A very important part of traveling outside of where you live and, preferably, your country is the ability to learn just how people live elsewhere. Sometimes it’s just a mind expanding experience, but there are cases where you, unfortunately, discover that what you thought was normal is, at best, just a scam.
Someone asked “What’s the biggest scam in America?” and people shared their thoughts and comparisons. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your thoughts in the comments below.
#1
Bank fees. You are broke so we are going to charge you for being broke.
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#2
Health insurance.
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#3
The use of religion in politics.
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#4
COLLEGE TEXT BOOKS. You need edition 10 for this class. They change one chapter in the book make it a new edition over price it and f**k the college kids. Always drove me nuts when I was in college.
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#5
Online charlatans that will share their “secrets” if you buy their course.
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#6
Surprised no one mentioned ticketmaster yet.
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#7
Scientology.
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#8
News as entertainment.
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#9
Cable TV/Internet monopolies.
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#10
Whatever MLM scheme my SIL was peddling at thanksgiving.
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#11
Those payday loan businesses. It’s predatory as s**t and it’s just legal loansharking.
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#12
Insulin prices.
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#13
* Gestures vaguely at everything.
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#14
Credit system. Pay everything off and your score goes down? Talk about indentured servitude.
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#15
Bottled water.
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#16
The entire credit score system.
Image credits: Suspicious_Station83
#17
The idea that you need to be productive all the time. It’s ok to just exist.
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#18
I think Student Loan servicers. For example, Navient manages Federally guaranteed debt for the US Gov in Student loans, has the IRS as their personal collection agency. They constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY f**k up to the extent they get dragged in front of Congressional Hearings, and their CEO is paid $7.7M annually.
Image credits: Firebolt164
#19
I scrolled really far and was surprised I didn’t see Rent to Own stores. They sell furniture and electronics type stuff to people with bad credit who can’t really afford it, let them pay a small amount weekly. If people end up paying on time and pay stuff off, they will pay 2 or 3 times more than the item is worth. If they make a payment late the item is repossessed and re sold to someone else and the first person loses all the money they paid.
There are used car dealers that do this same business model with cars too. They put GPS trackers in the car that also disable the starter. They collect $1000 down and once a payment is late they disable the car and go tow it, then sell it again and keep the downpayment. I worked at a shop that installed the trackers and these places would sell the same car to different people 5 or 6 times in a year because they kept repoing it.
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#20
The whole health system… like… putting a fee on holding your baby after giving birth? Seriously?
Image credits: Limp-Sundae5177
#21
2 Party Political System.
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#22
Personally, joining the military. Serving my country. Getting exposed to chemicals. Dying from the inside at forty with no help from the society I served.
American dream baby.
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#23
Funerals, weddings, and pretty much every other thing we blindly accept have to be insanely expensive without even thinking about it.
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#24
Health care and College loans.
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#25
How we have to file our taxes correctly even though the government knows exactly how much we made every year and if we file it wrong we get penalized….
#26
H&R Block / Turbotax?
The Weather Channel?
Advertisements on Cable television?
Buying any kind of insurance and then they refuse to pay out a reasonable claim?
#27
Paying your taxes and then never seeing a return on your investment. That’s OUR money! Fix our roads, give us health care, educate our children PROPERLY, pay our teachers a living wage, RAISE UP people below the poverty line so they can live with dignity. Stop wasting 750 BILLION a year on our military.
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#28
I have to pick only one? I think our health care system is the largest and most comically villainous of all of them but man, the list is looooong for b******t scams in this wasteland.
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#29
Healthcare and pharma costs in US vs the rest of the world.
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#30
Trickle Down Economics.
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#31
If you work hard, you could be rich like Bill Gate, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos.
Even THEY admitted that they were at the right place, the right time.
Image credits: GhostHin
#32
Tipping instead of actually raising wages for waiters
Edit: I was referring to tipping as a necessary law. Yes people tip, but should they be the ones to ultimately blame if you haven’t been tipped and can’t survive the week? No. It’s the firms that you’re working in. They should pay you enough to not have to DEPEND on just tips to make a living.
#33
The entire f*****g prison system.
#34
Online convenience fee for paying bills. Not every bill has it but I found it’s usually utilities and it’s BS. Not the biggest scam but something that irritates me.
#35
The idea that anyone can become anything — it’s simply not accurate. That’s just something the privileged and the wealthy like to tell the rubes so they don’t protest much when, inevitably, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Image credits: RandyTheRealAmerican
#36
The 40 hour work week.
#37
Susan G Komen – WITHOUT A DOUBT
If people actually knew how much of their donation went to salaries/upkeep vs research and help they’d be shocked.
EDIT: Shameless plug since it’s GivingTuesday. A friend I know started a charity that gives 100% back to women and families affected by breast cancer (unless you make directed donation towards expenses).
It is called **Breast Intentions** and run 100% by volunteers. No salaries for anyone.
If you know anyone that needs help, wants to run a chapter, or just wants to talk to survivors, they can help! If you donate, they will tell you exactly how your donation was spent, and it can make you cry.
#38
Healthcare being tied to employment is designed to defang unions.
#39
The illusion that it’s the greatest country in the world. No national health service. Short maternity leaves. High gun crime. And people who worship politicians like God’s. And rampant institutionalised racism. And those are just the things off the top of my head.
#40
Thinking the republicans or the democrats want the best for the average American.
#41
“Oxycontin is not addictive”.
#42
Politicians.
#43
Lobbying being legal, student loans, healthcare insurance.
#44
Shakology.
#45
Work hard enough, and you’ll reach the American dream. To reach that, you’ll need alot of hard work, yes. But a ridiculous amount of luck as well.
#46
“Trickle Down” Economics isn’t a theory of economics, but a mechanism present in all economics. It’s meaning has been tied to one man’s usage while holding office and misrepresented ever since.
At a macro level of economics, even Keynesian economics applies this to to revenue multiplier for the government’s tax income. And is recognized in wage distribution.
#47
That the President runs the country.
#48
I’m in Vegas right now for a conference. 90% of this city is a scam. Only worth while thing is the restaurants.
#49
Mega Churches.
#50
Home ownership.
You never actually truly own a home/land. Skip out on property taxes or even HOA fees and your home can be legally taken from you. Arguably better than renting still but it’s never really ‘yours’.
#51
The stock market! The amount of corruption that is involved with the US stock market is underestimated.
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