The very idea that you should have to subscribe to a service to activate the seat heaters in a new car is absolutely criminal. That same attitude of "how much can we soak these rubes for" is pervasive in consumer products and extracting every last penny is a great way to infuriate customers.
“Ready to pay? Ok there is actually a 4% surcharge to keep menu prices down and to support our staff, even though we already increased menu prices.
Also we pay our staff less than minimum wage.
Would you like to add a post-tax tip? No, we can’t guarantee your tip goes directly to the staff”
I think you’re spot on and it goes beyond subscription fees. You’re nickel and dimed everywhere. Ever go to a sporting event in Europe? The prices for concessions and gift shop items are actually relatively fair
When I was working at Staples selling shitty PCs and printers, my district manager questioned why I sold an HP envy printer instead of an HP office jet to an elderly couple. Explained that they were wanting a multi use printer to print photos of the grandkids, and some light office work (taxes and occasional document printing) but not a high use printer. Said the Envy fit there needs better (tried to steer them away HP but that's what they wanted).
District manager said I should have gone with an officejet because the ink was more expensive. Fucking vultures.
It was a whole checklist they'd have me try to sell. Extended warranty, tech support (3rd party), rewards membership, credit card (that only worked in store no where else) extra ink for printers. Keyboard/mouse/mousepad/monitor/flashdrives for PCs. Store service plan with AV. While we're at maybe a new router for that printer or PC so it has the fastest connection?
When it came to tablets the warranty plan we had at the time was probably the worst pricing compared to other electronics. (Like 70-80% of what we charged for the tablet, never sold many of those). But for some God awful reason if a tablet was on sale for 99$, it fell into the price bracket for the protection plan to also be 99$. Sales manager was PROUD they talked an elderly customer into that plan. Bragged how their stats were set for the month after that
Jesus. Vultures is right. This is why people don’t go into the store to buy things anymore, no one wants to be treated like this! But who still goes in? The elderly. Because they need help. And they trust the salespeople. And then they get treated like this. It’s reprehensible.
I definitely don't miss selling electronics at Sam's Club and having to push the warranty. Sure, it felt good when I was able to prove that I was doing my job as they wanted me to (young kid needs a job), but I was also pushing customers to invest in something that not even I would buy.
Couldn't really give a crap about the product; a laptop from Sam's or Costco is typically as good as a laptop from anywhere else, but when my boss is making me sell shit that customers don't really need and getting in the way of actually addressing the needs of the customer (which are almost always financial and budget-oriented), it just pisses me off.
Like, sorry that I'm fucking with your margins, but I'm trying to do my job and allow your customers to trust us to not fuck them over or fleece them.
If you're ever in the market for a printer again if your need goes up, I would recommend looking for a black and white laser printer. Brother is the preferred brand, but you can look at other options such as Canon or if I even dare say HP (I have a very compact HP laser printer). It's expensive to get for them in color so for photo printing I would still go to a store, but the great thing about laser printers is they have way higher yield on their cartridges and it's not ink it's a powder, it takes a lot longer for them to go bad. I bought a spare cartridge to go with my printer, I'm still on the original though from over 8 years ago but I don't print all that much. And since it's HP I also only use the USB cable, I don't trust that little bastard to go online and try to brick itself with some update forcing me to buy new cartridges.
My health insurance plan actually has provisions for medical tourism and how to get even more discounts with it. People I know get dental work done and a vacation.
I bought a baseball cap with the team’s logo for $10 at a tier 1 professional soccer game in the Netherlands. Same thing probably is 5x here in the U.S. stadiums. Also they were just giving out free food and little shots of wine. Ticket prices were $30-$50 I don’t remember but it was cheap
I worked the F1 Race in the us and went to browse the merchandise and was repulsed by the prices for a shirt and hat. Higher than concert prices even by double .
We almost exclusively do concerts overseas (to be fair we don’t go to a lot of concerts). But the last few concerts we wanted to see were big name artists and even going to Europe or New Zealand (not hunting for the lowest cost of living place possible), we got close to front row seats for less than much further back seats in the US once you factored in Ticketmaster fees.
Given we get free flights since my spouse works in the travel industry, it was almost like getting a free vacation by just not seeing the concert in the US.
US concert promoters hate this one simple trick! Just have access to free international flights (no big deal!) and it's cheaper to see concerts abroad!
Lol. No, I’m definitely aware that our situation is the only reason this actually is cheaper. But even being able to go see a concert, be close to the front instead of towards the middle, and essentially have the hotels paid for is still a wild difference in ticket prices.
This is why I have almost entirely stopped eating out. With the exception of independently and locally owned and operated establishments, it has become complete bullshit. I absolutely refuse to support it.
Consumers who bitch but keep paying for it are 99% of the problem and should be slapped hard on the back of the head.
Honestly my most controversial view among everyone I know is I agree with r/EndTipping. Reframing the problem as a progressive one isn’t intuitive but ultimately I think it’s just. The corps see that they can squeeze money out of people on self checkout systems - it’s the inevitable outcome of letting them embed the server tipping culture over the last 80 years
That sub is a cesspool of people trying to frame being cheap as some moral high-ground and making really dumb arguments to rationalize it...but there is a valid argument to be made that tipping needs to end (so long as people realize that doesn't necessarily mean your final bill when eating out is going to go down dramatically).
Tipping was a product of post-slavery systemic racism. It then ingrained itself in our culture, arguably further entrenched by this American obsession with feeling like they have choice/control in all circumstances (even if they are all bad choices), so now it fully baked into the system in both laws and cultural practices. It feels wrong to imply it is some corporate machination when it is so deeply rooted.
That said, it is a bad system. However, it is going to stay forever without some sort of regulatory effort because consumers are irrational and will tend to pick the restaurant with lower menu prices and tipping over higher menu prices without tips. They'll say otherwise, but the data proves it. We'd need to enforce some across-the-board rule or else the incentive for owners is to keep the status quo.
And, people need to understand that hourly wage + tips is the market wage for servers. You can just focus on their wage in a vacuum. And you can't just suddenly pay them half as much and expect them all to keep working the same as always. That means their post-tip wage would need to be at least somewhat similar to the status quo, which means menu prices go up enough to cover that gap. You aren't going to see tipping go away and menu prices only rise 5%. I worry the anti-tipping crowd has not come to terms with that reality.
I have a simple rule, I sit I tip. But that means table service. Grabbing a bag off a counter doesn't get a tip. I worked at McD's for three years and never heard of anyone even thinking about a tip.
Agreed, no tipping at the counter in almost all cases. Maybe a barista doing a more complex coffee like a pour-over? People hired to work a counter are generally not hired with tips built into their pay structure so their expected wage doesn't calculate in tips the way it does with a server. You aren't undercutting their expected wage by not tipping.
I can't determine if it just POS systems that have tip screens by default or if it really is owners expecting people to tip for to-go counter service, but I don't understand why people would tip (or even get stressed out that it asked them to tip...just push the button for no tip...). It's probably just a lingering impact of COVID when people mostly got take-out but still tipped because they wanted to support restaurants during a hard time.
