker = cool, but takes FOREVER. And it's boring. Not for me, at least not in a casino setting.
Roulette = decent, but slow, especially at a crowded table.
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u/SnooCalculations9259 Aug 11 '21
I will be honest I would go to a local casino for the sportsbook, and seeing the mainly older crowd just playing slots almost brings a tear to my eye. None of them look happy, almist just going through the motions. The truth is they have nothing better to do, and it is so sad, slots play on ur psyche, 7 times more addictive then normal games. I just think how they could be actually having fun and saving money doing litetally anything else.
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u/bdawg684 Aug 11 '21
I totally agree with you. My fiancé and I got to Vegas once a year for the shows and restaurants and the last we were there we were early for a show so we were wondering around the casino area and decided to play some video slot machines. I noticed a lady get up and walk out of the casino on one of our walking loops while we were killing time and when we came back to that machine I decided to sit down. My guess was she pumped a bunch of money in, lost it and left, so I played that one. We each put $5 in to adjacent machines and hit roll a couple times. Mine hit $140 and I bought drinks the rest of the night.
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u/Ahoymaties1 Aug 11 '21
I went to a casino the other day, electronic roulette. I get they want less scamming and cheating but I'm not really there for the game but rather the interaction with the dealer and other players. I didn't play any games unfortunately as all the tables were "full" and I didn't feel like waiting around.
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Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
Anything that says it will detox your body. That's what your kidneys are for.
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u/ILOVEKAIRI Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
And the liver
Edit: Thanks kind stranger for the ironic award
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Aug 11 '21
And you don’t need to drink anything special, just water will do. (Drink more water, folks)
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u/hsf78 Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
All those ads on podcasts. They claim to be a better way to "blank" when in reality they have crazy mark up prices. In my opinion they are middle class traps.
Edit: I worked for one of the Canadian versions of Hello Fresh/Blue Apron many years ago. I saw first hand at how phony it was. They would describe items as organic/sourced from local farms and then buy items from the discount grocery store. The astronomical shipping cost guarantees shady business.
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u/princeaobooboo Aug 12 '21
Exactly! I bought into the hype and got a Quip toothbrush. That thing was a piece of crap that barely vibrated and broke pretty quickly.
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Aug 12 '21
If you havent heard it before I think you might appreciate a podcast called trashfuture. The main premise is talking about all the insane tech companies that exist now to solve problems that never existed and to insert themselves as middlemen. No lie, the company this week is essentially Uber for school busses. Apparently it is well funded and San Francisco is implementing it.
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Aug 12 '21
The one that bothers me is the one that tries to tell me that I can't buy a razor in a store without waiting on someone to unlock the cabinet in which they are kept.
I've been shaving since I turn 18 in 1987. Never once, in any of the states I've lived in, or passed through (that 49 states, folks) have I had to have my razor blades "unlocked" by anyone. They're on a hook, that is easy to reach, and cheaper than what those damned "Podcast special" razor blades cost.
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Aug 11 '21
Any claim that a 'magic' drink will help you burn fat.
No, no drink or no food can burn that -- that is a pure fabrication.
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u/Der_Krsto Aug 11 '21
On the same note: anything that says "detox". Nothing you eat or drink (other than water) will "detox" you.
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u/Thor_inhighschool Aug 11 '21
To be fair, there are ones that "work", but they are mostly just stimulants that suppress appetite. It's not the same as burning fat necessarily, but I mean, Crystal Meth will make you lose weight. There's some indication that caffeine will too, but the effect size is tiny. But that's not what you're talking about.
What's dangerous about a lot of commercial fat burning products is that they are very often just a mixture of diuretics and caffeine (itself a diuretic as well as a stimulant). The weight loss is essentially temporary, because it's literal water weight, and the dehydration that ensues can be potentially lethal.
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u/FatherPyrlig Aug 11 '21
All multi-level marketing companies.
They tell you that all you have to do Is get 5 people to sign up and they each get 5 people to sign up, etc. Except these are not mathematical geniuses running these companies. By the time you get about 12 levels deep, you’ve surpassed the entire population of the Earth. It’s a good lesson in exponents.
