There will always be thieves who think they're smarter than everyone else and try to rob us of our money. Thanks to the internet and social media, they can even do it remotely while the whole world is locked down, going through a pandemic.
And while we try to calm ourselves down by saying that sooner or later they will get caught and punished, as one Reddit post shows, some won't. Because we're not even chasing them!
Сreated by user u/F1yff, it asked people the question: "What is a legal scam that is still happening in 2022?" and has received plenty of real-life examples that are still thriving. Here are some of them.
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Churches not paying taxes. It's completely unacceptable and really disgusting. I cannot imagine tithing to a church with a pastor who has big houses and a private jet and luxury cars.
My church in rural New Jersey could not exist if we had to pay high taxes. Since the pandemic, our congregation is down to 25 or so people on a Sunday. Our pastor has a very low salary because that is all we can afford and certainly does not have a luxury car, home or jet!
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In my country the state gives the churches an astonishing amount of money to perform certain social tasks, but the use of that money is completely untraceable. I think we should re-separate the church and the state.
Hungary, I assume? Good luck with that. We've heard that Orban has a strong lean to the right.
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But not all churches are like that. There are little churches all over that are barely able to afford upkeep on their building. There should be a cut off for tax exemption. Anything over that, you get taxed on it.
Um. That's what we're saying when we say tax churches. You pay according to your ability. Like how it's SUPPOSED to be with individual income taxes.
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Charities get tax relief. The issue isn't whether churches should pay tax, but rather whether churches should be able to qualify as charities. Here in the UK if you meet the Charity Commission's criteria for a charity then you can be a charity. It doesn't matter whether you are a religious organisation or not.
That seems like a practical solution. Mega churches raise millions, and spend it on luxury items and to raise even more money. Small churches should not pay taxes on income needed to run the church or to fund charities.
Load More Replies... Yep we have this BS here as well. I can tolerate tiny unpopular churches not paying, e.g. some silly 100 year old anglican place which has like 2 parishioners who are almost 100 themselves, but these big charismatic churches (american baptist ones, in africa, yes), must go to hell. They must pay.
Not all churches are rich and very few pastors have a private jet! That only applies to the evangelical mega-churches.
This. I'm fine with churches paying taxes. But to characterize every pastor as spendthrift millionaires is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Most are desperately struggling to get by and/or working a second job.
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It say in the Bible to not pray on the street corner, but to pray in your house. I take this to mean that people should be modest in their faith. Yet churches are covered in gold and jewels (my local one literally had a statue of the Virgin Mary emblazoned with gold leaf)
I don't think many of these so called ministers actually believe in G*D.
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One last time: There is no special tax-exemption for churches in the U.S. They are NON-PROFIT institutions, just like universities, political advocacy groups that don't tell you how to vote, private schools, many insurance companies, most hospitals, orphanages, civic participation groups (i.e., Little League or the Girl Scouts), special interest groups, labor unions, foundations, conservancies and so forth. But it's very telling that for decades, people have ranted and raved specifically about churches.
The Catholic church is the largest commercial landlord in Italy. The little sisters of the poor are the vatican bank's wealthiest customers.
The Cathars tried that back in the 13th century. They thought that Christians should be more like the apostles. The albigensian crusade took care of that little heresy.
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It hardly seems far, when pretty much any group can declare themselves a church and evade taxes. I think churches should at least be taxed on any expenses that don't directly benefit the poor... building mega churches should be taxed, as well as expenses that were used to generate more income. I think churches should be held more accountable.
The reason churches don’t pay taxes is because they provide a giant social safety net. Quite literally, churches feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and educate the poor for free. They do a better job of it than our government, so taxing them only ends up hurting those people everyone claims to advocate for. Are there corrupt examples? Of course, as with everything and some of the worst ones being in our government. But they are outliers. If churches in the USA ceased to be, we’d have actual major social problems on our hands as compared to the ones we think are currently major.
