“Who Knows What They Put In These Things”: 30 Industries More Shady Than You Might Think
All that glitters is not gold might be a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason. Reminding us that not everything is as good as it might seem, it can be fitting to describe nearly everything, including all sorts of industries. While some appear to be nothing but positive, they can bear a hidden dark side, typically not well-known to everyone.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently discussed such industries, after the user ‘attilabodnar’ asked them which ones are a lot shadier than they seem. Fellow redditors shared their views, covering everything from cosmetics and wigs to hearing aids and nursing homes, among other things. Scroll down to find their answers on the list below to learn more about what industries people consider shady and why.
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Funeral Business. Guilting little old ladies into spending money they don't have to give their husbands a funeral "they deserve".
Department of human resources in every industry. Despite the name, they are not there to help the employees. They are there to keep the employers out of trouble.
Human resources, like natural resources, are there to be exploited in corporate processes and the waste products disposed of as cheaply as possible. That's what the HR department is for.
I enjoy the fact that some non-English-speaking corporations straight up refer to their employees as “our human resources” for reasons that are actually a linguistic thing but it sounds like they’re saying the quiet part out loud.
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My mom is in HR and she does not do that. she supports and makes sure people dont want to Kill themselves.
Because killing themselves hurts the business.
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My mom is in HR and she does not do that at all. She supports and listens to workers and makes sure they dont want to kts.
It is sad that most people see Hr a*s that, as somtimes they have to do their job People are getting angry at them because they somtimes have to make workers get in line. WOrking is not for mucking about it is to... well work, and Hr does that
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"Human Resources is neither human nor resourceful, discuss." Old SNL skit.
Two things can be true at the same time. HR protects the employee and the company, anyone who has worked at a reputable organization knows this.
I think the term "Human Resources" makes it pretty clear that you are being viewed as having no value beyond what can be extracted from you. Who is doing the devaluing of your person may not be the people working in HR, but investors in the company's stock and the company's board that is answerable to them use HR as their tool to suppress and instill fear in the workforce. Yet HR plays a key roll in advising on how to go about dumping the older members of the workforce so as not to expose the firm to too many lawsuits that need to be settled.
Recycling. A lot of stuff gets shipped to Asia or just dumped in a landfill.
I work in shipping. Belgian environmental control asks for our booking lists well before loading ships that sail to Asia, look throught them for suspicious cargo, or suspicious senders of cargo, pick out ctrs for opening, and if found as waste instead of recycling material, they get sent back to where they came from. Had to send ctrs back to Canada which would originally sail from Canada to Asia over Antwerp. So yes, partially true, but not completely.
College book industry
Project Genesis is what many college student are using to get free scanned text books that have had any copy protection removed. It is like Napster was for music. Yes it is illegal, but one has to get caught. So far the book publishing companies have not found a effective way to track those ebooks which have had copy protection stripped.
Insurance. Life insurance, car insurance, health insurance, whatever.
People tend to trust insurance companies, which is nuts. Nice-seeming people wearing nice business clothes, sometimes in a nice office, with nice, neat forms to fill out and nice, long contracts to sign. Everything seems proper. Everything seems fair.
These companies DENY claims at every opportunity. That makes up a lot of their profit, the denial of valid claims. The more you pay per month the happier they are and nicer they seem, but that doesn't make them any more likely to give all your money back (and then some on top) when something supposedly insured-against happens.
If an insurance company CAN deny any claim, they WILL. It's pure profit. Then they'll often raise your rates, seemingly as punishment for daring to file a claim.
yeah it is especially bad when a doctor says that this patient needs this treatment, and then a student at the insurance company starts to dispute if it is really that nessesary. Running a privately funded healthcare system is really nuts, as "for profit" and "providing good quality" is in many cases interests that do not align very well.
Fine art dealers. Apparently it's a massive unregulated "grey market" that is largely about money laundering.
Not any shadier than BitCoin et al. Fine art, paintings, are a great medium for making wealth transportable - at least that's the lesson we have learned from Nazi war criminals as they scurried from the collapsing Reich laden with looted paintings and diamonds to finance new secret lives over-seas.
Healthcare (at least in the US).
Socialized medicine: wait a month to see a specialist doctor, pay zero. Capitalistic medicine: wait two months to see a specialist doctor. Sell your house to pay the bill.
Nursing Homes
And in America hedge funds are buying the nursing homes, stripping the services and care to bare minimum to make their profit. People are then dying from not getting the care they need.
Clothing donation bins . It all gets sorted and separated and sold . The trash gets donated at the very very bare minimum required .
12 years ago my old warehouse landlord had a $50 million dollar business just sorting the clothes .
Vintage/ designer stuff got sold for top dollar .
Medium quality sold in bulk
S**t quality sold in bales by weight
Garbage quality donated
They had 20 employees just sorting belts he told me lol .