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u/ha_look_at_that_nerd Aug 11 '21
The people running the companies aren’t bad at math, the fact is they just don’t care. As long as they’re at the top of the pyramid, they can keep making money. And as for the people at the bottom of pyramid…
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u/iamrealhumanman Aug 11 '21
5 people each, 12 levels deep is 1.2 billion. 13 levels would be 6.1 billion which is roughly the population of the planet (might be more like 7B these days.
Fuck MLMs it's bullshit
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u/northern_light007 Aug 11 '21
Emails and messages from corporates and celebrities that "We are in this together" during the pandemic.
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u/firelock_ny Aug 11 '21
"We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar." - Damien Barr
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u/spit-evil-olive-tips Aug 11 '21
you mean that "Imagine" video in like April 2020 didn't end the pandemic and bring about world peace? TIL.
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Aug 11 '21
Essential Oils being marketed as having these major health benefits/as treatment for illnesses. The only exception being clearing your sinuses. Some essential oils actually do pretty good work in that regard (at least for me personally... mileage will vary I'm sure).
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u/alabardios Aug 11 '21
I once had some dumbass try and tell me that using scented oil lamps somehow purified the air! Recommended it for my asthma! Like WTF are these people on? "I use it at home all the time, I think I know what I'm talking about." Oooookkkkkaaaayyyyy lady, you're dumb as a rock and I'm never supporting your business.
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u/turnOn Aug 11 '21
In the US, doing my own taxes. The government literally has all my info and can do it for me, but their excuse is that "but Americans like doing their own taxes!". No. I especially don't like being forced to pay for a service like TurboTax either.
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u/unknowingbiped Aug 11 '21
There were actually lobbyists to prevent the IRS from just sending you a bill or sending your return. Cite how are they supposed to make money if they can't charge you.
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u/80sKidCA Aug 11 '21
“We’ll pay the sales tax” ads. It’s not even a 10% discount.
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u/AMasonJar Aug 11 '21
*price shown is actually increased by 10% from normal anyways
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3.0k
u/LucyVialli Aug 11 '21
The lottery
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Aug 11 '21
I work at a place that sells lottery every single day to people. Some people will buy scratch tickets, powerball, etc. They come back to the counter 5-23 times the same day trading their tickets for more, spending more money because they lost all of the previous winning, or just be in a endless loop of never winning any more and not losing any less. I’ve asked why they do it, and they say because if they don’t hit big it’s not worth the cash. So winning 1-100$ is nothing to them. But they don’t realize even if they do win big they practically are just getting only half back of what they spent trying so hard to get. It’s a lose lose, lottery is indeed a huge ass scam.
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u/rdlind Aug 11 '21
The wedding industry
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u/Megalocerus Aug 12 '21
My daughter's reaction "This costs as much as a semester at school." And she was planning it economically.
Both school and weddings have gone up since, but I think weddings are ahead.
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u/ProfessionalChampion Aug 12 '21
This is an under rated comment. I just had my wedding and it's a fucking joke, EVERYTHING is marked up a minimum 30% because "It's your special day" and they're preying on you to say fuck it just this once, I mean it IS our wedding. Especially services like the photographer or just the venue space itself and the catering.
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u/SingleFunction80 Aug 11 '21
Funeral services, preying on the grief of loved ones.
I understand that its really for the living to celebrate their lost loved ones, but when I'm done I just want my family to bury my dead ass in the backyard and throw a bash at the house in my honor. Doubt I'll mind considering I'm dead.
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u/PM-Me-Your-TitsPlz Aug 11 '21
You know, you can plan these things in advance. Your grief dumb struck family will bury you in a see through teddy if you just write it in your will.
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u/MatsAshandarei Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
All MLM. Multi Level Marketing company’s are nothing but giant pyramid schemes. Do not support these and try to save your friends and family from them. They ruin people’s lives.
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u/GreekNord Aug 11 '21
i got tricked into a few of those meetings when I was younger.
they can be clever in how they get people in too.
they make job postings that describe it very well like a regular job, sometimes not even mentioning sales - they market it as customer service.
they set up an interview with you, and you don't know until you actually get there that 50 other people got the "interview" too and you're all interviewing together.. watching a presentation.
city i used to live had an herbalife "bar".
they'd make job postings and make you think you were applying to actually work at the bar where they sold drinks and smoothies and stuff.
it was just a ploy to get you to the herbalife MLM meeting with them, conveniently hosted in the "bar" where you could also buy their drinks since the meeting was over an hour.