The idea of pooling tips should have any reasonable person stop in their tracks. It is naked admission by the employer that the staff are being underpaid.
The tide may be slowly turning. Below is a link to an article about a no-tech repairable tractor company. It was on another subreddit, I can’t recall or take credit for. If I spend $200k on a tractor, chances are it’s an important tool. That thing being down is a huge productivity loss. If Jonah the ranch hand can just swap a part with from an old tractor that should be the answer. Not getting on the phone with tech support, being told the part is not locally available, then that it needs to be overnighted to your rural location which is as much as the part itself. It is a fucking chain of infuriating nonsense. Designed like a catheter they shove in you that forces you to piss away a ton of money. For no good reason, besides greed, & shareholder loyalty.
There’s a huge demand for shit like that. I’m still bitter about the headphone Jack.
I remember reading somewhere that older tractors like 1990s and before were actually going up in value because of this. People actively seek out the ones not locked down by tech.
Yep. Have friends who are third generation farmers. They were proudly showing off the cabin of the huge tractors, bragging that newer ones would be full of screens but they had the good ones, all buttons and switches and dials and toggles. And they had a small workshop on the farm where the kids all learned soldering and basic metal work.
When I was on my City Council and our Public Works Department wanted to buy a new excavator, I submitted a motion to ban any John Deere equipment from consideration because of their obstructive right-to-repair bullshit. I think we went with CAT instead.
I'm a locksmith. We can't make replacement keys for many new vehicles because only dealerships can use the software to program the fobs and keys. Naturally, they charge triple what we would for the privilege of being able to turn on your vehicle.
Or allow them to make a simple repair themselves without voiding the warranty.
I guess US military has now outsourced gun parts and repair not allowing soldiers to do something they are capable of and would prefer to do themselves.
Just another way to fleece the tax payers.
You're absolutely right; but the US has shown over and over again that it is a limp noodle when it comes to antitrust/antimonopoly. With those departments receiving zero funding; and even if a case gets going after 4 or 8-years, a new admin comes in, and after campaign donations closes the case.
The US public also don't really support consumer protections or antitrust actions. Every thread about the EU stopping US companies from doing [bad thing], half the thread (and heavily upvoted), are Americas telling us WELL ACTUALLY, why companies should be able to do whatever they want.
Seriously. The fact that Amazon can own movie studios, have a whole e-commerce system, grocery store chain, and leader in cloud infrastructure. It’s insanity. Imagine how many jobs would be out there if they all split into 5 or so massive companies.
"This very conversation brought to you by AWS. We're not more pervasive than fund managers & PE. We are fund managers and private equity. Discuss below. Go right ahead."
this is what drives me back to the movie theater. at least a movie theater experience is a thing i like. but i refuse to 'buy' digital copies of movies and shows - or books - that reside in the cloud. if i can't save it off to dvd/cd/usb, OR get sent a physical copy, they don't get my money. if they can disappear the product, you don't actually own it. and the value is in the owning.
Digital copies of a movie, book, etc. that is locked into the sellers ecosystem has never sat right with me. I don't actually own it if I can't do what I want with it, like store a backup on my own drive, then why would I do it? It just becomes a long term rental until that company chooses otherwise (account ban, out of business, some other random stuff).
It’s a media labels legal dream. You pay for something and later on they can have a licensing dispute with the outlet you bought the media from, they pull it from your library, and then you have to buy it again. It’s all messed up.
this is why older cars w/o so many computer chips will become valuable again, if they're not already. of course, this will set our efforts to be green back a bit...
2015 Chevy suburban is more than the current model.
As soon as hardware exists to easily hack our own car and sadly home goods computers it’s gonna be a free for all.
And I think they know tech is close enough to render almost all of their subscription or paid services useless, they’re trying to scrape as much out of our economy before their tech bubble collapses.
Employers essentially have this mindset as well, and its freaking exhausting. Constant encounters in our day to day lives with the other side trying to extract every last bit from you is infuriating.
Then add the folks getting paid shitty wages with no benefits struggling to make it day to day and their building anger that spills out at every encounter you have. Quiet quitting hits the consumer as well as the employer. (Not saying they don't have a reason, just we all get to feel the pain.)
And there are so many features that are free but behind an app. My dishwasher can't do a delay start without an app. Is everyone in my home supposed to have a device so they can fully use the dishwasher? Even the nine year old?
> My dishwasher can't do a delay start without an app
"this dishwasher is in perfect working condition but we're no longer supporting the app that allows you to run it, so please deposit your perfectly good but artificially nonfunctional dishwasher in a local landfill at your convenience."
I am only buying basic appliances going forward...if I can. Pisses me off that it is almost impossible to save my docs on my computer though. Forced to the cloud then they charge me for storing them. F U. Those are mine. Get the fk out of my computer.
Nah. The enshitification happened long before Covid. SCOTUS Citizen United is what started the shit ball rolling. Repugs and their drive to eliminate consumer protections and to gear all laws in favor of corporations keeps the shit ball rolling. We are now at the bottom of the hill getting covered in all the shit rolling downhill.
You can go further back - the repeal of Glass-Stegal enabled corpos to gain the power to enact Citizens United.
But if you really want to go back, it was ol' Jack Welch that gave all these milquetoast McKinsey & Co. bitches the gameplan - use all the companies resources to inflate the stock price - Henry Ford be damned - the stock price is all that matters - and tie your value/performance as an executive to the stock price. Also introduced stack ranking, and blaming/laying-off employees for the fuck-ups of executives.
Forbes called Welch the CEO of the century in 2001 - he got wined and dined on GE's dime till he croaked in 2020.
As of late 2021, one year after Jack Welch passed, General Electric planned to break into three public companies and effectively cease to exist - LMAO.
Is this good business? Yes for Jack. Yes for the Executives. Yes for everyone who reads Forbes.
Fuck everyone else.
Fuck America.
Great book that draws the through-line from Welch to Glass-Stegal to Citizens United and links them to other American powerhouses that followed/are following the same shit-plan - The Man Who Broke Capitalism
A world we have to jailbreak our own cars we need to get to work just to use existing built in features that used to be free is incredible and draws to focus how little they’re innovating now. They’ve stopped making new things to pay for. Now it’s pay or we’ll take away old things.
> draws to focus how little they’re innovating now
they certainly are innovating. just because they're innovating doesn't mean they're making something customers want. they're better figuring out how to maximize profit, independently of whether they're delivering value to anyone.
Right, they’re innovating on inventing concepts like ‘packaging’ and ‘premium’, ‘gold, platinum service’ and ‘elite’ models all of which is just the original service before they’d made it worse toward the effort of selling us what we’ve historically had for free and tacking on with a monthly cost. It starts with Netflix, and now it’s in your cars.
Subscriptions make sense for options that requires satellite communications or something that continually requires support. I can also kinda understand something like hands free driving IF it was going to get regular improvements (not “improvements”)…but yeah, otherwise for something like a seat heater it truly is criminal.
Yeah, anything that requires a server behind it (ie remote start from an app) makes sense to have a subscription. I don't really see an issue with that. It's the cost of keeping servers and engineers around and it's totally understandable for a company not to want to eat those costs.