That's a state problem in your country then. All this "charity" should be state services payd with taxes. Services to all citizens, nevermind their ideas or if they have any religion. Done by professionals. With trazability and transparence. Without having economical benefits.
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My dad is a pastor, we pay a lot of taxes in my country either way
That's a myth promoted by non-believers. Churches pay taxes just like everyone else.
Looks like you are dealing with the wrong churches. Authentic churches do a lot of charity work which is why they are not taxed.
We have a pastor who was an engineer so it was understandable that their family had money. Though we had another one who doesnt have a job at all and had the latest gadgets and a car. That was so interesting.
A lot of churches don't keep the money. Most pastors have a set salary, not a percentage of money collected. My church, for example, donates to various causes. The church pays the bills and the staff then gives away what's left. Most of it anyway
Some, like Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis, need 2 private jets , or more, so they can, (I guess) , spread God’s word quicker .
That is why I go to a church that shares the financial plan with us. They helped me pay for my college, rent, and light bill during covid. Helped others too and even people who were not part of our church or christians. We have one full-time lead pastor and one part-time assistant pastor. The part-time pastor also works as a dentist office assistant. Another church that I know gives like 4 or 5 students full scholarships. All funded by the church. We all know about the bad churches that have their pastor's in mansions. I could never attend those churches.
So you know what they give, but you know what they take? And the difference? So benefits? Churches are companies. They make money.
Load More Replies... There should also be only a limited charitable deduction on income taxes. Most donations go to facility expenses and salaries which benefit only the churches' members. Tiny percent usually spent on true charity and only that percent should be deductible as a charitable donation. Americans spend millions every year subsidizing religions they don't believe in and we definitely have established some religions with government support and laws criminalizing things that only extreme religious people believe should be criminalized. This is clearly in violation of our constitution, regardless of how the Supreme Court has stretched to find it acceptable in the past.
Watch Righteous Gemstones on HBO Max. Funny AF and parodies mega churches.
When I volunteered regularly at a local church that was part of the homeless (winter) shelter and dinner program, meaning more than a hundred unhoused people came by every Tuesday for dinner and a sleepover, the congregation paid for the food, the food bank, and security (mandated by the city), hesting costs for the lsrger arras. Many volunteered professional services like dentistry. This happened at many churches and synagogues in the city ( different nights), and took a huge amount of financial and work hour pressure off the city. The upkeep of such a large building, that can shelter, feed, etc. ( showers) people in need should get some sort of break,don't know exactly whst, but something.
Churches somehow can't get enough money, they don't pay taxes, but are always in need of money. Why? If their God was real wouldn't money come to them without begging for it?
That's on the congregation for allowing their donations to be used in that fashion.
my stupid brother became a BAC and gives 10% of his income to the church his kids had crappy clothes and he was always hitting my mother up for money to buy a car and as far as food well i ate over there house once and could tell there was not enough to feed everyone so i just told them i was not hungry so the kids didn't go with out
Find a smaller church where that doesn't happen. My pastor still has to work a day job.
As a church member, I agree. I'll give up my tax write off for charities for this if they'll hold churches accountable. There's been way too much politicalization of religion in America.
This needs to stay on top. In my country, the church is a powerful institotuion with connections in the political area. Not only that the church doesn't pay taxes, but periodically they get large sums of money from public funds. They use it to build new churches and to maintain and expand their influence in society.
At least the churches that got the handouts during the pandemic - we have to pay taxes on the money we got - they should too.
Not all Churches and houses of worship are the same. I understand for the Mega Churches, but not all are like that. My local synagogue, the Rabbi has a second job to pay his bills, and the place has a room open 24/7 with free coffee, tea, and cookies for anyone (oh and they ran 3 COVID19 Vaccine drives with the single shot J&J vaccine). Another one near me is letting them use their spare rooms as a COVID19 rapid testing center. Not all places are super rich mega churches.