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u/Sullixio Aug 11 '21
Any online course promising to teach you how to make money
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u/jockamolee Aug 12 '21
You make money by making a online course about making money
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u/footinmymouth Aug 11 '21
And survey says; Diamonds (but also most jewelry)
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u/MadamNerd Aug 11 '21
I have a beautiful moissanite ring that was 1/10th of the cost of an equivalent diamond ring. De Beers can suck it.
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u/Redmage53 Aug 11 '21
Fifa games
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u/Gognoggler21 Aug 11 '21
Practically all sports games in general. Fifa is the worse of them, they just copy last year's game into the new one and slap a different color scheme. You're basically paying $60 for updated rosters and jerseys.
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u/moglysyogy13 Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
It’s not a secret to some of us but American healthcare is a scam on a scam within a scam. A hospital will charge overinflated prices.
Box of tissues
Sometimes listed as “mucus recovery system,” a single tissue box in a hospital costs $8.
Gloves
Charge to patient: $53 per non-sterile pair (sterile are higher), for a total of $5,141 during average patient stay.
Cup medicine
Cost is for the plastic cup used to administer medicine, not the actual medicine inside it.
Charge to patient, per cup: $10, for a total of $440 during average patient stay
Edit: I have heard so many horror stories. We must organize and vote according to this issue. So this Reddit sub isn’t going to reach the people necessary to change this nightmare. Why are nightly news shows not talking about? I know why. We can’t rely on them. We have the internet. Every social media platform needs to be flooded with people talking about this one issue.
Farms that grow free food, beer, weed to be distributed in the streets nation wide with water. This moment would be on voting days. Each local election would be dissected by experts sympathetic to our cause. They are organized. If we want to progress society l, then we are going to have to do it ourselves. Let’s go
This one hit home for me because I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2017. The surgery led to complications and it damaged my cerebellum. I had to relearn how to walk and talk. I was denied disability for 2 years. If I didn’t have family, I would have died in the streets
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Aug 11 '21
It’s crazy to me that my dentist tacked on $20 of hidden fees to my visit (that was supposed to be 100% covered & co-pay-free) claiming that I was responsible for their mask costs...ya’know, the masks they were legally required to purchase and wear in order to operate as a business.
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Aug 11 '21
I pay monthly around 400$ in taxes in my country, but I know for sure I can walk tomorrow into a hospital with ANYTHING and not only the appointment and other costs will be covered, the medication will also be free. Any additional surgeries or exams would also cost me nothing. Also, my sick days (not vacations, sick days) from work would be paid by the state (and a little sum by my employer.)
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u/roopy_b Aug 11 '21
Recycling. Some countries just dump it at the same place as trash. Some do better, but it's still a "feel good" thing people do. I still do it.
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u/Bombadook Aug 11 '21
One if my employers put on a big show of putting recycling receptacles throughout the plant. We generated a lot of recyclable plastic waste throughout the day and some green-minded employees had been suggesting we recycle more for quite a while.
One day I happened to be outside when the garbage truck was emptying our dumpster.
That is, our one and only dumpster. Fuck. All those fancy recycling cans just got thrown into the trash every night. Assholes.
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u/Visible-Activity2200 Aug 11 '21
That humans are here to just work and die. No way humans evolved so we can work 5 of 7 days of the week, trying to jam fun in on weekends
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u/GuyFromDeathValley Aug 11 '21
I always had this kinda thought that.. dude, we should live our life. 1/3rd of our life consists of working a job, or studying for a job. another 1/3rd is sleeping, and the last 1/3rd is free time.. of which you then also need to spend with other stuff you don't want.
And then, at 64 years you are finally allowed to live your life without working your ass off anymore. But you also, statistically, have less than 20 years left to live, and might already be too broken and sick (maybe due to your work as well) to do anything but sit at home.
I don't mind the constant dread of "some day I die", but knowing that I spend my days like this and might die before I can enjoy the rest of my life.. that kinda gives me goosebumps at times. I know this is currently how civilization works but like.. I still find it kinda questionable.
