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!”
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Most mega churches... I remember an interview with Kenneth Copeland talking about how he needed a private jet to spread religion
They all should fall under entertainment and taxed like that, yes.
Load More Replies...All mega churches. In fact, all prayer houses that require a set percentage of your income. or big donations. I understand that a prayer house needs electricity and a pastor a (modest!!) income. But anything beyond is just a scam.
Giving a church a tenth of what you make is tithing. It is also a choice. If your church demands it, get out of there because it's not their right to do so.
Load More Replies...I never have understood this. Jesus' whole philosophy was about rejecting material wealth. I just cannot take any pastor/preacher/whatever seriously when they're raking in millions of dollars and preaching in a church the size of a football stadium. That's not religion, it's performance.
You don’t need the fancy trimmings to show your faith. They just waste money on unnecessary bullshit. ZERO church or place of worship should be making any sort of profit.
My Church just barley makes enough to cover the building costs and the staff. The pastor get's an average wage and probably makes less than my family.
Load More Replies...Easier for a camel hair rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Except no one listens to that long haired hippie anymore.
Why do they even need to 'spread religion' anymore? Is there anyone left in the world who hasn't heard of it?
there's a few uncontacted peoples left, yeah. there's a few islanders in the south-east indian ocean (iirc) that a missionary was trying to get to, despite being against the law. Yeah. they shot him full of arrows.
Load More Replies...Here is an exapmple of a megachurch. The $millions are exempt from taxes. 0116c625-a...59ee6e.jpg
Load More Replies...I got into a tiff with my aunt a few years ago after I tried to get her to see how atrocious her mega church is. They have an annual membership fee. You cannot attend service until it’s paid in full. Parking is $10. There is a minimum $5 per person for the offertory and they actually take record of what each family “donates.” The most f’d up part is the town was hit by a series of tornadoes a few years ago and a couple dozen families, including my aunt, and the pastor’s mansion were flattened. Some of the families turned to the church for help and they said they couldn’t afford to help. But they had enough to build the pastor a multi-million dollar mansion. The church screwed my aunt over and she defended them saying the pastors needs come first.
Holy crap. A person must be brainwashed to put up with that. I'm sorry your auntie is all mixed up in it.
Load More Replies...Yeah, and spread his mega money to buy things he has to have to talk about God’s love…
All religions: just another business, and so often crooked one. God is a mere tool used to make money.
Mega churches really do scam people who believe that the more they give the more likely it is that God will answer their prayers! Tax the churches and feed the hungry!
They should be banned . Sorry US , but we can see you’re all being taken for fools
There was a local suburban minister running an average sized church that owned 3 airplanes, among other things. Why?
Yep they live a fancy lifestyle whike taking money from poor naive people.god don't like ugly folks open your eyes
I have been spreading this for years. How do you think they get their money, if not by scamming their audience? And it is an audience, not a congregation.
Yóu guys forgot Creflo Dollars request to his [MEGA church] members/congregation, to fund him a SECOND private JET!... with zip zilch nadda explanation as to why/what he needed it for 🤨
Scum like this deprive the US economy of BILLIONS of tax dollars every year. Sadly, they're supported by sheep who seem to enjoy being fleeced
the church i go to doesn't have a big, huge building. it's inside a elementary school gym. yet i still go to it. why? because it does what mega churches do, except smaller.
Load More Replies...There's nothing wrong with religion in theory. If people want to believe in something, so be it, as long as they aren't trying to make other people believe it like them, and as long as they aren't using it as justification for hating others. Live and let live.
Load More Replies...Minimum wages staying the same, while the price of virtually everything else rises
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”.
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.
Planned obsolescence, where products are deliberatly designed to have a defect or worse performance shortly after the warranty has expired.
''The customer is always right"
Biggest scam of all- the customer is usually an idiot and looking to get free stuff.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
College textbook prices.
It's crazy how ridiculous expensive they are putting even more of a financial burden on students
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.