A subscription to use heated seats? Na... that doesn't work
Fortunately BMW walked that back after backlash. But some features like self driving modes and in-car wifi that actually require the car to connect to some service are subscription based.
My pet peeve, which I mostly run into with rental cars, is when they disable Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The screen in most cars is useless. The on board navigation system is our of date and even if it's up to date, can not provide live traffic routing. So either allow me to mirror my phone to your screen, or install a phone holder on the dash.
But it goes beyond rental cars. Automakers are trying to walk away from Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as well because they want to control the "in car experience" - part of which is to offer you subscription services, unneeded maintenance items and advertising.
Edit:
I predict we will see some third party provide software tools to hack the in-car infotainment system. Most of them are based on Blackberry QNS operating system.
I would still be extremely wary. They're definitely leaving the functionality to turn features off in their cars and I wouldn't personally trust myself to catch some sneaky wording in the contract that gives them the ability to introduce pay-to-play later on a car I already bought from them
> That same attitude of "how much can we soak these rubes for" is pervasive in consumer products and extracting every last penny is a great way to infuriate customers.
We're hitting the limit of the exponential growth capitalism depends on.
Lenin, dick though he was, called it 100 years ago.
Capitalism has mostly finished with undeveloped world. Those resources have or are being exploited, and those regions have their own capitalists sucking them dry.
So now there is naught to do but take all the brutality they learned during imperialism and turn it on their own populace.
I mean, we paid for the seat and the heater when we bought the car. It absolutely should be criminal to then require additional payments to use the equipment you already bought. Id be game for a class action lawsuit.
Private equity, management consultants and MBA-itis is squeezing all margin and value that you get out of products. So even good things feel like they are robbing you. They don't want even a cent going to customers or employees extra and things seem like they are less of a value because they are.
Employees have every minute tracked at work. Products have all marginal value trimmed. Everything sucks even when it should be good.
Same with Sirius Radio put in every car or vehicle assist or other apps in the console. If they could charge for the air in your tires then they would.
I read a post recently by a woman stating that it's crazy she has to use a touchscreen to adjust her AC vents as opposed to a tab you flick with a finger. She said she had to go 2 menus deep from the main screen just to get to it.
And literally everything is trying to sell you something. Ads on your fridge, that has a screen on it for some inexplicable reason. It needs wifi and you gotta make an account. In 10 years it’s gonna lock you out if you miss your monthly fridge payment. Your new Maytag washer has a lifetime warranty, but they stopped making the proprietary parts the next year. But here’s a $250 off coupon for your next Maytag.
It isn’t soaking the rubes, it’s systematically turning every single useful item or service into a rental property (aka subscriptions).
In one of Philiip K Dick’s novels a guy lives in a rental apartment where most everthing is coin operated. Bathroom, coffee machine, fresh water, etc. Except that everything’s digital, that is the world we’re living in.
This is what happens when you allow capitalism to turn every single useful thing into a capital asset with no regard for the impact on people.
There used to be an adage in sales: you can sheer a sheep over and over, but you can only skin them once. That's gone the way of maximum wealth extraction right now
It's enshitification in general. Every company wants to find that line of how far can they push customers before they stop paying. And as customers, we always let them off the hook. They make their service worse (usually changing the rules after we entered an agreement), we cancel, they back off slightly and we come running back to give them our money again.
A mature firm runs out of productive ways to grow and begins extracting value from the system that made it successful, its customers, workers, product quality, or reputation.
They do it because it's cheaper to install the heating element in every seat (and then enable it only if the customer buys the upgrade) than to manage the logistics of having more different models of each car.
If a buyer wants a blue car with the heated seats but not the go-faster stripes and the only example of that model which has this exact configuration is on the other side of the state then the manufacturer could lose the sale.
Car manufacturing has high costs of capital - they need a billion dollar factory and production line and they have to borrow to pay for that, so they have to pay the interest before they make or sell a single vehicle. The automative industry is surprisingly low margin.
The reason cars are affordable is because of economies of scale - they're selling 150,000 - 250,000 of them across Europe each year for a decade. It's not realistic to expect manufacturers to make every car bespoke.
I won't pay a subscription to enable electric heating either, because it rubs me up the wrong way as much as it rubs everyone else, but the manufacturers are doing this because they'd make a loss if they didn't sell silly things like heated seats and fancy rims for a huge markup.
Everyone's cars would cost a bit more if the EU were to ban the practice of selling cars with heated seats that the manufacturer can enable electronically when the buyer chooses them.
Probably this is just staving off the inevitable anyway - heated seats will be a standard item in future, or you'll hire a local guy with an electronic box to hack them for you, the majority of cars will come from China, and the only remaining models made in Europe or North America will be high end ones that hardly any of us can afford.
Like I say, I don't particularly like it either, but it's amazing how anti-economics Reddit is, especially considering what subreddit we're in.
Just don't buy that fucking car man . Plenty of used cars. Tired of the dick swinging . I still drive my 2013 Honda Civic even though I may well over six figures . Fuck all this shit .
BMW did have the option for you to pay for it up front. The logic was that the subscription could be cheaper if you just have it for the winter months. I think they were hoping this would ease people into the idea of subscriptions but the blow-back was heavy.
Subscriptions actually start to make more sense in that market (BMW and Mercedes Benz, but the luxury market overall) where lease rates are higher and the two can be merged into the same terms. Of course it's not difficult to see leasing cars in the first place as just being a type of subscription, but leasing was never really meant for a lot of people complaining about this anyway.
The alternative is they increase the upfront price of the car $X of dollars for everyone. Subscriptions allow car companies more ways to tailor "trim" than the tradition standard, premium and sport.
But every car made comes with heated seats already installed because it makes the assembly line faster. Yet they want customers to pay a subscription to use a feature that is already installed
Then you increase the price. I don’t care how you try to spin this, this paying a subscription to press the “warm my posterior” button in a car, a feature that has always existed without a subscription and is a literal button that requires no ongoing maintenance, storage, or support is absolutely insane.
I mean I'm paying for the hardware no matter what because obviously it's there so my price is increased already. The issue is I've already paid for that hardware and now I've gotta pay to use it
Nobody likes to feel nickel and dimed, but especially the people who are dropping $100k on a car. They want to hand over money and get what they want. It's not rational, but they're exactly the people who will walk away from the deal because they're frustrated with the customer service experience - including repeating upsells and monthly subscriptions.
I wouldn't be as pissed off about it if it was a one time payment to enable, which would fit your custom trim theory. The real problem is why should we pay for it every month, it's not like my heated seats get frequent updates or depend on server support
It's honestly gotten to the point of cruelty and humiliation rituals. I have purchased 2000 dollar plus products that arrive broken. Getting replacement parts requires waiting on hold where the disembodied voice reiterates "your call is important to us."
Obviously it isnt or i wouldn't be on hold for hours. Just saying that seems like a fuck you to me when the evidence shows the opposite
The automated customer service systems clearly designed/intended to keep you from speaking to a human as long as possible in the effort you get frustrated and hang up. And oftentimes said human is someone in India deathly afraid of getting their manager on the phone.