In Spain i the past they used to put tiny chapels in their home to get a tax reduction due to hosting a church. Not sure what happened to that law
Then don't. Find a church that uses that money for helping others (orphanages, food for locals in need, school clothes for local children in need, etc) there are many churches that spend that money appropriately and the pastor makes very little.
In Germany the government even collects church tax for the churches. And if you are unemployed, it is automatically paid from you unemployment money, regardless of whether you are actually christian or not. And the churches get complete power over fully governmental paid social and childcare institutions, including the (otherwise illegal) right to fire people for being unmarried or homosexual. It is crazy...
Many churches use all of the financial donations to help their community, and have completely transparent financial records. Mega-churches with wealthy pastors are quintessentially American.
Especially considering what can be registered as a "church" these days. Smaller churches that serve poor communities is one thing. They don't necessarily have it easy. As far as I'm concerned, the pastors/rabbis, or whoever else ministers to a congregation should not live at a higher income than the people they minister to. Thats one thing.Maybe cut a small break there. This mega church thing has got to go. No "pastor" should be that rich. I think they'd get stuck pretty quickly trying to go through the eye of that particular needle.
I can't stand Joel Olsteen. I mean, he is a boil on the butt of humanity and should never be considered a "pastor" as he spreads rhetoric and falsehoods. The ONLY redeeming quality he has is he does not accept a salary from his church. All of his income comes from his book sales.
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Priests or whatever they're called get pandemic help with their pay here
Are the Catholics still the richest organization on the planet?
I've never attended that kind of church in my life, never even came within a mile of one. This is not the norm. Every church I've ever attended funnel MOST of the money into helping out the community and various charitable organizations. The pastors and staff dont even make a living wage off tithes and have other careers to feed their families. If these churches paid out taxes it would only hurt the ones they are donating to every month.
Well, one of my local churches is very very very small, and my pastor is a very nice older guy. He doesn't have a private jet or luxury cars; he has a Jeep and house close to the church. And the donations more often than not go to a charity, or are used to enhance the chruch or if they're tied to a school, the school. The Catholic school attached to the church didn't even have AC until the 2019-20 school year. The school's in a city that's considered rich. If that church had to pay taxes, the AC still wouldn't be there.
Churches should not pay taxes. They fought for America's existence. Does congress pay tax? Quit knocking the churches.
I'm sorry, but Churches invading Native American land and forcing their religion onto the Natives that ALREADY have a religion count as 'fighting for America's existence'? I have nothing against religious people, but when people make it sound like their religion did no wrong I get ticked off.
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Our church is run by the poor and they only collect money to pay expenses in the church aka Electric bill, helping the church community out (This is very helpful because a member had her youngest son (12 or 14) get killed and they gave her money to help pay for the funeral) and all that stuff, our pastor isn't rich or anything like that, even has a job (Our church doesn't have pastoring as a job and their pay is based on what the community can give them.)
It diminishes the argument when you say "private jet and luxury cars" - sure those things are there and make the fact that they don't pay tax even more disgusting... however, the core reason they should pay tax is that churches are not charities. Charities, by definition are "an organization set up to provide help and raise money for those in need" - which is the furthest thing from what organised religion is. Gay hate, science denial, restriction of others freedoms - all backed by stories to make the most morally repugnant views be seen as acceptable... but we'll make up for it by feeding a homeless person once (as long as he isnt a gay) a year.
I'm sure there are many good churches who do charitable acts, but it also appears there are just as many who don't. Like everything in life, there's good and bad, but it makes it worse when the bad is being committed under the auspices of religion and "Christianity".
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People forget that churches (in the US anyway) allow their buildings to be used for all kinds of meetings and events and provide a lot of hope and fellowship etc for millions of people. Let's focus on things like politicians who abuse their power!
It used to be because churches did charity. They were places where the poor could just come in if they were sick or hungry or just needed a place to sleep. Of course its no longer the case. Its funny that the other post has a thing about rolex making the worlds most expensive watch and that rolex donates most of the profits to charity. Merit is irrelevant, prestige matters. The appearance of propriety is more important than propriety itself.
