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
The use of religion in politics.
Image source: anon, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#2
Health insurance.
Image source: MFSimpson, Ahmed/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#3
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.
Image source: YerryAcrossTheMersey, Kristy Cruz/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#4
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.
Image source: Aggravating_Sea_140, Blake Wisz/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#5
2 Party Political System.
Image source: Trends_, Jonathan Simcoe/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#6
The whole health system… like… putting a fee on holding your baby after giving birth? Seriously?
Image source: Limp-Sundae5177, Wesley Tingey/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#7
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.
Image source: anon, Avery Evans/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#8
Scientology.
Image source: anon, Alexey Taktarov/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#9
News as entertainment.
Image source: anon, Kenny Eliason/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#10
The idea that you need to be productive all the time. It’s ok to just exist.
Image source: Weekly-Pay-6917, Mushaboom Studio/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#11
Insulin prices.
Image source: RazonaRay, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#12
The entire credit score system.
Image source: Suspicious_Station83, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#13
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.
Image source: CharismaticAlbino, Oleg Ivanov/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#14
Surprised no one mentioned ticketmaster yet.
Image source: hopsteiner420, donielle/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#15
Bank fees. You are broke so we are going to charge you for being broke.
Image source: Bradyj23, Eduardo Soares/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#16
The entire f*****g prison system.
Image source: anon, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#17
Mega Churches.
Image source: Overall-Ad2585, Jenny Marvin/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#18
Those payday loan businesses. It’s predatory as s**t and it’s just legal loansharking.
Image source: 1980pzx, Kateryna Hliznitsova/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#19
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 source: RandyTheRealAmerican, Simon Joseph/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#20
Healthcare being tied to employment is designed to defang unions.
Image source: mashupman1234, SJ Objio/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#21
Healthcare and pharma costs in US vs the rest of the world.
Image source: lefty1207, Tbel Abuseridze/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#22
Lobbying being legal, student loans, healthcare insurance.
Image source: kebabenthusiast03, Jakob Owens/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#23
Thinking the republicans or the democrats want the best for the average American.
Image source: the-tinman, Paul Weaver/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#24
Trickle Down Economics.
Image source: RusstyDog, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#25
Whatever MLM scheme my SIL was peddling at thanksgiving.
Image source: YELL0Wvj, Karolina Grabowska/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#26
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….
Image source: anon, Ahmet Kurt/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#27
Online charlatans that will share their “secrets” if you buy their course.
Image source: rateIdentity, Christin Hume/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#28
* Gestures vaguely at everything.
Image source: Itchy_Ad_4793, Charlie Harris/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#29
Bottled water.
Image source: SortOfGettingBy, charlesdeluvio/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#30
Credit system. Pay everything off and your score goes down? Talk about indentured servitude.
Image source: anon, rupixen/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#31
Funerals, weddings, and pretty much every other thing we blindly accept have to be insanely expensive without even thinking about it.
Image source: jcfeej, Rhodi Lopez/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#32
That the President runs the country.
Image source: gronquazski80
#33
Health care and College loans.
Image source: anon, Ave Calvar/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#34
Cable TV/Internet monopolies.
Image source: dan1101, Patrick Campanale/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#35
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.
Image source: Neinbozobozobozo, DON JACKSON-WYATT/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#36
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.
Image source: ThatGuyWithThatFace_
#37
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 source: Firebolt164, Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#38
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 source: GhostHin, Daniel Oberhaus/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#39
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.
Image source: bgwa9001, Alexander Grey/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#40
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.
Image source: anon, Ahmed/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#41
“Oxycontin is not addictive”.
Image source: _hic-sunt-dracones_
#42
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.
Image source: HappyPumkin98
#43
Politicians.
Image source: anon
#44
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’.
Image source: dangy_brundle
#45
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?
Image source: spammmmmmmmy
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