It’s funny how things can change in regard to this topic…
Industries that were once illegal become legal and vice versa.
It’s pretty weird, don’t you think?
And today we’re going to hear from folks on AskReddit about what industries they believe are basically legal organized crime.
Take a look at what they had to say!
Monopolized.
“Cable TV companies.
Some have eliminated the competition in entire towns.”
Shady.
“Turbo Tax.
I’ve used Turbo Tax for a lot of years. Last year when I was filing TT had a bug that prevented me from filling my taxes.
They never fixed the bug. Ended up using Freetaxusa. Cheaper, easier to use, no bugs.”
Horrible.
“Pharmacy benefit management.
The root cause behind why it is impossible to get honest and transparent drug pricing.”
Here we go.
“Printer ink companies.
This needs more attention! It’s extortion! The newer the printer, the worse they are. Chips that require brand name ink and toner to be used!
Refusal to print in black and white until you buy yellow! Toner quantity determined by number of pages printed, not amount of toner used. We have analyzers at work that only print in black and white, but since the printer they chose was the only one ever approved for that analyzer, we have to use it.
We have to stock all the color toners, even though they have never been used. That, however, does not keep the color toner from gradually migrating into the waste toner cartridge. Any government with any level of competence would outlaw this!”
Yup.
“US health insurance.
United Health Care posted $5B in profits in the third quarter last year.”
Wild.
“The Church of Scientology.
Dude literally wrote the doctrine of the church while strung out on m**h in a hotel in Los Angeles. Wrote like 50 sh**ty books, chose one and was like “let’s make this a religion, everyone pay me”
And somehow it worked. The more you read about Scientology the more horrifying it is. Their Sea Org thing is basically slave labor on international waters.”
Something’s up.
“Politicians trading stocks.
The reason why is because they pass legislation that directly effects stock price, they essentially have insider knowledge on what exactly with go up and down on the market.”
Didn’t know this…
“Yelp.
Advertise your business with them to increase engagement and gain positive reviews, but when you stop advertising, they suppress positive reviews and promote negative ones.”
Super sketchy.
“MLMs.
The most insane thing is that they still work.
Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s we were all too naive to realize what was going on.
With all the information we have now, I can’t believe people still sign up for MLMs.”
Good point.
“Social media.
While social media regularly exposes MLMs, social media also lets you live in a bubble and get easily conned into the “lifestyle” they tout.
Like being your “own boss”, being a “business owner”, and flaunting yourself on social media with #bossbabe to try to impress all the friends you alienated and peddle your s**t to other gullible people.”
Awful stuff.
“Payday loan companies.
Colorado passed a law recently to cap the interest rate on them. 36 percent is the max rate they can charge now.
It’s still high, of course, but at least there is a max now.”
A good idea in theory…
“Insurance is one of the only industries where it is perfectly ok to do many dodgy things.
Share information about customers between companies. Insurance companies tell each other when you make a claim, and what it was, and what the result of that claim is. In any other industry that’s illegal
When you pay their price, and use their product exactly as intended (IE to make a claim when something bad happens) then they put the price up next year. And if you try to go to one of their competitors, they go “ah but company A says you made a claim, so therefore the price is the same here for you”. In many other industries that’s illegal, but in insurance it’s accepted as normal.
They get away with discriminating based on protected characteristics. studies have shown black people who live in the same areas will be generally given higher quotes than white people, for example. Insurance companies say it’s based on other factors in their personal history of course.
In many cases you are FORCED to have insurance, so you cannot refuse to pay their rates, regardless of how much your rates go up. In the UK for example you must have car insurance to drive. But if you have some random trash your car one night through no fault of your own, you have to pay loads more for years because you lose your no claim bonus for 5 years.
Lack of competition. It looks like there is loads of competition with all the different companies on offer, but in reality like many industries there are only a handful in most countries behind all the brand names, which are usually run by only a couple of people. So they can all keep their rates comparable very easily, and share data.
Insurance as a concept is a good idea. Insurance as an industry is a massive scam.”
What do you think?
Sound off in the comments and let us know.
Thanks, friends!