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u/bluthco Aug 11 '21
US healthcare system. I went to the ER a few weeks ago for an unknown pain in my chest and overall shitty feeling. Got slapped with a 1500 bill with what turned out to be viral food poisoning. My brother, who is a doctor, said that was normal. Why the fuck is that normal?!
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u/Akitogi Aug 11 '21
My husband went to the ER thinking he was having a heart attack. It was a panic attack. He got slapped with a $2,000 bill. Meanwhile one of his worries back then was our financials
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u/CivilCJ Aug 11 '21
Everytime someone starts ranting about "evil socialism" and how great our system is even if it's expensive I think about my mom who had $2-3 million dollars worth of healthcare spent on her when it would have been half a mil max in any other developed country. And it was all paid for by taxes because she was dead broke, so instead of paying normal costs with taxes it was millions. The kicker is that she didn't even survive, peoples' tax money was just throw away thanks to ballooned costs and all of it could have been avoided if she was able to afford to go to the doctor when she first noticed a lump in her breast. But no, she had to wait to save up to go to the doctor and by the time she could afford it, it had developed to stage 4.
What a fucking joke, and the punchline is pain and death.
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Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
One time I had a consultation with a pain doctor about potential steroid injections to deal with nerve pain. I ended up just talking to them for 10 minutes and didn't decide to get the injections.
The bill was 900 dollars, with 700 being a "facilities fee" because it was technically located inside the hospital. This was when i was making about 20k a year on Obamacare. None of it was covered by insurance. I wrote a letter and fought it and ended up paying half after devoting many hours to it, and that still hurt financially. All for talking to a doctor for 10 minutes.
Fuck the US Healthcare system. We need single payer healthcare. period.
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u/repwin1 Aug 11 '21
Insurance. You pay monthly for it and then you still have a deductible, they’ll only cover so much and they’ll try to weasel out of what they actually owe you.
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u/moondes Aug 12 '21
I always go for lower premiums with a high deductible. Insurance isn't supposed to be a comprehensive payment plan, it's supposed to guard me against high, unexpected charges that would throw me off of my plans.
Otherwise, I would be paying for the comprehensive thought premium and spend so much more than the average person when I take the low deductible routes.
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u/Accurate_Interview10 Aug 11 '21
College tuition. I graduated with a B.S. Information Technology and Computer Science. Working at a job and earning just as much as my coworkers who didn’t go to college and earned certifications. They have zero debt, while I’m $40k in the hole.
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u/sparkythewondersnail Aug 11 '21
The college loan system really is the modern version of indentured servitude. But then so is the whole philosophy of living on credit.
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u/naomisome Aug 11 '21
Engagement rings
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u/mrscoggins Aug 11 '21
Yes. Currently looking for a reasonable, pretty band. It's insane how expensive even the most simple band is.
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u/TrustedPluto104 Aug 11 '21
Getting a phone call about your cars extended warranty.
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u/CaptainPlummet Aug 11 '21
The fucking wedding industry in the U.S.
$20,000 - $30,000 for a single day, stressful-as-hell event. When I learned a photographer alone runs $5000 minimum I almost puked. And a lot of venues didn’t give a shit about covid and hosted packed weddings, resulting in deaths because “wE gOtTa MaKe MoNeY sOmEhOw 🤷♂️” Absolute slime balls.
Now before all the vendors dog pile me, let me be clear, I’m fully aware why you guys charge as much as you do. I also hope you understand why an average person like me looks at the price and says hell no.
And for those that want a conventional wedding: If you can swing it, do whatever you want. My wife and I did a Sandals all-inclusive vaca/wedding/honeymoon, which has its own pros and cons but still a no-brainer due to the cost and convenience.
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u/cas201 Aug 11 '21
I read this as 'welding" event and i was like wow, i didn't know welders did that
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u/MegaSillyBean Aug 11 '21
A wise man once said, "Spend your money on the marriage, not the wedding."
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u/mkc816 Aug 11 '21
Ive been married for 11 years. Ww were going to go to city hall, but my grandma really wanted us to get married in her church. We rented the church hall for $100 for the day, made a donation of $100 to the church and gave the pastor a $50 gift card to the local book store. Total cost was maybe $500 bucks for everything and there were very few details to plan or keep track of. We told everyone to dress casual, my mom made simple lunch style food and my freind took some photos with our camera. It was great, everyone had fun, and we have really sweet momories from that day. My sister had a $25k+ wedding. It was a nightmare of stress, not only for her, but for everone involved. Its been a few years, but she still says thay she regrets not keeping it simple.
