The sign of a ‘good’ scam is that someone manages to weasel away your hard-earned cash from your wallet and you’re left devastated. The sign of a great scam, however, is when the victim doesn’t even realize they’ve been swindled. Instead, they sit there with huge smiles on their faces, marveling at what a great deal they just got. All the while, someone’s laughing behind their backs.
Meanwhile, some things have become so ingrained into society that some folks don’t even stop to think whether their money would better be spent elsewhere. Redditor u/efd71f03 sparked an interesting thread after asking the internet about what people “refuse to view” as scams because they’ve been a part of the culture for so long. From engagement rings to Ticketmaster fees, scroll down to check out their most interesting insights. Bored Panda reached out to the author of the thread, u/efd71f03, and they were kind enough to share their thoughts on culturally-embedded scams with us. Read on to see what they had to say.
#1
Trickle down economics
Image source: Ccphus
#2
My grandmother won the lottery, twice.
Not huge, but decent, in the tens of thousands both times.
Both times (and 10% of her income) she tithed the whole amount to the Catholic church.
The Vatican is litterally made of gold and ivory, but they need my Grandma’s paycheck? Her lottery winnings?
That’s a scam if ever I saw one.
Image source: Knytemare44, charcoal soul
#3
40 hour work week. We should be on 32 hours and 3 day weekends. No loss in productivity.
Image source: MasteroChieftan, AlphaTradeZone
#4
Donating money…
…to preachers with private jets
Image source: icrushallevil, ArtHouse Studio
#5
Engagement rings that costs multiple months of salary and *must* be diamonds or else they are worthless.
That’s a tradition that’s not even 100 years old. It’s just the result of an *insanely* effective ad campaign by the diamond industry.
Image source: ricochetpeestream, axecop
#6
Private health insurance, you pay premiums every month only to find out it doesn’t cover what needs to be done.
Image source: LettuceCapital546, National Cancer Institute
#7
CEO’s pay
Image source: Taupistan
#8
Homeopathy.
It’s 100% a scam, you’re just getting filler tablets, I will fight you.
Image source: spike4379, Nataliya Vaitkevich
#9
Multi-level-marketing schemes.
Image source: GrownThenBrewed, Luis Quintero
#10
Rent increases due to “market value” with no upgrades to the property.
Image source: HappyTimeHollis, Aaron Sousa
#11
I suppose this has changed a bit in recent times but college textbooks are a massive scam. Costing hundreds of dollars to buy or even to rent and half the time you don’t even use them.
Image source: HostileSkittles
#12
College prices
Image source: Obscure_Things
#13
Religion
Image source: aytaidunno
#14
Ticketmaster fees
Image source: The_Wata_Boy
#15
The American voting system (gerrymandering in particular)
Image source: Cat_o_meter, Chic Bee
#16
US Healthcare
Image source: Simple-Pop-4965
#17
Fox News.
Image source: firesidefire
#18
I think most day to day things are now scams to a certain extent.
I mean if you look at a scam as something that’s in place to take unfair advantage of a person, then most facets of life are scams.
Even the most innocent concepts and programs can be viewed as scams, look at things like food donations to help the needy, maybe on the surface it’s not a scam… but it’s in place bc the way the current system is setup, it’s taking advantage of people and forcing others to step up and support them.
Image source: nunyabizz0000, Joel Muniz
#19
Tipping: makes no sense to me as an European.
Image source: efd71f03, RODNAE Productions
#20
Micro purchases in video games
Image source: SludgeFactoryBoss
#21
The concept that you work from 16 to 18 years of age, until 65-70 and somehow anything in between that is wrong. There is too much s**t interconnected to keep people slaving away only to blink and one day you’re 60.
Before someone tries to justify “well you should live within your means” or “save better”, realize that’s part of the problem. The only reason the retirement age keeps getting pushed back is to keep people working as long as possible since the life expectancy keeps going up. Imo.
Image source: Pure-Economics-8369, Andrea Piacquadio
#22
herbalife
Image source: brightstar9, Eduardo Francisco Vazquez MurilloFollow
#23
Electoral College.
Image source: Sad-Raise-754
#24
Tell you what. Property taxes – paying for what you already own? Now THAT’S a scam.
