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!”
#1
Most mega churches... I remember an interview with Kenneth Copeland talking about how he needed a private jet to spread religion
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346points
#2
Minimum wages staying the same, while the price of virtually everything else rises
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328points
#3
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”.
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324points
#4
Planned obsolescence, where products are deliberatly designed to have a defect or worse performance shortly after the warranty has expired.
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322points
#5
''The customer is always right"
Biggest scam of all- the customer is usually an idiot and looking to get free stuff.
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320points
#6
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.”
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315points
#7
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.
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308points
#9
College textbook prices.
It's crazy how ridiculous expensive they are putting even more of a financial burden on students
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297points
#10
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.
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290points
#12
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
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276points
#14
"If you tell me the truth, I won't get mad." -Mom
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264points
#15
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
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261points
#17
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.
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234points
#18
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.
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234points
#19
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.
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231points
#20
Gerrymandering. In most representative democracies, voters choose their elected officials. In the US, elected officials choose their voters.
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228points