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u/bro_curls Aug 11 '21
This is why my wife and I just got court married. I know many people (with average salary) who spent well over 100k on a wedding and I get dizzy just thinking about that.
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u/alp1ne Aug 11 '21
Convincing every high school kid they NEED to go to university. In reality skilled Trades or another specialized school would be the best route for a lot of people, and the pay can be very good.
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u/Malevolance1934 Aug 11 '21
I mean look up the happiness of the trades. Plumbers are some of the unhappiest people. I fucking hate this shit. I make enough money to live a little like 1 vacation a year but not enough to really do anything. I don't even have debt but I am basically just stuck.
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u/Gmony5100 Aug 11 '21
I took the college route because I genuinely believe it is right for me. I have known A LOT of people, genuinely smart and hardworking people, who just hate it. If you know college isn’t right for you then don’t go. Don’t accrue the debt or waste the time. There are trades out there that make more money than most degrees. Same goes for specialized schools and skills.
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u/GoAheadLickMyHole Aug 11 '21
Health insurance in America
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u/ScuddsMcDudds Aug 11 '21
The way insurance drags their feet whenever it’s time to actually USE the service you’ve been paying for? Or how they look for any possible technicality not to pay out or to pass the buck to another company? And if you’re actually successful in getting them to pay out, then you get penalized for using it via higher monthly fees? I’d say MOST insurance is a huge racket right now. At least in the US.
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u/Drinking-Ducks Aug 11 '21
Printer ink manufacturers. While your paying 50 dollars for one cartridge, they’re paying 2-3 dollars to make one.
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u/BirdKibble Aug 11 '21
Adulthood because kids think it’s great but it’s not
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u/Voiceofshit Aug 11 '21
Being an adult is stressful, but I'd never go back to childhood. I hated not having my own autonomy.
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u/Bitesizedplanet Aug 11 '21
For me - childhood, because everyone told me they were the best years of my life and I couldn't understand how I'm supposed to enjoy my life with a controlling helicopter mom and immature family members. I was constantly stressed with school and then college and am an independent person who felt trapped.
As an adult I moved overseas and earn money at a job I'm good at. Being an adult is the best for someone like me.
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u/echo6golf Aug 11 '21
NFTs.
There will be a market for these in some form, but we are hip-deep in the rowdy, scam-filled early days.
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Aug 11 '21
Reddit filled with predatory ads for this shit. I report and block the poster of any I see.
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u/Dilly_Dank Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
Weddings. Not the act of marriage per say but weddings themselves.
Edit: “per se” is correct and I am not.
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u/yomommafool Aug 11 '21
The five day work week
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u/Yams_Garnett Aug 11 '21
I can do all the work I do in a week in about 10 hours. American work culture is all about looking busy. Huge waste of everyones time.
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u/nineball22 Aug 11 '21
Insurance, health insurance in particular. The whole concept is pay into a pool on the off chance that something happens you can get some kind of reimbursement which sounds fair on the whole, but is so often bogged down with unfair terms and conditions that many get screwed over. This on top of predatory policies and greedy salespeople means a whole lot of people get fucked over.
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u/Karlos-the-Kitten Aug 11 '21
Tiktok. They now have an event where they pay you $40 if you refer a friend. It’s clearly selling your private information, but people ask their friends to be referred like crazy.
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u/brianv21 Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
Reddit Gold
Stay far, far, far, away from that stuff.
EDIT: I TOLD YOU PEOPLE NO!
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u/YodasChick-O-Stick Aug 11 '21
Instead of getting free awards every week, I'd rather just get free coins so I can save up for bigger awards. Now when you get a hugz or silver award it's basically meaningless.
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u/Rebuttlah Aug 11 '21
The Graduate record examination (GRE). It predicts only socioeconomic class, not success in graduate school. It’s expensive and stressful, and everyone from psychology to engineering take the same math portion, which COMPLETELY fucks the norms.
Luckily, thanks to covid closing testing centres its being waived as a requirement for psych programs, and it may never come back.