Yup.
And they include the additional humiliation ritual of asking you for information like name and address. And yet when you get a human you have to provide the same data. What is the point besides angering customers?
Like I honestly dont get what goes in in the heads of people who design these systems.
Executives who were taught in college that the most effective way to get money is to charge for bullets mid video game, or that you need to leave someone behind if it means not summiting Everest, or just fire the lowest 10% of statistical performers, regardless of what they do.
We teach this foolishness as "good business sense."
There's a lot of people with very expensive university educations from elite universities working for the Trump Administration, Heritage Foundation, etc.
The aristocrats of the West all studied much of the same history you did, and yet here we are. I just find it interesting that so many people arrived at the opposite conclusion of you. (I share your view as posted above).
Yeah it’s why I just constantly chargeback now if I have any issues and it’s difficult to get actual support. Usually they’re also negligent at handling chargebacks and I get my money back 90% of the time. It is humorous though when a company won’t support you but responds back quickly to the CC company for chargebacks.
Best way at this point though for me not to get screwed and for any changes to be made. No one cares about customers being mad but if CC companies start getting annoyed dealing with so many CBs and companies not responding we might actually get changes.
I can turn my brain off during a hold. The worst is when the music stops and then pauses for the voice to tell me how important I am and it kills me. You wanna say that over the music or play little sales pitches while the music plays? Don’t care I’ll live. But stopping makes me think it’s finally my turn
Capitalists hard at work in the capitalist economy. Its almost like Reagans trickle down theory was designed to put us in the same situation FDR fixed 100 years ago.
The bottom line really is the perception of what is improving and what is degrading. Personal / customer interactions are a huge component of perception and can overshadow material gains.
Absolutely this. I have long lived the mindset of being willing to pay a bit more when it’s worth it. When I signed up with Verizon about 15 years ago they were the undisputed king of coverage, even if their support even then wasn’t always amazing, I never had to deal with it because stuff just worked. They were the more expensive provider, but everywhere I traveled the service worked.
Every year since they have made things more expensive, the plans more complicated, often with stuff I didn’t want, and the service has only gotten worse. Not to mention support is largely farmed out and poor or an AI chat bot.
I want to jump to another provider, but it seems they are all in a race to the bottom.
There are so many other examples too, brands known for being expensive but the best at what they do that stopped making their own stuff in house and farm it out to China, or they killed their US support teams, and all the while prices climb.
The market share of almost every industry these days is mostly controlled by like 2-4 conglomerates. Even in the past decade it feels like the mergers and acquisitions have gotten insane.
Almost everything is either a publicly traded corporation or partially owned by private equity looking for permanent quarterly growth.
Technology has advanced to the point where everyone's data can be tracked and analyzed, prices can be micromanaged, and advanced algorithms are being used to optimize profit from absolutely everything.
Regulatory bodies and consumer protections have been completely gutted and nobody is really stopping any of this. The current administration is even more extreme in that it is actively looking to cut anything stopping these companies and the corruption isn't even being hidden anymore.
It's not even just that everything is expensive; everything feels like a scam meant to extract money from consumers and there aren't enough alternatives that aren't also involved in the same thing.
We neeeeeddd another Sherman anti-trust act but for monopolies like right now. And we're getting the opposite, which is the government actively encouraging conglomerates to screw us over
I've been reading The Good Years by Walter Lord, which goes over some of the things going on from 1900 to WWI. It's very interesting seeing a lot of parallels
Agree with one caveat: there is competition in the smartphone space - Xiaomi/Vivo/Oppo/Honor/Poco and others. The issue is that Apple/Google/Samsung and the telecoms have done their best to keep those brands out of North America. I am in Canada, and our telecoms offer those three, plus a handful of budget options from Motorola or TCL. That's it. In conversations with friends and family, they're not even aware of these other brands (with bleeding edge camera hardware), and are complacent with their three options (and in the case of the Galaxy S22-S26 flagships, identical camera hardware year after year).
You weren't asking for recommendations, but I've been super happy with Google Fi for exactly this reason-- they're just there to provide a service for a price, and don't play games. The prices are great ($30-$60/month for me), but even if they weren't, I'd want to do business with them because they don't mess around. I feel like it's a fair deal, when a lot of other companies seem OK with everybody feeling like they're getting ripped off.
Thank you! I certainly don’t mind recommendations. I’ve been stuck since every time I look at one of the major carriers people say they are also as bad. I’ll look into GFi more.
I'm pretty sure GFi just resells TMobile spectrum, so whatever issues TMo reception has, GFi also has. But I've never had a connectivity problem anyplace besides deep remote desert, and I've been paying the same super modest bill for years now. I don't really love doing business with Google, but GFi and Google Fiber both seem like legit public services
What’s funny is at my home and around the city Verizon is awful, like 1 bar barely, but T-Mobile at my home I get rock solid connection and the data speed is over 300mbps.
I do well with Verizon outside my city. But at home it’s ridiculous.
It’s stunning how much worse Verizon’s coverage has gotten.
I think we also have had this expectations that things will always improve - technology will get better and cooler, new products with improvements will come out, etc. It’s the promise of the free market, right? But the opposite is happening and that’s bound to affect our mood, individually and collectively.
Great point about technology. I know it was a joke for a long time about people lining up for the new iPhone or whatever, but there was at least something fun about that even if you didn’t participate.
Yeah it’s still gross consumerism, but at least there was some community for those that did get that excited for something new.
Now you wait for a preorder date and it’s shipped to you, and a couple hours after setting it up you realize it’s maybe only marginally better than the perfectly fine three years older iPhone you are replacing.
As a millennial who was a teen through the early aughts it's impossible to explain to younger people the "visions of the future" that were happening from 2000-2010s. Before the iPhone there was no set design for a cell phone. Every manufacturer was designing to their own whims and ideas. Really cool things came out. Really stupid things came out. Every facet of tech wasn't integrated into a singular device (iPhone). So it really felt like every 3 months some piece of tech was coming out that was revolutionizing how we related to and used technology.
Everything is obviously more efficient now but there's something culturally that has died and the spark has gone.
If the providers all are in the toilet go for the bottom providers ive been happy with mint. But id gladly do any of the pay as you go small providers.
Would recommend Spectrum if they’re in your area, they use Verizon towers for service so should be mostly the same in terms of coverage but there’s no contracts and they employ actual Americans for their customer service
Some companies, I'd kill to even have an AI chatbot. A lot of the new crop of tech companies aren't even leaving that on their pages. I was trying to get in contact with one company a few months back to ask about a promotion, and I couldn't even find an email address. No phone number, no email, no chatbot, nothing. This wasn't a scam business either. It was a fairly large company. It's like tech has decided customer support isn't worth even bothering with. Just put a random discord server invite on there, and send them there to beg someone to notice their complaint.
Yup. I just went to the dog park that has a little cafe where you used to be able to order coffee from the window. They just installed kiosks and don’t interact with you anymore. It really aggravated me to receive a plastic cup of coffee with all the extra garbage in it when I had my own travel mug.