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
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.
Printer ink.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gerrymandering. In most representative democracies, voters choose their elected officials. In the US, elected officials choose their voters.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
The school picture industry. $80 for an awkward picture of my baby? Nah, thanks
$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.
Application fees for colleges, apartments, etc.
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%.
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.
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.
Working 40 hours a week
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.
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.
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
Reducing a price by 1 cent to trick our brains into thinking a product costs less than it actually is.
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.
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."
Those registries that people pay money to “name a star”
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.
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.
I would rather use an accountant, especially when our tax is a bit more complicated with all the deductions.
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.
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.
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
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.
Most modern manufactured goods. Designed to not last, so you keep buying more.
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.
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.
Toothpaste commercial were actors filled their toothbrush with toothpaste too much which is unnecessary
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.
The fact that you have to pay to bury loved ones
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.
Rent-to-own furniture and appliances.
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.
Lootboxes in videogames.
Note: this post originally had 75 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
So called influencers only exist because fools "follow" them.
Load More Replies...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.
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...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.
Why don’t these article authors just cut through the BS and label their articles “More Anti-United States” propaganda
Most of those things apply outside the US too.
Load More Replies...If you're checking out flights, every time you go back to a page for a certain flight the price is more expensive... They cookie you and then try and convince you you must buy now otherwise the price is just going to continue to increase. Clear your cookies and voila, suddenly the flight cost is back to the original price. Which is why I always browse flights in incognito mode.
This is 100% true, but the easiest way around this is to reopen a new browser in the incognito mode. The price will go back down every time.
Load More Replies...Add up the price of the value meal. You often pay a few more cents. When I get the 2 cheeseburber meal at McDonald's I order separately, and they say "Oh, you want the combo." "No." It might just be 2 cents, but, it's the principle. You're supposed to save money with a value meal, not pay more. And that 2 cents sure adds up for McDonald's, eh, with all that they sell?
The MSC sustainable fishing label...total scam! Watch Seaspiracy on Netflix..a real eye opener !
I don't have the guts. I know enough that pretty much every fish I would come into contact with, would have caused irreparable harm to the ecosystem. Regardless of whether they are farmed or wild. So I just boycott all fish. On the upside, I've heard the new kelp farming techniques are pretty amazing, they are nutritious, great for healing an ecosystem, and if sunk to the bottom rather than pulled up to eat, they deposit carbon on the ocean floor. Oil industry in reverse :)
Load More Replies...All of these are basically due to vanity and the fear of not fitting in with everyone else. So: be your own worst enemy and you'll never be at a loss for allies.
Having to use a hospital or a washing machine is vain?
Load More Replies...The idea that you should change jobs after a certain number of years (over here it's roughly every seven years). No, if you like your job and you like your company, and they like you, just stay. You'll get better at it, and usually the benefits will increase too.
No just capitalism, where CEOs are trying to maximize their profit for that year with no f***s given for longevity. There is a quote: You can become a millionaire though hard work, but to become a billionaire you have to screw over your employees, vendors and customers.
Load More Replies...I couldn't find Robux in this list like dude u have to pay to get insane dammm ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ
I disagree with the diamond rings for marriage. A diamond is a choice. And my husband chose to not give me a diamond engagement ring. However we did choose to get diamond wedding rings cause they last very long. They cost a lot but theyre supposed to last you a lifetime. Its not a scamn they could guarantee me that it would last a lifetime and otherwise they would fix it for free. A scam is ending up witj something cheap or ending up with nothing. A diamond ring lasts and my husband and i chose them. If you dont want one, dont buy one
15#. I totally agree. Also, I went to a camp about science and we learned that adding a certain chemical to water will change the water color. The closer to red, the less fitting it is. Dansani was yellow.
I'm getting saddened by how many people don't respect the religion of others.
Do you mean scientology? Its founder, the now deceased, L. Ron Hubbard is on record saying it is a scam. Or megachurches? There are a ton of christian options where the pastor is not also a money sucking ghoul. The label "religion" is not a get out of honesty for free card.