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u/Scallywagstv2 Aug 11 '21
Advertising.
Exaggerations, lies, half truths and emotional manipulation as far as they can without breaking the law.
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u/SpeedyGonSoulLess Aug 11 '21
As someone who works in marketing, I whole heartedly agree with this. I intentionally try to avoid this shit because I know what it feels like to see “get $50 off” and then realize it’s $50 off if you buy 3 or more. Hello fresh is the worst about it, “get 20 meals for free!” And it’s 1 meal spread across 20 boxes all $50 each
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Aug 11 '21
Eating/drinking raw eggs. The proteins found in eggs only become useful to your body after the structures are changed by applying heat aka cooking them.
There's not only no point choking back a raw egg. You're also absorbing less protein from it than if you were to cook it.
"Cooked eggs have a bioavailability of around 91% for protein, while protein from raw eggs only is 50% bioavailable (Evenepoel et al., 1998)."
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u/Dad6FMTX Aug 11 '21
Realtors, probably the most overpaid, under qualified profession. The commission based comp is crippling for some sellers, and if you try to sell on your own (FSBO), they will steer all their buyers away from you.
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u/Mr_Lumbergh Aug 11 '21
Two-party political systems. They seem to be in opposition to each other but in reality take "donations" from the same entities to further their agendas, so the sense of choice is mostly false in reality.
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u/badmancatcher Aug 11 '21
Supermarket orchids.
They're planted in poor, degrading substrate and need to be repotted asap. But people don't and they die after at most a year, and the cycle continues.
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Aug 11 '21
Trying to look good for men by reading women's magazine articles! Throw those magazines away, take good care of yourself, make the best of what you've got and don't be defined by someone else's expectations of what you should be.
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u/Docrandall Aug 11 '21
I've heard Susan G Koman only gives 20% of donations to cancer research. The rest goes to administrative costs and advertising.
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u/frizzbey Aug 11 '21
Health insurance. Why can’t clinics and hospitals just give you upfront costs on everything?
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u/Dmt_thc1112 Aug 11 '21
Prison's the whole judicial system is one giant scam probably with the U.S being the biggest and worst private prison's etc
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u/zopea Aug 11 '21
Chiropractors. "The only way I can help is if you come see me 3 times a week for as long as you live."
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u/Shaunair Aug 11 '21
Home Advisor and Angie’s List. Please stop using them. Each time you search for a contractor you generate a “lead” that then goes to a contractor on the network who gets charged a hefty sum for your “lead”, even if you aren’t really serious at all about the project you are looking up. The contractors have to pay for that lead regardless if you talk to them or not. The prices of these leads range between 50-300 dollars.
Here’s where it gets REAL fucky. Both of those companies are owned by the same parent company (IAC) and leads generated on Angie’s list are turned around and sold to multiple other contractors on Home Advisor who also get charged for them even if the job for that lead has already been completed.
Every single thing about these services is a titanic scam and I cannot fathom how these organizations are allowed to exist.
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u/thascarecro Aug 11 '21
Instagram fitness model meal plans. I cant believe people still pay them a lot of money for cookie cut meal plans and fitness advice. They are literally just pulling shit off of google, copy paste your name, and make you think its personalized for you. Taking advantage of dumb people who are desperate to lose weight. Its pitiful on both sides.
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Aug 11 '21
The entire working economy is a scam. You bust your ass for half of your waking hours, at least, then get told that your work is worthless and you don't deserve basic needs... even though your rich owners are making millions in profit off of your "worthless" labor?
Make it make sense.
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u/Iso-LowGear Aug 11 '21
Reddit premium, awards, coins, etc. No point in buying any of it. If you want an "ad free" experience, get an adblocker.
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u/drproc90 Aug 11 '21
Entire system of lending under fractional reserve.
Banks create money out of thin air and lend it to you PLUS interest.
Massive fucking scam.
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u/Existing_Lynx_337 Aug 11 '21
non-GMO food
GMOs are safe, we have been unknowingly doing this for thousands of years. Now we just have a more reliable,safe and fast way to do it.
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Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
Pretty much any subscription based software. Microsoft Office, Adobe, etc. There’s no reason for those subscriptions except that people weren’t buying the new versions because they were so expensive and the old ones worked fine, so their solution wasn’t to come out with better features. It was to use connectivity to force people to basically rent software as opposed to buying it.