Who did you vote for or didn't vote at all? Yea dems are not much better in many ways..But you can put pressure on them..Been saying this for decades...LOL all. good luck with see a dentist....Is granny hungry yet? Is she in a privately controlled home where she is abused when you are not there? This is not where we are headed..No this is where we are..Time to grow up...
EVERYTHING is a scam. Or it’s set up to feel like a scam. Even perfectly legal things are now structured in ways that they feel like you’re getting ripped off, mostly because you’re probably getting ripped off.
Yes, the country is based around taking advantage of others. It's not as big of a deal when you have a little cushion, you get annoyed and shake your fist that life isn't fair. When your cushion and safety net erodes and disappears, annoyance turns to anger as one is confronted with some of the harsher realities of how we've setup life.
Also, there's no actual evidence that he's not taking it. So he's probably taking it. This is a guy who once cashed a $0.13 check from Spy Magazine. His signature was on the back of it.
While this too is accurate, we can't ignore the fact that we're frogs in boiling water. They started feeding us a little bullshit. Then a little more. Then a little more.
If we ever break out of this, we'll need to be more vigilant
I dont think the royal we applies. I didnt setup life this way. Most of us didnt. They did. Be mad at the correct, responsible people, or perpetuate thr in-fighting they want for us
This happened before the election. This terrible economy and inflation was high under Joe Biden which is why he got kicked out as President.
In fact, Joe Biden is the one that started inflation with his sky high 2 trillion dollar stimulus which economists warned against and Joe Biden also kept tariffs.
Joe Biden is one of the stupidest presidents in American history and actively destroyed the economy way before the election
I joked a couple years ago that restaurants are going to start having a membership subscription to access cheaper prices and deals. What's scary is that there's talks about it becoming a reality.
I mean subscriptions themself are not inherently bad. If you watch a lot of movies, a movie pass type subscription can be a great deal and guarantees say AMC you go there versus another theater.
The problem is all the products that basically only offer a subscription or put basic features behind a pay wall.
Like at some point movie theaters will get the idea they need to push more subscribers so instead of just paying $20 a month and getting X movie tickets a month, they will start making it so you can’t sit in a middle or aisle seat unless you are a subscriber. You can’t recline your seat unless you scan the app to prove you’re a premium subscriber. And it slowly degrades the entire experience.
I recently bought a bed cooler. One of the biggest names in the industry is a company called Eight Sleep which sells $3000 mattress coolers. With that $3000 price you also get the privilege of spending $200/year on their base subscription just to use it. I ended up going with a company called Bedjet which was $700 and doesn’t have a subscription, but is unfortunately controlled through an app so I’m sure at some point it will be a brick.
My friggin alarm clock has an optional subscription service with it as well, and of course a required app.
I don’t really care if you add a subscription service to something as an option for people who want more. But it just infuriates me so much how wasteful we are in making things require apps and subscriptions just to function. If something can in theory be operated using nothing but buttons on the item itself, it should be required to include that functionality. Otherwise we are just creating piles of e-waste all in the name of increasing shareholder value.
The president of the United States' path to the presidency is paved with scams - whether it be as a spokesperson for MLMs, refusing to pay workers, or adjudicated scams like Trump University. He's still scamming in office.
Crypto and NFT pyramid schemes, "prediction markets" that totally aren't gambling, billionaires running roughshod over municipalities to install diesel-fueled AI nightmares sold to us as the end of our economic lives, rolling back of the most milquetoast of consumer protections, etc.
No wonder we're upset! We live in a fucking garbage society and are also seemingly surrounded by millions of people that scream, "PLEASE, ADD MORE TRASH BAGS ON TOP DADDY!"
Yea if its not a subscription then it has a ton of fees. Nothing is transparent in terms of pricing. You never get what you think you pay for. Everything is optimized to piss you off but squeeze you out of a few dollars more per interaction.
Wealth inequality has reached Gilded Age levels. The top 10% own 93% of stocks and account for 50% of all consumer spending in the real economy. This makes everything more expensive as businesses shift to cater to the top 10%, because only they have disposable income left to spend. Everyone else struggles to cover essentials and slowly drowns. Hmmm. Wonder why people are so angry.
The US surpassed the level of wealth inequality that was seen during the French revloution in like 2011. We've been past the level of the gilded age for probably 30 years now.
> scream at each other about unisex bathrooms some more. That’ll fix it.
Which they never think about the family bathrooms and ADA people that need those. More places are not putting these in now and families and the disabled are suffering while people worry about some fear mongering fantasy that isn't happening.
Worth mentioning that the same top 10% buy out politicians to retain and enforce their dominance at the top. Laws and regulations can't touch their wealth so the inequality keeps growing. They've somehow influenced many in the working class to defend their wealth too. Folks have the right to be angry, but they should know where and who to direct their anger towards.
Also worth mentioning that in 1929, Congress placed a cap on itself so the House would stop scaling in size with the population. We’ve been stuck at 435 House Reps ever since, while the nation has subsequently tripled in size. This created a fully insulated, small, elite class of federal politicians that the wealthy can network with and buy out. Ordinary Americans don’t actually have representation at all. Ironic, for a nation founded on the principle of real representation.
Yep. A people can only take so much. The system will self-correct with time. But it will likely be rough, when the breaking point arrives. If you look at the economic numbers for the masses, I can’t imagine we’re far out from it. People are throwing Molotov cocktails at Sam Altman’s house. Amazed how this stuff starts rumbling, and the response of the wealthy is to double down and grip the reins harder. Human nature, I suppose.
Yep. Corporate profit margins are also at record highs. These are consequences of the US and other countries putting the people with the most money in charge of everything. Their greed and corruption seem boundless. But they also own all, or the majority of the media and refuse to hold themselves accountable, so things only get worse.
When enough people can’t feed themselves or their kids, or lose their homes, or something. Hard to tell. It’ll be a thing that isn’t there, and then suddenly is. But almost everybody around me is struggling and upset right now. It’s no scientific gauge, but people seem to have had about all they can take. Running on fumes.
Private Equity has monetized nearly all formerly local services and industries to the point they are no longer affordable-Veterinary care, Dental care, even Garbage services-everything that used to be locally owned and operated is now owned by some mega corporation that raised prices and reduced services right to the point where people are about to go berserk.
I’m a firefighter. There was some big stirring in the news and within Congress recently because people found out how Venture Capitalists have taken over the fire truck industry and driven up prices while reducing build time and increasing parts replacement costs.
I was trying to explain to some coworkers the other day that this isn’t just a fire truck thing, the same people have done this to almost every industry.
Private equity behaves like an electrician who realized you can make quicker cash stripping all the copper from buildings rather than installing new wires. Eventually we are going to be left with no more buildings to strip and realize we could have put that same effort into building new things and improving society.
And whatever Private Equity isn't sucking dry, the same people are still sucking it dry, they just wear Fund Manager hats instead, while they vote trillions in proxy shareholder power everywhere.
I would argue this for investors and restaurants and rising restaurant food costs.