My husband is a pastor. He has walked with fifteen families through grief and loss this year. Fifteen in a church of about 100 people. He has walked through so much pain with people, a lot of them who can't be with their families or have a proper funeral due to Covid. This on top of regular church duties. And we don't make nearly enough money to pay our bills each month. He does it because he loves the people in our church. Real life is not like it is on tv. Only the insane stories make the news.
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Televangelists like Joel Osteen.
Charging for parking in Hospitals and Clinics.
Agree if it's a private parking firm scalping people for huge amounts of cash. Don't necessarily agree if that money is being fed back into the health trust or hospital itself (though of course that shouldn't have to happen at all, nor should the vast amount of charitable monies that hospitals rely on)
American restaurants forcing the burden of employee wages onto their customers.
How about the employer pays the employee? Crazy concept, but it works!!! And if that employee makes the customer extra pleased with the provided service, that tip goed to that employee! (And not the employer...) I still can't believe how weird that US system is. It almost feels like it is extortion of the employers. Or should I drop the "feels like" in the previous sentence?
Private prisons. You're telling me that they charge the government for the beds and the taxpayers still gotta foot the bill if those beds are empty so the company running it "doesn't lose money"? F*ck you.
Let's add prison phone charges. If we're really trying to rehabilitate people so they emerge as helpful members of society, why are inmates charged up to $5.70 for a 15 minute phone call? This is the state that pays prisoners $0.13 per hour to work.
Charging people money to withdraw money or because they have small (positive) balances in their bank accounts.
This!! Recently I have noticed a lot of bank ATMs are being replaced by non-bank ATMs which charge a fee to withdraw money. Getting to the point where I have trouble finding a local ATM that I can withdraw money from without paying money.
Insider trading within Congress.
But if WE do it, we end up in prison.
Having to file your own taxes then being fined if you don’t do it right.
"News” which isn’t useful or objectively true, and therefore not news, but propaganda.
Ronald Reagan's legacy, he abolished the "Fairness Doctrine". Contrasting viewpoints on controversial subjects were no longer required by law, so, networks were given free rein to embellish the stories reported.
Civil forfeiture. You're going to tell me that a cop thinks that my property might be used for illegal activity, and that cop is going to steal it from me and pad their departments bottom line? What the actual f.
Software as a service.
Once I buy a piece of software that works, it doesn't cost the company more money to make it if I use it for longer. It makes no sense to pay a monthly fee for the permission to use Adobe Photoshop, it's ridiculous.
People say "oh, but you get updates" -- if I want to get the new version of Photoshop, I can pay for a new license.
Any update that fixes bugs should come free, because actually I'm not paying for a buggy product am I?
Video games, as sh*tty as the industry is, are doing this right. You pay once, up front. Then you get patches and security updates for free. Of course there are still problems, but at least buying a video game isn't as much of a scam as subscribing to Adobe's Creative Cloud plans. Total ripoffs.
There are fantastic free open source alternatives for most popular Adobe softwares. I use Darktable and GIMP instead of Lightroom and Photoshop and I edit my videos on OpenShot instead of Premiere. They work great and costs 0$ but I donate a little to support those developers and designers. And if you need to recover your data from a corrupted hard drive or something check icarefree, another free software which works way better than those expensive recovery services. Long live open source!
Sadly overplayed, but health insurance. Just yesterday there was a post about a guy who had medically necessary surgery and the insurance didn’t want to pay the hospital.
Minor tax in UK ensures all medical care is free at point of use ...and yes there are waiting lists...but no one is turned away. No one is penalised for being out of work or not having private insurance. Minor prescription charges in some parts of UK (free in my area Wales) only extra private charges are for opticians and dentistry for adults. You can still get plans for those too...but any medical care required from say an optician finding something requiring treatment is referred back to NHS for treatment with no charge.
"Printing" fee for digital tickets.
