Redditor u/efd71f03 sparked an interesting discussion online when they asked people to name scams that have gotten ingrained into our society in such a way that people aren’t even aware of the injustice they are dealing with. From marriage to a 9 to 5 job the answers are certainly thought-provoking.
#1
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40 hour work week. We should be on 32 hours and 3 day weekends. No loss in productivity.
#2
Image source: Pure-Economics-8369, Andrea Piacquadio
The concept that you work from 16 to 18 years of age, until 65-70 and somehow anything in between that is wrong. There is too much s**t interconnected to keep people slaving away only to blink and one day you’re 60.
Before someone tries to justify “well you should live within your means” or “save better”, realize that’s part of the problem. The only reason the retirement age keeps getting pushed back is to keep people working as long as possible since the life expectancy keeps going up. Imo.
#3
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People forced to get married. Or else your relationship is not valid.
Lets be honest. The prices of a classic wedding are insane. And all for one day and mostly to impress others.
#4
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Having children
#5
Funeral homes
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#6
Image source: BOMBSHELL_ALERT, Sora Shimazaki
The government being accountable for how our money is spent.
#7
Image source: Dbonzai12, Mike Mozart
The lottery. Just state sponsored gambling for poor people
#8
Extended warranties.
Image source: kellyelliott63
#9
Electoral College.
Image source: Sad-Raise-754
#10
Image source: Rollthembones1989, Nataliya Vaitkevich
Tell you what. Property taxes – paying for what you already own? Now THAT’S a scam.
-Dee Reynolds
#11
I suppose this has changed a bit in recent times but college textbooks are a massive scam. Costing hundreds of dollars to buy or even to rent and half the time you don’t even use them.
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#12
Image source: Knytemare44, charcoal soul
My grandmother won the lottery, twice.
Not huge, but decent, in the tens of thousands both times.
Both times (and 10% of her income) she tithed the whole amount to the Catholic church.
The Vatican is litterally made of gold and ivory, but they need my Grandma’s paycheck? Her lottery winnings?
That’s a scam if ever I saw one.
#13
CEO’s pay
Image source: Taupistan
#14
Image source: LettuceCapital546, National Cancer Institute
Private health insurance, you pay premiums every month only to find out it doesn’t cover what needs to be done.
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Engagement rings that costs multiple months of salary and *must* be diamonds or else they are worthless.
That’s a tradition that’s not even 100 years old. It’s just the result of an *insanely* effective ad campaign by the diamond industry.
#16
Micro purchases in video games
Image source: SludgeFactoryBoss
#17
ATM Surcharge
Image source: an0nym0uswr1ter
#18
Catholicism in Poland. It exist only to leech from poor and uneducated, a “lost” generation that was raised during communism regime.
Image source: Raul_Endy
#19
Carbon offsetting.
Millionaire wants to offset his carbon use so he donates a percentage of his fortune to a climate charity who promises that every dollar he spends will allow him to continue to pollute at the levels he does.
Half of all these carbon offsetting charities don’t actually reduce carbon emissions… or if they do they exaggerate by how much they do it.
So if a person gives $100K to one of these charities and they don’t reduce emissions by the levels they say they do…. do the rich person still have to give more money or can he just pretend that he’s done enough?
Image source: garlicroastedpotato
Prom
School sports
School rings
All the things above require money spent by young people (by proxy, their parents).
It’s all what’s known as “induced demand”. When you get can’t get money out of adults, you move further down to their kids.
Saturday morning cartoons had commercials and employed the “nag effect” where the kids nagged their parents to death to buy them the toys that were advertised.
With “important” things like prom, sports, rings, for older kids, these are all a more nuanced or subtle form of the nag effect. By promoting this concept of “school spirit”, kids feel compelled to be part of the in-group and do what everyone else is doing. The schools condone it, they sponsor it, and the businesses that spring up in the periphery around it reap all the rewards. *And they heavily gouge these kids (and their parents).* Dress and suit rentals and stores. Limo rentals. Sports supply and equipment stores. Jewelers who sell the rings. All of it heavily marked up, of course, because the kids **must** have these things.
So now everyone is told that if they don’t go to prom, that’s so sad. If they don’t get involved in sports or do other things, that’s so sad. If you don’t get a school ring, that’s so sad. Although I think the school ring is started to go away, right?
I say all of this as a former photographer who knows very well the demands of school seniors and their photos (I don’t do them, it took one or two to make me hate it). They couldn’t care less if it wasn’t for instagram and the entire industry feeding off this need for validation. I mean, we didn’t when I was a senior.
Oh and don’t even get me started on weddings…
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