I managed at an upscale restaurant for 10 years where the owners had made their money in the 70s-90s. They were both teachers who opened a french restaurant and ran it at night. They did double work for a decade. They built their clientele through good food and reasonable prices and have ROI from that currently (still a million annual revenue with a 50 seat restaurant). They are older and take very little for their profit (around $75k on a million revenue). Everything else went to paying off the building or keeping an account for slow times.
Now I'm looking at current new restaurants who have all these investor groups who want to produce livable income instantly on a totally renovated dive bar with 20 seats. So they want to claim the "industry is dead" which means they've extracted all the easy profit they can and what's left is having to create organic growth and interest. But that takes too long and creates effort.
To me, it feels like this is every single industry now.
You’re spot on with this. I’ve noticed that dental work has skyrocketed over just the last few years, I hope we have some kind of revolt soon as this type of situation is not sustainable. I met a woman recently who spent 9 grand getting one tooth fixed!
I for the life of me can’t understand why private equity is allowed to operate like this without any oversight. They buy hospitals and no government entity looks into how they operate them.
Private equity is even buying youtube channels.
Also I don’t understand why leveraged buyouts are a thing. They buy companies using the aquired company to payback debt while they take everything. Private equity killed toys r us and I will forever hate them for it
Obviously we’ve always been this way, but rent seeking behavior is now king in this country. Businesses are realizing it’s much easier to squeeze every last penny out of a consumer than innovate and offer something better
Part of what changed is data driven pricing made price discrimination way easier for companies. Back in the day there used to be hacks and ways you could feel like you were getting a leg up on companies. (Regardless of if you were). Now with so much data everything is price discriminated and everything is an extra nickel and dime
It also doesn't help that you often have to hope what you are buying is decent. Ever use Amazon? How can I tell the seemingly random phoneme generated products apart.
Google shopping won't sort for price much of the time because that hurts ad revenue. They really think we are such cows that we dont notice the way things have changed
Yes. Every transaction is an experiment. Businesses are continuously testing us to determine our breaking point (what they call “willingness to pay”). The actual price will vary for different people, or for the same person on different days.
I rented a car recently and when I went to a site that used to sort by “price (low to high),” it was now sorted by “recommended” and was putting a bunch of expensive cars up top and hiding the cheaper ones.
I was able to find a way to change it back. But I am tired of every transaction and interaction being a 10 step process where you have to actively try to not be ripped off.
Not to mention 10 screens of extra add ons at the end. No, I don’t want to buy 10 extra things. I want to rent this car in as few clicks as possible.
In the old days companies had to rely on economic signals in order to price discriminate. Sometimes those signals were reliable, sometimes they were not. So they’d regress to the mean and call it a day.
Now, they already have all the information they need.
Right but that takes serious energy and time. The two resources most people already spend to make money. It’s also gone from “a cool hack to get extra” to “how to get eggs”
Comments so far have been spot on. I’ll also add shrinkflation and planned obsolescence. The entire premise of the US economy is to extract as much money from consumers as possible, even if it’s detrimental to the long-term health of the economy.
Planned obsolescence drives me nuts. Even if I buy something seemingly nice (made of metal), there will be some tiny joint made of plastic that snaps and ruins the whole thing.
This is what happens when shareholder primacy is king. No other stakeholder matters. It might be great for my 401k but it hurts everyone’s wallets and has degraded society.
At my work we have these propane heaters. You've seen them. Anyways the bolts in them use 3 different types of measurements. No reason. Also the nuts where the flame hits are not treated so they corrode. Again, no reason. The only possible reason is to make it break quicker and hard to find replacement parts so you buy another heater.
I cancelled paramount plus recently. I’m a soccer junkie and there is a competition that paramount picked up the rights for called the champions league. It’s my favorite event hands down.
But after Ralph Ellison did what he did with bari Weiss, it is now clear that my subscription (used to be $100/ for prem, fa cup, champs league, and Bundesliga when I first got into the sport. Now that the Judas goats that we are have led the corporate giants to our spring, they have partitioned it all out. ESPN, nbc sports, a cable subscription (just for USA network), and paramount + are what I would need for the same access. But that’s a different story) will potentially be used to take away my rights. At the minimum it is being used to enforce fascism at cbs.
For this reason alone I don’t like to buy stuff from American companies. The Koch brothers and the paper aisle were my first glaring sign that my spending is directly hurting my freedom.
This is what I don't understand about people continuing to buy from Amazon. They're paying for the privilege of seeing their country be destroyed. Is another pair of sneakers really worth that?
As soon as Amazon transitioned from just books, I could see this coming from a mile away. I'm the only person I know who's never had a Prime membership or bought more than a few books and a random item here or there from Amazon. Don't feed The Machine.
I hate Amazon but unfortunately Amazon can provide value. I stopped buying from them as much as I could be still. Random little odds and ends is what I purchase. The biggest thing is convenience especially when ordering diapers and wipes. As a parent Amazon sometimes saves my ass. They sell things I can’t find locally.
I wish Costco had the capabilities the Amazon has but they don’t. But when I need diapers or formula asap Amazon was the winner by default.
FYI, I have been doing that for a couple of years now. Cancel after the CL final. So far at the beginning of the new season they always had an offer to return for just a few bucks per month (it's a "with ads" subscription but that's fine for soccer, they just have ads at halftime). I feel doing this gives me a little leverage over them.
I once read a comment here on Reddit that said “companies have started to act annoyed they have to go through us to get to our money,” and I’ve never forgotten it
Another thing I don’t see talked about much is that a lot of companies have completely disempowered their frontline customer service staff. It used to be that they could offer you a refund or discount or some sort of incentive to keep you as a customer, but many companies have taken this away and they cannot do anything now.
One example is Ulta, the beauty store. If you go on that sub you’ll see a lot of people who have ordered expensive perfume or makeup items and then not gotten their packages or had the wrong items delivered. In the past, customer service agents could immediately refund the customer or reship the missing package and offer a $10 gift card as an apology. But corporate has changed this and now everything has to be “escalated to an internal team”. This means if you have a problem, customer service is only your first stop and then you have to wait a week or two for someone else (that you cannot contact or speak to directly) to decide whether you get your refund or reshipment. Gone are the days of being able to resolve a problem on the same day you contact the company.
It seems like companies have decided that frontline service agents are now just there to absorb your anger without being able to actually do anything. Maybe it’s because companies have gotten so large that they’re not worried about losing customers anymore, I don’t know. But it sure seems like they don’t care about customers at all anymore.
About 12 years ago I ordered an eye shadow palette from Sephora and accidentally had it shipped to my old address in another state. I called to see if it had been returned to them and if so, if it could be re-shipped to my current address. They just sent me another one with absolutely no hassle at all. The post office eventually had the original returned to them and contacted me. I had them just return it to sephora as I had the replacement. I really doubt things would go that way at this point in time.
Amazon used to do the same. You could get a refund or replacement without any hassle through their self-service customer service. Now, it's like they demand proof for damaged items even though their workers take pictures of the same damaged box at delivery.
Penny pinching customers and their workers, but record payouts and packages for anyone in the C-Suite.