Any fees for digital tickets. Booking fee, printing fee, whatever.
MLMs (multi-level marketing companies). 'I'm my own CEO.' No, you aren't. You literally have a company telling you what you can and can't do.
And most people end up in debt because of MLMs. They're just legal pyramid schemes.
Cable company making you "rent" a router for 10$ a month.
I hate the fact i pay subscription to all the channels. Out of 200 i watch like 20 tops. Vut there's no profit if i only subscribe to 20 favourite ones
Insane rent prices for houses even squatters wouldn’t stay at.
That's why The Netherlands has a system where every defect in your rented house means that you pay less rent. At a certain number of defects the house is declared uninhabitable. Landlords hate the system because it means that people can pay less than half of their rent without risking being evicted. The only thing landlords can do to prevent it from happening is keeping the houses up to standard.
Super-high interest, predatory rent-to-own furniture rental/loan things — where you end up paying, like, $3,000 in the end for a $500 laptop.
Ticket master. WTF is a handling fee when I am the one handling my own phone?
Companies with bots who buy up blocks of tickets, usually really good ones, and if you wanted a seat in that section you have to pay a fortune to some scam company to get it. Legalized scalping.
Charging patients in hospitals for TV service. Their bills are high enough, but you want to add $8/day to not have to sit in silence for 23 hours a day?
WHAAAAT, where does this happen? I didn't even know this was a thing!
Medication Costs
my dog had hookworm and so my doctor recommended i get treated as well just to be safe - pharmacy called me warning that it would cost me $2,995... asked my doctor if there was an alternative; was able to get an equally effective treatment for $45
Oh my gosh in Australia that treatment would cost $4.50 from a pharmacy.
The troubled teen industry. It doesn't work. It traumatizes children. It's legal kidnapping.
I hope more attention comes to it and something happens. They're a business and the goal is to make money, not help troubled teenagers. Ffs, half the time the kids aren't even troubled!
E.T.A.: The "Troubled teen industry" refers to for-profit organizations aimed at steering rebellious and at-risk youth onto a better path through reform camps. But their methods are "tough love", negative/positive punishments and physical labor.
Because it's a business meant to make money, a lot of corner-cutting happens. They hire young and untrained staff for less pay rather than therapists and certified nurses & teachers. It's also not regulated at all so they can effectively do whatever they want with little recourse.
They use "scared straight" tactics and beat kids into obedience. They claim the best way to send a kid there is by surprise "so they don't try and run beforehand" - AKA burst into their room at 2AM and drag them into a van with very few belongings.
Look up "Elan School" for a notorious one.
Paris Hilton was kidnapped at 2AM and sent to Provo Canyon when she was 16. Look at how well that worked.
Go through this thread for some horror stories.
Why insurance goes up after an incident.
The fact that you give regular monthly installments is the intent that they will save you the hassle in case of a problem.
My homeowners insurance dropped me after I filed my first claim in 16 years. It was a minor claim as well.
Modern art collecting as a easy route to evade taxes. Wealthy person buys painting of black line for $20k, have art appraiser friend appraise for $1.2mm, donate painting to museum or non-profit, write off over a million in losses, zero taxes, celebrate black line like it’s an amazing and deeply moving piece.
Okay well maybe this wouldn’t be done if the tax rate wasn’t insane. Killing your self working half the year for people who hate you and other people who hate your home country, sometimes a mix of both. It’s a fûcking scam, so we scam back. Plus I like my painting of a black line, and it’s worth the value people will pay for it. Sorry you can’t spend my money for me.
That news in America is entertainment. Can get away with saying pretty much anything and still call it “news”.
The news in Australia is pretty bad too. There’s even advertisements presented within informational programs that appear as if a factual piece. Shouldn’t be allowed. I don’t even read/watch it now and rely on more objective sources from overseas. There may be some in Australia but I’ve yet to find them.
College textbooks. "We updated a figure in chapter 8 and changed the page numbers for three Third Edition. It costs $180."