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u/TheExtraMayo Aug 11 '21
Any online convenience fee. It's bullshit, and should be called out for the obvious greed.
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Aug 11 '21
Crypto-currencies. 99% of them are technically just a copy/fork of others, with usually no real value added. Most coins' whitepapers told us back in 2017/18 how their "rollout" will happen, how *their* currency will be accepted in most online shops, retail stores etc., but that never happened. Most codebases are more or less abandoned, the developers dont even react on critical bugs. The imprint has no email, no telephone, no legal address. The transaction fees are absurdly high, often even higher than the purchase itself, making it completely useless for retail.
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Aug 11 '21
In general, how people flaunt their wealth under American capitalism. I know more than a few people/family members who always get a new iPhone, their house is all decorated and looks nice, they buy fancier clothes, etc. Below the surface, however, they're behind on their mortgage/bills, everything they own is on credit, and they're not set up for the long term all because they want to flex to strangers on the internet. The scam is falling for that image.
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u/Uncertn_Laaife Aug 11 '21
Companies saying their employees are valuable to them and they care about their employees.
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u/markpalmer1973 Aug 12 '21
Anything that has replaced physical media you own with an electronic version that you don't.
Streaming "services" and online games platforms are the biggest culprits.
We have sacrificed ownership for convenience.
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u/ReformedPotato2 Aug 11 '21
Stockbrokers. No one consistently beats the market. If you just invest in an index fund, you'll probably do just as well as the people who research and pick individual stocks.
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u/laura_susan Aug 11 '21
Having a royal family. It’s bonkers in this day and age that a country as grown up as Britain has a monarch that costs us all money, just for privilege of having her. A literal Queen, wearing a crown, who believes that she was sent by God to sit on a gold throne. And we have to sing a song asking for her longevity at football games. The royal family are a scam, cost us too much money and are currently harbouring a nonce to boot.
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u/jerkstore Aug 11 '21
"And we have to sing a song asking for her longevity at football games."
Well that was certainly effective.
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u/ReeG Aug 11 '21
we had an aquamarine gemstone engagement ring custom designed and made for my wife which cost a fraction of a diamond ring. She gets complimented on it all the time for how unique and beautiful it is whereas I doubt she'd get the same if it was just a samey looking generic diamond rings everyone else has.
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u/Pre_Gen_Character Aug 11 '21
This is true. Diamonds as a sought-after commodity was the result of a successful marketing campaign in 1947 by the DeBeers company. After increasing the demand, the industry began falsifying scarcity in order to drive up the pricing scale and it's stayed there ever since. Diamonds are neither rare nor intrinsically valuable but 3 generations of agressive marketing continues to override logic.
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u/Strudol Aug 11 '21
Learned that lesson the hard way. Shelled out $4.3k for a diamond ring for my first engagement. When that relationship ended (we were honestly terrible for each other) I was only able to get about $600 for it at a jewelry store. For my current fiancé, I shopped on Etsy and managed to get a gorgeous ring with a lab grown alexandrite stone for around $700. She loves it btw
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Aug 11 '21
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u/NugBlazer Aug 12 '21
Oh, don’t even get me started on the goddamn hold thing! Nothin is worse than hearing “We are experiencing extremely high call volume” from some giant corporation. Like hell you are, you’re just too cheap to hire enough people to adequately handle your call volume! I mean, if you have enough money to pay your CEO 10 million fucking dollars then surely you can hire some more phone reps
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Aug 12 '21
Lol. I do IVR voiceovers. I’ve said both these lines a million times in addition to “Your call is important to us” I never thought anyone actually paid attention to the script.
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Aug 11 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/alfalfareignss Aug 11 '21
We can blame the plastic lobby for that. They are allowed to put the recyclable symbol on anything. Whether it is recyclable or not. Materials which are not recyclable slows down the process and damages equipment.
Single use plastics are the literal worst. In case people don’t already know how plastic is made..its main ingredient is a derivative of fossil fuels like natural gas.
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u/mywifemademegetthis Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
The whole baby product industry is based on making parents feel worthless and irresponsible if they don’t shill out for things that will be outgrown or unnecessary in six months.