The job of the frontline staff has changed from a service position to a defensive position. They are there to get you off the phone and prevent you from talking to that next level. Some companies are insanely aggressive because they’re essentially monopolies. They know how powerless we are.
Had to deal with Ticketmaster (no surprise). It was obviously their error and they kept refusing to help or escalate because they said it was the venue’s responsibility. Had to say “I’m not ending this call until this is resolved” in response to everything they said and they finally gave in and connected the call to someone who could help.
Same thing with mobile service. Ended up cancelling my service with at&t who’d id been with for literal decades and they didn’t even try to retain me lol.
This is why you don't get an actual person (customer service) on the other side of line to answer your call. Companies know customers are angry and complain a lot. Instead, you'll get an automated voice messages. How often have you heard, "Please listen carefully, our menu options have changed," followed by, "Your call is important to us"? Is it really?
Even with a real person, they are don't have the customer's interest in mind.
I recently had a Best Buy order canceled on me. I used a "$10 off anything" coupon to help pay for it. They refused to refund me the coupon even though THEY canceled the order. I knew there would be a customer survey after the call, but the representative refused to hang up because they knew that the responses would be negative. We can't win.
How many times will the same article be written? How many times will we come to the same conclusions in those articles? How many times will they be posted to this subreddit?
The answers are out there. It's just the shareholder class will not cede their power and wealth without significant disruption driven by the working class to achieve actually material change.
But that’s the problem. They’re Proles, and are easily controlled with reality TV and cheeseburgers. We provide just enough relief that they don’t blow under the pressure.
The relief is aka: "bread and circuses", a phrase from the French Revolution, which is a phase in history that very much matches our 21st century socio-economic situation.
This applies to sports and entertainment especially, but even politics and governing are their own reality series these days, which is unfortunate. It's like a cruel joke or bullying of the working class that never ends. Maybe someday we'll stop believing the BS and start demanding some accountability and change. This only gets worse until those happen.
Yeah i get so confused when people hype up the moments when these corporations get “ripped” by congressmen in hearings.. that lead to nothing. Politics has for a long time been kayfabe, but its getting worse by the year.
The answer was out there under Joe Biden, but Joe Biden’s dumbass was too stupid to listen to anyone or any economists which showed in his high inflation and many Democrats criticizing him
Because they realize that their pain is a mix of political leadership incompetence and apathy to their struggle as well as a massive amount of corporate greed while they watch corruption being openly rewarded.
Our culture is about monitizing every damn thing. Nothing is free, and customers are disposable. It's a race to the bottom in the name of continuous, and unrelenting profit growth . Late stage capitalism is a failure.
Higher prices plus shittier products equals angry customers. Especially when so many companies are reporting record earnings while their employees, who are also customers, don't get any rewards from those record profits. It is not hard to figure out.
People are angry because all hope has been lost. The so called American Dream has been completely destroyed for most. And there’s virtually nothing that can be done about it.
Just about the only thing an ordinary person can do about this is to try and decorporatize your life. Simply don't engage with companies in the first place. Don't sign up for any subscriptions, don't finance any purchases, always read the fine print, especially when it comes to payment. Try to live without as much as possible.
It's easier said than done, but the purpose of modern society is to feed off of those within it, and you have to disengage or it will consume you.
It’s not just inflation, it’s the steady collapse of basic competence. You pay more, get worse products, worse service, and then lose your own time fixing mistakes that never should’ve happened. Companies keep squeezing customers harder while delivering less and less.
It’s the never ending enshitification cycle that’s seeped into every product and service. Even when I do manage to find something decent, in the back of my mind I’m wondering how long the business model will last before being eaten by the enshitification monster. This happened to a local salad chain that offered great ingredients and prices, over time the prices went up while the portion sizes and quality went down. I did some digging and sure enough it had been bought out by private equity. Every fucking time.
I think people have realized everything is stacked against them...own a house, having a baby, having a damn vacation, this generation is the first to know they have no future.
I don't think there is no future. I think people were, and still are, simply misled for 50 years by a class of people who aimed to exploit them. Now that the results of capital greed are increasingly plain to see -record corporate profit margins, political corruption, etc - a complacent working class must realize they'll have to fight if they want progress, else they'll continue being exploited. Trust was taken for granted. It will require more than asking nicely to get that back.
Unless one has rich parents the debt burden required to get an education and acquire housing is becoming essentially a major roadblock to achieving the American dream. The biggest predictor of future success is the zip code they grew up in.
It's not just that they're hurting. It's that everyone in charge is either ignoring that they're hurting or actively mocking their pain.
Adam Smith said in The Theory of Moral Sentiment:
"It is to be observed accordingly, that we are still more anxious to communicate to our friends our disagreeable than our agreeable passions, that we derive still more satisfaction from their sympathy with the former than from that with the latter, and that we are still more shocked by the want of it."
We can shrug off someone not sharing our joy at getting a promotion, but we'll quickly grow to hate someone who refuses to acknowledge our suffering.
Right now, people are hurting, and the chortling assholes in the White House are literally saying that they don't care or calling affordability a liberal hoax.
Monopolies have been allowed in every segment of the economy. Until that is corrected, there won't be the real competition that would sort this behavior out.
The market is no longer shaped by consumers, and everyone feels that loss of power. When businesses are 'too big to fail'
RTO is mandated because local businesses are failing and real estate reasons, they no longer need a middle class. The goal then becomes appealing to another business or politician for funding, and extracting as much money as possible.
If you're still political, you've playing the wrong game. Voting is now done exclusively with money. Spend responsibly.
Every single thing in this country is built to strip people of their wealth (unless you’re in the 1%). And the argument that “if you don’t like the price, don’t buy it” is a straw man argument because we don’t always get a choice. Not to mention, not spending money on anything but bills is a pretty awful life experience. I’m pretty fucking angry. And that feeling has been building even since before Covid.
Prices up. Quality/quantity down. Stuff used to last but now because of Planned obsolescence, everything is made to break so that you have to buy a new one or impossible to repair.
Prices up, quantity and quality down. Customers treated as the enemy. Users of services are exploited. Current customers are ignored while new customers are feted. I've stopped eating out unless the restaurant is a small local ethnic one. Chains all taste like Sysco delivered in a bag and dumped in the fryer or stopped on the grill.
It is capitalism on steroids. Then capitalism goes into that back room and does a bump. Ayn Rand is rolling in her grave. Before the attack on consumerism, companies would try to develop a healthy relationship with the consumer. That way they would come back to buy their consumables more and more. Loyal customers was the goal. Now, companies are shoving high prices down their throats and charging them service fees along with it. There is no loyalty, only gains in stock prices and profits per quarter. The consumer is just a machine to extract more money from like an atm. And they use technology to make it twice as bad.
Why is Ayn Rand rolling in her grave? The right wing libertarians I know love what's happening today, and only want more of it. Some think it isn't extreme enough! I don't think they realize that concentrated power and wealth and historic corruption eventually hurt them too. I suppose their manufactured hatred for socialism is so strong it prevents them from considering any serious consequences.
Indeed not just about the high prices.. Americans should be worried about the lack of checks and balances in the system.. US has gone from the moral leader to becoming the lawless warmonger with low credibility..