All of them should be continously updated and electronic (ie. pdf files).
if debt collectors can trick a grieving person into uttering words that imply you take responsibility for your dead relatives' debts, that can be treated as a binding oral contract and allow them to collect from you
Usa tax paying system.
Paraphrasing: We know how much you owe, but we want you to calculate it and you have to get it correct under pain of prison or paying too much. Oh and the whole process is more complicated than it needs to be because of private interests.
that cookies still exists on websites. sometimes i don’t have an option but just to give them goddamn cookies! cancel cookies!
Also, anyone who sticks your name on a mailing list and doesn't include an 'unsubscribe' link in any mails back. That's actually illegal, right?
Extended warranties, so many promises made, but when time comes for a claim, almost all are denied.
Well the prices for them are getting ridiculous. If you get all labour and parts paid, or a replacement product, then that was good. But a quick bit of maths tells you that you will have paid for a new product usually within 4 to 5 years, and a proportion of that will already have a manufacturers warranty on it. The sensible thing to do is to put the money you would spend on an extended warranty into a bank account each month, and use the money to pay for a repair or buy a new one when it eventually packs up.
Paying convenience charges when booking tickets online.
I agree. I'd think it'd be cheaper because I'm doing it myself online.
If you’re a personal business owner, you may receive what looks to be a bill in your mail from the US Domain Authority. At first glance, you’re under the impression that you need to pay 289 dollars to renew your website domain name… HOWEVER. There is very fine print stating that you are not legally required to pay the listed amount. It’s actually an ad requesting you pay that amount in order to have your website listed on the US Domain Authority site. I can’t imagine how many people have been tricked by this. READ YOUR MAIL CAREFULLY.
My kid's school charges a $3 "internet fee" if you want to refill their cafeteria cards via the website. If you do it in person there's no fee.
If they feel they have to charge a fee shouldn't it be the other way around since if you use their website you aren't taking up anyone's time?
Funeral homes. Or to specify for the dunces among us, unethical funeral homes chasing profit at the expense of bereaved people...
The amount of Leeching done to grieving people just boils my blood.
Weddings and funerals are cash cows since they're emotional purchases, not necessities.
University fees. I have to not only pay for my classes and admin fees, I have to pay for two separate student Union fees, a technology fee, an online processing fee, and a "recreation and athletic" fee, despite the Fieldhouse being entirely closed due to covid.
I'm working on my MA. I'm 52. I have every intention of paying the absolute minimum on my loans and if I die without paying it off, too bad.
Taxes on taxes
Charging huge fees for parking permits without spending any of that money on the maintenance of those parking spots.
Working for the current minimum wage. I just want it to have kept up with inflation. That is probably around 22.5/hr iirc. The hardest jobs I’ve ever had was my lowest paying job.
Healthcare in the USA. When you work at a hospital and see the f*ckery that happens you get even more mad.
Student debt in its current state. I know physicians who can’t pay those loans off because the interest is just too high. They’ve been paying for 10 years and still have their original principal loan amount.
Those are just three things that make me the most mad right now.
I live in Canada and we would have to make around $24 per hour, 40 hours per week, to just live with no extras. That would barely cover rent, transportation, insurance and food/basic necessities. The minimum wage is $15.00. Even if you did make $24 per hour you're just one emergency away from disaster.
Insurance companies stating they'll cover 100% of the cost. But when you get the bill, it's 200% and you gotta cover the difference. Who the hell reads 100% as literally anything other than fully covered?
Plus 200% means they'd definitely pay for it all :P maybe they meant 20% The only reason I like living in the UK is because of the NHS!
Note: this post originally had 73 images. It’s been shortened to the top 45 images based on user votes.
Lots of duplicates in this list. And of the original entries, I spotted a few that were universal, but the vast majority could be shifted to a list of "things the rest of the world can't believe the US still has to put up with in 2022". So many are not part of the wider experience for a lot of people.