-Dee Reynolds
Image source: Rollthembones1989, Nataliya Vaitkevich
#25
The fact that it’s very hard to find a job making any kind of decent money without going to college, yet you have to have a c**p ton of money to go to college
Image source: Money_Potato2609, Gül Işık
#26
Carbon offsetting.
Millionaire wants to offset his carbon use so he donates a percentage of his fortune to a climate charity who promises that every dollar he spends will allow him to continue to pollute at the levels he does.
Half of all these carbon offsetting charities don’t actually reduce carbon emissions… or if they do they exaggerate by how much they do it.
So if a person gives $100K to one of these charities and they don’t reduce emissions by the levels they say they do…. do the rich person still have to give more money or can he just pretend that he’s done enough?
Image source: garlicroastedpotato
#27
diamonds. I’m sure people can create much much cheaper artificial gems that will look more fancy than diamonds (not to mention actual artificial diamonds which are cheaper too)
Image source: i_lick_icicles
#28
Valentine’s day
Image source: Hackerjurassicpark
#29
Private health insurance. The layer of expensive bureaucracy and ludicrous profits make healthcare unaffordable for many and clog up emergency rooms, which jack up rates to subsidize those who can’t afford the often unnecessary level of treatment. But less expensive family doctors won’t see you without insurance.
Image source: mekonsrevenge
#30
Insurance, that cant even covered your bills.
Image source: SaintLeoAioliaa
#31
The so called American Dream.
Image source: Super-Diver-1266, Edgar Colomba
#32
Electric cars – Have you ever heard of ethically mined cobalt? That’s because it doesn’t exist.
Image source: littleladybug33
#33
The lottery. Just state sponsored gambling for poor people
Image source: Dbonzai12, Mike Mozart
#34
Bottled water.
Image source: SpartacusMantooth42
#35
Catholicism in Poland. It exist only to leech from poor and uneducated, a “lost” generation that was raised during communism regime.
Image source: Raul_Endy
#36
People forced to get married. Or else your relationship is not valid.
Lets be honest. The prices of a classic wedding are insane. And all for one day and mostly to impress others.
Image source: GoodAlicia, Emma Bauso
#37
ATM Surcharge
Image source: an0nym0uswr1ter
#38
Prom
School sports
School rings
All the things above require money spent by young people (by proxy, their parents).
It’s all what’s known as “induced demand”. When you get can’t get money out of adults, you move further down to their kids.
Saturday morning cartoons had commercials and employed the “nag effect” where the kids nagged their parents to death to buy them the toys that were advertised.
With “important” things like prom, sports, rings, for older kids, these are all a more nuanced or subtle form of the nag effect. By promoting this concept of “school spirit”, kids feel compelled to be part of the in-group and do what everyone else is doing. The schools condone it, they sponsor it, and the businesses that spring up in the periphery around it reap all the rewards. *And they heavily gouge these kids (and their parents).* Dress and suit rentals and stores. Limo rentals. Sports supply and equipment stores. Jewelers who sell the rings. All of it heavily marked up, of course, because the kids **must** have these things.
So now everyone is told that if they don’t go to prom, that’s so sad. If they don’t get involved in sports or do other things, that’s so sad. If you don’t get a school ring, that’s so sad. Although I think the school ring is started to go away, right?
I say all of this as a former photographer who knows very well the demands of school seniors and their photos (I don’t do them, it took one or two to make me hate it). They couldn’t care less if it wasn’t for instagram and the entire industry feeding off this need for validation. I mean, we didn’t when I was a senior.
Oh and don’t even get me started on weddings…
Image source: Engelgrafik, Todd Cravens
#39
Tipping.
And astrology.
Image source: KingCeasar666
#40
Extended warranties.
Image source: kellyelliott63
#41
The government being accountable for how our money is spent.
Image source: BOMBSHELL_ALERT, Sora Shimazaki
#42
Chopping a chicken wing in half and selling it as two wings.
Image source: Darkroomist, Leonardo Luz
#43
Chiropractors.
Image source: grrrrumble
#44
Funeral homes
Image source: fertdingo
#45
Having children
Image source: imnew_here_helpme, August de Richelieu
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