Same goes for book donations ( better world books , thrift books ) . It all gets sold on Amazon and the trash recycled or exported to 3rd world countries . Less than 5% of PROFITS got donated and since they where non profits executive pays where sky high and corporate profits beat zero
The Amazon book thing happened to me once! A friend gifted me a book she'd ordered off Amazon, and when I got it it had a library stamp inside. It was an ex library book
Cosmetics. The industry is highly unregulated and there’s not a lot of consequences for making false or misleading claims about products. Who knows what they put in these things.
That is why I don’t use makeup. I can’t know what I am putting on my skin
Not exactly shady, but the restaurant/bar industry is pretty wild. Everyone is on drugs and sleeping with each other. Highly recommend, it was a great time.
The wig industry. There are pretty much only 2 wig makers in the world and they repackage the wigs according to what company you buy from. So a Beyoncé at one company, might be another company's Auburn blonde. Also when I worked for a company we had a lifetime guarantee on the wigs, so people would have it for a few years then return it. All we did was wash it in an industrial washing machine, restyle it then sell it as new.
The addiction treatment industry. Trust me, there are some good program, but a lot of very greedy, evil people that capitalize on providing you treatment, then you relapsing, and getting you into the cycle of treatment/relapse/treatment. Very shady.
The defense industry. The largest defense contract ever, the F-35 joint strike fighter, is a cost plus contract. Meaning there was no fixed price. Lockheed gets paid whatever they spend plus a percent as profit. Trillions of tax dollars will be spent on it.
Whenever the idea of single payer healthcare is brought up, Republicans scream "How will we pay for it?" But every year the defense budget is increased, they have no problem approving it and finding the money to pay for it.
Car dealerships including both sales and the service department. When my car was still under warranty I used to take it to the dealer for service. Every single time I'm there for an oil change they do their scare tactics; we recommend this service. Whenever I ask, do I really need it they always say if you skip it this and that bad thing will happen. One time they did a brake job on all 4 wheels. The following appointment they again said I need a brake job on the rear. I was so livid and asked them, what do you mean I need a break job? You just did it on my last appointment! So, what did I pay for the last time I was here? I caught them with their pants down. The service manager apologized (didn't really work, I was still mad) and said they'll do the rear brake job for free. I never did get a proper explanation but it this happened years ago so I don't remember. That was the last time I went to that place for service.
As a side note, don't rely on the dealership to tell you your financing options. Shop around online, get a pre-approved loan, and THEN compare it to what the dealership offers. Do this especially if you have a credit union.
Realtors.
Saw this during the 2007 recession. Realtors advising clients not to sell low early on because they wanted a higher commission. Their interest are not always yours. Edit: After discussion below have realized that this is more likely due to poor advice than conflict of interest.
Automotive repair and it is getting worse. What we need is investigators that take vehicles in with known problems and prosecute the criminals that misdiagnose or just plain sell parts and services not needed. In the 80's California shut down all of Montgomery Wards service departments in the state for abusing customers.
Don't get me started about Ward's! I used to be a commission salesperson there. I was there when a car fell off of the rack. Customers complained about excessively long wait times and bad repair jobs. I was glad to leave that job.
Hearing aids. Lots of unqualified people selling hearing aids with a 500% markup or more.
What most people realise is that a lot of products needs quite a big markup in order to make a rentable business. The selling price of the product needs to cover a lot of "hidden" costs, not just the cost of aquirering the product. You need to add the tax, you need to pay advertising, then there is the time spend on consulting the client, then there is the delivery of the product, not to mention that all your workers must have an office, which generates a bill for rent, water and electricity. Then there are things like bank fees, and perhaps interest on an initial loan to get the business started, whatever value you have bound in stock at a warehouse, the risk of things becomming outdated and unsellable, not to mention insurance cost and accounting etc. Then there are rules and regulations that you need to comply with, so you need to spend a lot of time on figuring out that part, and creating the proper documentation, and you might need a layer to defend your business from attacks etc
Property management
Many nonprofits are extremely Shady. I was program manager for one of the larger nonprofits in America. I didn't know at the time, my real job with teach corporate Executives, how to make millions using the non-profit system. Worst job I ever had. I left after 6 months. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying all non-profits are shady and bad, they're not. Most are not. However if you want to make an ungodly amount of money, nonprofit is great for that. Just make sure to give up your morals, your conscience and your values.
Non-profit doesn't immediately mean 'benevolent'. The NFL (National Football League) is a non-profit. Non-profit, at least on the US, just means the business doesn't 'make money, which isn't hard if you just 'spend' the money.
Most consultancies.
It’s very rare you get a specialized service. They come up with a common method for doing things, apply it to most projects, and charge thousands a day for it.
A company where I once worked did this. One of the "amazing" things they did to streamline was reconfigure the phone list. This was back before computers were commonly used so the list was a laminated sheet. Instead of having the phone extensions alphabetically, by last name, they redid it so they were listed numerically, in ascending order. There were approximately 300 employees. It was absolute chaos but most of us had kept the original list. Unfortunately, not all the new employees were on that one. Don't know who approved the change but they corrected things quickly.