Load More Replies...Seems to me all you people want is free s**t. Nobody should ever have to work have to earn money to pay for things, it should all be free. Yeah that is real doable.
And cereal boxes that contain 80% air. They should pay a tax on airspace inside their box. And please don't say "just look at the weight!", it's false advertising, plain and simple.
begin plans on a war that will stop all of this and kill anyone that does this again
So called influencers only exist because fools "follow" them.
Load More Replies...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.
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...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.
Why don’t these article authors just cut through the BS and label their articles “More Anti-United States” propaganda
Most of those things apply outside the US too.
Load More Replies...If you're checking out flights, every time you go back to a page for a certain flight the price is more expensive... They cookie you and then try and convince you you must buy now otherwise the price is just going to continue to increase. Clear your cookies and voila, suddenly the flight cost is back to the original price. Which is why I always browse flights in incognito mode.
This is 100% true, but the easiest way around this is to reopen a new browser in the incognito mode. The price will go back down every time.
Load More Replies...Add up the price of the value meal. You often pay a few more cents. When I get the 2 cheeseburber meal at McDonald's I order separately, and they say "Oh, you want the combo." "No." It might just be 2 cents, but, it's the principle. You're supposed to save money with a value meal, not pay more. And that 2 cents sure adds up for McDonald's, eh, with all that they sell?
The MSC sustainable fishing label...total scam! Watch Seaspiracy on Netflix..a real eye opener !
I don't have the guts. I know enough that pretty much every fish I would come into contact with, would have caused irreparable harm to the ecosystem. Regardless of whether they are farmed or wild. So I just boycott all fish. On the upside, I've heard the new kelp farming techniques are pretty amazing, they are nutritious, great for healing an ecosystem, and if sunk to the bottom rather than pulled up to eat, they deposit carbon on the ocean floor. Oil industry in reverse :)
Load More Replies...All of these are basically due to vanity and the fear of not fitting in with everyone else. So: be your own worst enemy and you'll never be at a loss for allies.
Having to use a hospital or a washing machine is vain?
Load More Replies...The idea that you should change jobs after a certain number of years (over here it's roughly every seven years). No, if you like your job and you like your company, and they like you, just stay. You'll get better at it, and usually the benefits will increase too.
No just capitalism, where CEOs are trying to maximize their profit for that year with no f***s given for longevity. There is a quote: You can become a millionaire though hard work, but to become a billionaire you have to screw over your employees, vendors and customers.
Load More Replies...I couldn't find Robux in this list like dude u have to pay to get insane dammm ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ
I disagree with the diamond rings for marriage. A diamond is a choice. And my husband chose to not give me a diamond engagement ring. However we did choose to get diamond wedding rings cause they last very long. They cost a lot but theyre supposed to last you a lifetime. Its not a scamn they could guarantee me that it would last a lifetime and otherwise they would fix it for free. A scam is ending up witj something cheap or ending up with nothing. A diamond ring lasts and my husband and i chose them. If you dont want one, dont buy one
15#. I totally agree. Also, I went to a camp about science and we learned that adding a certain chemical to water will change the water color. The closer to red, the less fitting it is. Dansani was yellow.
I'm getting saddened by how many people don't respect the religion of others.
Do you mean scientology? Its founder, the now deceased, L. Ron Hubbard is on record saying it is a scam. Or megachurches? There are a ton of christian options where the pastor is not also a money sucking ghoul. The label "religion" is not a get out of honesty for free card.
Load More Replies...Seems to me all you people want is free s**t. Nobody should ever have to work have to earn money to pay for things, it should all be free. Yeah that is real doable.
And cereal boxes that contain 80% air. They should pay a tax on airspace inside their box. And please don't say "just look at the weight!", it's false advertising, plain and simple.
begin plans on a war that will stop all of this and kill anyone that does this again