Pretty much everything here is a result of rampant capitalism, the idea that making a profit is the only thing that matters in any business, in any field of human endeavour, where success is defined solely in terms of your wealth. Sorry to be a stuck record on this, but it's true. It's why young people need to vote and they need to start voting for people and parties that do not ascribe to the capitalist model.
1. Philanthropy and corporate investment in the arts, esp by big pharma: basically money laundering on a moral level. 2. In the UK, credit agencies who harvest data about you but won't tell you who they got it from, and you have to pay them to check it and find out if it's wrong. 3. All private sector corporate vision/mission statements that don't say 'make money'. 4. Corporate PR teams doing 'damage limitation' by preventing wrongdoing from being reported openly in the press (I had to give up). 5. HR: literally exists to protect the company from being sued by employees.
Electronic books (eBooks). No way in h3ll should the digital version cost even 1/10th of the hardcopy (paperback!) price. It's not like they have to keep 10,000 digital copies on a hard drive, or anything. $0.99 is... generous.
Yeah! Most of the time they cost the same as the paperback. F**k that
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Being required to qualify for government benefits (food stamps, etc.) based on your future earnings, then being penalized if you earn more than you thought you would. In 2014, I applied for Obamacare because I thought I was required to, and based my application on very low expected earnings. In November of that year, I received a surprise mail from a past employer telling me I had until the end of the year to decide how I wanted my pension. The monthly disbursements wouldn't have helped me so I took the lump sum which put me over my earnings projection for Obamacare, and I had to repay the government the $7,000+ for insurance premiums they'd paid on my behalf based on my low projected income. It's been eight years and that still pisses me off every time I think about it.
Those who get Medicaid, or any assistance will have their estate pilfered by the government. So if you had medicaid because you lost your job, cannot afford to buy health insurance, will have that amount deducted from their estate. This means if you work your whole life but had medicaid for a short time, the gov will take that money.
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How about online advertisers who use our internet connection as they run their ads and cull our data? They need to stop or pay us the profits.
Show me where it is free. Any "it". Either you pay out of pocket, or you pay in taxes. And, I'm sorry-not-sorry, there are far worse things in the world happening, without anyone making long BP posts about it. See: climate change. See: child abuse. See: sweatshops in any given place on the planet. .... No, I don't like these things, but I'm realistic to know that until you ban the concepts of "property and profit", and somehow get everyone to be docile and polite enough to go along? Here we are. Just like our ancestors, when someone figured out holding onto the dead deer meant they had the "power" and could get something in exchange. (Or the fruit. Whatever.) It's Friday, I want to see kittens & Puppies! B/c omicron is devastating the world, but hey, let's b***h about capitalism....?!?!?! We have a bigger concern at the moment. Or I do. Signed, one furious/exhausted MD. MASK AND VAX I BEG YOU! Please.
I'm charged three local taxes for the maintenance of roads. Through my property taxes, a levy that passed two years ago and an additional property tax assessment for repaving my street. I'm moving soon to the town I grew up in that is lower in crime, has better services and will cost me half as much in taxes.
(U.S.) Social Security PAYMENTS are mandatory (for most of us). Social Security BENEFITS do *not* _have_ to be paid.
What gets me is the cost of digital video games. It's the same as a physical. They explain the high cost of games because of production and distribution but now they are claiming it's so it will not "lessen the value of their IP."
Honestly, I'm so sick of hearing about a lot of these issues. Many of them are only problems in the US, and they have been told and shown time and time again how to solve these issues, but they just don't. It's time for us to stop asking, stop listening. The rest of the world has just become enablers.
OK let me give you a few phrases to look up. "Customer image". "Amortisation". "Cross-subsidisation". Once you've looked that up, you'll understand why it is a BAD business decision to do things to your customers that make you look like an unethical parasite.
Load More Replies... Lots of duplicates in this list. And of the original entries, I spotted a few that were universal, but the vast majority could be shifted to a list of "things the rest of the world can't believe the US still has to put up with in 2022". So many are not part of the wider experience for a lot of people.