Universities and Colleges.
The community college in my neighborhood is nothing but a financial aid mill. I signed up for a one art class last year and they were on me day and night to take a student loan. They are saddling mostly low income family kids with predatory loans that they will never be able to pay back, taking the money, and just walking away. I dropped the class because they were doing nothing but babysitting. The school doesn't care if the students drop out because they got their money. My husband taught there for 30 years. He decided to retire when he was told to start pushing financial aid on students. It's a scam.
At least in Toronto Canada, the Towing industry is really dark and run by organized crime groups. There’s basically a turf war between the few companies that had lead to assault and murder of competitors, and fire bombing of tow trucks.
Almonds. They suck California dry of water.
Almonds aren't the problem, mass production and unsustainable practices are the problem, not the almonds
High end sports memorabilia and high end used cars. Just legalized money laundering that often times is never reported. Game used Brady jerseys sell for $500k.
Well as PT Barnum used to say, there is a sucker born every minute. If people want to waste their money on sports junk, that is their dumb business.
The 'financial services' and 'financial advisors'. They portray themselves as organized and honest but they're stealing a lot of us blind.
I see it more as parasitism than theft. Unless they are literally committing fraud.
Academia
Oh, that hits hard. Yes it's true. In academia it's not what you know but who you know. Which is not how it should work.
The Non-Profit Industrial Complex.
Turns out, a lot of do-gooder liberal types are shady hucksters just like right wing grifters.
They do funny things like acknowledge the original natives of the land they're on while intimidating and pressuring employees not to form a union.
Gee, I'd check out this guy's specifics, but there aren't any. At all. Wonder why.
Why was The Dairy industry not in this list!? Let's see, forcibly impregnating cows, then as soon as calves are born, taking those babies away from their mothers to either be slaughtered for veal or pet food or put right back into the system, then stealing the milk that the mother ciw produced for her stolen baby just do it can go into coffee cereal etc, continuing this horrid cycle for approx 4 more years at which time the cow is so spent and broken that many times they are literally dragged into a truck to be carried to slaughter! The average lifespan of a dairy cow... 5 years. Cows can live to be 20!! Not the happy looking industry they WANT you to think about!!! Also, many cows are slaughtered when extremely pregnant!! Those unborn babies are then also slaughtered and used for high end calf skin leather!! F*****g awful and cruel industry!! Stop using dairy!!!
What country is this, I’m staying in a cattle and dairy farm and babies get to be with mothers all day expect working hours for the mums, babies get to play in the baby paddock with retired cows 🐄 it’s clean and there’s nothing shady in any QLD it NSW dairy I’ve stayed at. There’s is also no rain atm and dam shave dried up and barely any food, but the farmer is in day and night getting water and food transported constantly so no one is affected health wise too
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Companies and policies that claim to be 'green' but when you look into them you realise they are far from environmentally caring
Organized religion, televangelists and Mega-Churches are all selling pipe dreams for real profits.
Typical dystoporn fro BP, lots of generalizations from what is suspect are from people who have zero real world experience to back up their claims.
The guys who work at the transfer station (dump) in my town LOVE their jobs. They always look like they are laughing at an in-joke. I am 99% sure all that stuff we separate gets thrown in a landfill together. I had to laugh when they put a pro-Trump sign up. I can't think of a better place for it than the dump.
Why was The Dairy industry not in this list!? Let's see, forcibly impregnating cows, then as soon as calves are born, taking those babies away from their mothers to either be slaughtered for veal or pet food or put right back into the system, then stealing the milk that the mother ciw produced for her stolen baby just do it can go into coffee cereal etc, continuing this horrid cycle for approx 4 more years at which time the cow is so spent and broken that many times they are literally dragged into a truck to be carried to slaughter! The average lifespan of a dairy cow... 5 years. Cows can live to be 20!! Not the happy looking industry they WANT you to think about!!! Also, many cows are slaughtered when extremely pregnant!! Those unborn babies are then also slaughtered and used for high end calf skin leather!! F*****g awful and cruel industry!! Stop using dairy!!!
What country is this, I’m staying in a cattle and dairy farm and babies get to be with mothers all day expect working hours for the mums, babies get to play in the baby paddock with retired cows 🐄 it’s clean and there’s nothing shady in any QLD it NSW dairy I’ve stayed at. There’s is also no rain atm and dam shave dried up and barely any food, but the farmer is in day and night getting water and food transported constantly so no one is affected health wise too
Load More Replies... Companies and policies that claim to be 'green' but when you look into them you realise they are far from environmentally caring
Organized religion, televangelists and Mega-Churches are all selling pipe dreams for real profits.
Typical dystoporn fro BP, lots of generalizations from what is suspect are from people who have zero real world experience to back up their claims.
The guys who work at the transfer station (dump) in my town LOVE their jobs. They always look like they are laughing at an in-joke. I am 99% sure all that stuff we separate gets thrown in a landfill together. I had to laugh when they put a pro-Trump sign up. I can't think of a better place for it than the dump.