Pretty much everything here is a result of rampant capitalism, the idea that making a profit is the only thing that matters in any business, in any field of human endeavour, where success is defined solely in terms of your wealth. Sorry to be a stuck record on this, but it's true. It's why young people need to vote and they need to start voting for people and parties that do not ascribe to the capitalist model.
1. Philanthropy and corporate investment in the arts, esp by big pharma: basically money laundering on a moral level. 2. In the UK, credit agencies who harvest data about you but won't tell you who they got it from, and you have to pay them to check it and find out if it's wrong. 3. All private sector corporate vision/mission statements that don't say 'make money'. 4. Corporate PR teams doing 'damage limitation' by preventing wrongdoing from being reported openly in the press (I had to give up). 5. HR: literally exists to protect the company from being sued by employees.
Electronic books (eBooks). No way in h3ll should the digital version cost even 1/10th of the hardcopy (paperback!) price. It's not like they have to keep 10,000 digital copies on a hard drive, or anything. $0.99 is... generous.
Yeah! Most of the time they cost the same as the paperback. F**k that
Load More Replies... Being required to qualify for government benefits (food stamps, etc.) based on your future earnings, then being penalized if you earn more than you thought you would. In 2014, I applied for Obamacare because I thought I was required to, and based my application on very low expected earnings. In November of that year, I received a surprise mail from a past employer telling me I had until the end of the year to decide how I wanted my pension. The monthly disbursements wouldn't have helped me so I took the lump sum which put me over my earnings projection for Obamacare, and I had to repay the government the $7,000+ for insurance premiums they'd paid on my behalf based on my low projected income. It's been eight years and that still pisses me off every time I think about it.
Those who get Medicaid, or any assistance will have their estate pilfered by the government. So if you had medicaid because you lost your job, cannot afford to buy health insurance, will have that amount deducted from their estate. This means if you work your whole life but had medicaid for a short time, the gov will take that money.
Load More Replies... How about online advertisers who use our internet connection as they run their ads and cull our data? They need to stop or pay us the profits.
Show me where it is free. Any "it". Either you pay out of pocket, or you pay in taxes. And, I'm sorry-not-sorry, there are far worse things in the world happening, without anyone making long BP posts about it. See: climate change. See: child abuse. See: sweatshops in any given place on the planet. .... No, I don't like these things, but I'm realistic to know that until you ban the concepts of "property and profit", and somehow get everyone to be docile and polite enough to go along? Here we are. Just like our ancestors, when someone figured out holding onto the dead deer meant they had the "power" and could get something in exchange. (Or the fruit. Whatever.) It's Friday, I want to see kittens & Puppies! B/c omicron is devastating the world, but hey, let's b***h about capitalism....?!?!?! We have a bigger concern at the moment. Or I do. Signed, one furious/exhausted MD. MASK AND VAX I BEG YOU! Please.
I'm charged three local taxes for the maintenance of roads. Through my property taxes, a levy that passed two years ago and an additional property tax assessment for repaving my street. I'm moving soon to the town I grew up in that is lower in crime, has better services and will cost me half as much in taxes.
(U.S.) Social Security PAYMENTS are mandatory (for most of us). Social Security BENEFITS do *not* _have_ to be paid.
What gets me is the cost of digital video games. It's the same as a physical. They explain the high cost of games because of production and distribution but now they are claiming it's so it will not "lessen the value of their IP."
Honestly, I'm so sick of hearing about a lot of these issues. Many of them are only problems in the US, and they have been told and shown time and time again how to solve these issues, but they just don't. It's time for us to stop asking, stop listening. The rest of the world has just become enablers.
OK let me give you a few phrases to look up. "Customer image". "Amortisation". "Cross-subsidisation". Once you've looked that up, you'll understand why it is a BAD business decision to do things to your customers that make you look like an unethical parasite.
Load More Replies...