And americans living in their flintstone world.. Riding old school ICE vehicles and teslas, while the rest of world moves in BYDs, Great Wall, Xpengs and thrives in high performance renewables..
Sorry but US has become a complete joke.. The amount of global disdain and disgust towards the US brand.. Yikes..
Enshittification is the name of the game. As companies have to compete less due to consolidation within their industries, they don't feel as beholden to their customer base. Quality, customer service, and price competition go out the window because the consumer has less ability to shop elsewhere.
In the 70s my grandma was a bit of a busybody and would write letters to companies complaining about products and they'd send her free stuff or refund checks.
That would never fly today, pretty much every company would ignore you or tell you to go to the retailer if you want a refund.
It’s not just because of high prices, it’s the “enshitifcation” of everything.
High housing prices, low wages, inflation, stagflation, the stupid Epstein war, being gaslighted daily by trump and his room full of dopes, trump telling everyone who will listen that he doesn’t care about the people of this nation, the list of women’s basic right, gerrymandering, ICE, the list goes on and on and on and on, etc, etc
Does this question even need to be asked? It’s freaking obvious.
America elected people who are very hostile to consumer rrights and protections. They have systematically dismantled protections against all kinds of consumer abuse and have done it in record time.
This is what America voted for, this is what Republicans stand for. You vote for Republicans this is what you can expect.
But consumers need to actually change preferences. When Doritos are 3x the price of the store brand, yet people still buy them, they're just sending a signal that the price is correct.
I heard endless complaining about the price of eggs, but a lot fewer people saying they'd stop buying them. As a person who lives in a developing country, most of these complaints just feel performative to me. It's hard to trust that people are actually struggling if they're still complaining about the price of Doritos and Coca-Cola, rather than substituting.
Eggs are a basic commodity, there's not really other options but it was also a temporary supply shock that the media hyped up. Doritos on the other hand there are tons of options like you pointed out.
Despite what Cool Hand Luke tells us, eggs can be substituted for no eggs.
The moral position of "I must have my eggs" is so far removed from objective reality. That's my point. If the line is drawn at "eggs are necessary for life", of course the consumer is vulnerable to abuse, in the same way they're actually vulnerable to abuse by healthcare providers for life-saving services, or utility companies.
Sensible countries identify these natural monopolies and regulate. But the only mechanism for eggs is consumers' willingness to forgo them. That didn't happen. Instead we got an angry, entitled discourse and another trump term.
More than the high prices its:
-Ad bombardment
-Planned Obsolescence
-Nick and Diming
-Bad Product Quality
-Cornered Markets and Monopolies
-Market Manipulation
-Pricing that no longer reflects Market Forces.
This thread is pretty much a microcosm of all of our anger and angst about over commodification. I enjoy reading BIFL but even there, most things are horrifyingly disposable. Something needs to change, this is getting insane
We are angry because we have zero protections, companies continue to invade our privacy and steal our data without consent, we are bombarded with ADs for almost any interaction we might have, and things seem to be regressing.
Companies have started giving less, charging more and gatekeeping products behind subscription services because they can and we have no alternative or government protections in place to safeguard us from these predatory capitalistic parasites.
If I want to pay a bill, I can pay in person, but there is an in person fee. I can pay online via debit or credit card but there is a fee for that two. Banks immediately take funds from us when we purchase something, but its like pulling teeth to get that money back, let alone the fact that it can take 7 full days to process an instant transaction because they can.
Funny they used a pic of a grocery cart: the new ones got rid of the bulk item lower section, because after all, to modern corporations, its worth infinite inconvenience to the 99.999% of your non-criminal userbase if it means stopping that .0001% from walking out with paper towels
products are smaller, cost is higher, quality is shittier, credit card interest rates are almost double what they were a few years ago, wages stagnating, unprofitable AI companies somehow have soaring stock prices, and now index funds are changing the rules so a billionaire can become a trillionaire using our 401ks as his exit liquidity....but geee i wonder why consumers are so upset?!
feels like a bunch of mismatch between “official” numbers and what people experience day to day. CPI can be cooling while the stuff you notice most (rent, groceries, insurance, childcare) is still up, and wages lag so it never feels like you caught up. and even when prices stop rising, you’re still paying the new higher baseline, which people read as “it’s still getting worse” even if inflation rate is lower. the vibe is basically: my paycheck didn’t reset, but my monthly fixed costs did.
The economy is predatory and they are actively removing any forms of protection. If you ever try to move outside or evade it you will find laws that prevent you and force you into economic exploitation.
It’s also a great way to farm out the customer service, and have the poor harvest all the bad feelings of their customers, increasing division, while the Epstein class, yachts near their Mediterranean islands.
I had to book a JetBlue flight today and there was a bit of a hiccup and getting the credit card alert push approved at checkout. But this was all done and completed within five minutes. By the time that I got the credit card information accepted incorrectly loaded I’ve been informed that my fare had increased by $45.
What the actual fuck? It just feels like it was known that I had gone through all of the flight selection, seat, selection, loading of my three other family members details along with my own, and they’re just like yeah you’re gonna pay this. “What are you gonna do go back and start all over again?”
Truth right here. Boycott, boycott, boycott! Rob these MFers of whatever you can. Shop at small business when possible. Go to the farmers market instead of a chain store. Let's bankrupt these MFers.
>“It feels like a war on consumers,” said Sally Greenberg, the executive director of the National Consumers League, a 125-year-old consumer advocacy group. Households are being hit by “a tsunami of fees and hidden charges and tricks and traps”, she said.
Americans are financially exploited at every turn. We are taxed every which way possible and none of it goes towards the betterment of our lives. We have pissed off all of our allies. Consumers get no protection and bail out. Wealth transfers 1 way and its not to us. Everyone is waking up to the fact that the scales are tilted against our favor.
Consumer stratification and mobilization is the worst unless you’re at the top. Everywhere people go there are reminders that others are experiencing a higher class of service because they can pay.
Airplanes and airports are the example that people are probably thinking of, but it’s everywhere now. Door dash will let you pay to get your order faster, sports stadiums have all kinds of perks for big spenders, Disneyland is just a giant sorting machine now. Everywhere people look they’re being asked to pay more for the best experience. It feels nice when you can afford to upgrade, but the rest of the time you’re just feeling like a sucker for being poor.
I’d add that turning everything into subscriptions is also corrosive. Lots of them are cheaper if you pay up front. Sometimes substantially. And the subscription pricing model allows for companies to operate a giant ratchet of increasing prices without having to really improve the product because people are locked in or oblivious.
Because we’re tired of “consuming” and being dehumanized and called consumers by mainstream mouthpieces. We are humans who just want a livable wage, affordable healthcare and food.
You know, we switched to streaming and now it’s about comparable to cable…. Betting it’s gonna funny when Netflix raises their prices again, and people just start pirating again….
The very thing Netflix got popular for (streaming services legally on the cheap), because they got greedy, are now going to force people to go back.
Meh, I liked Limewire anyway, is PiratesBay still around?
Basically the consumers are the voters. The state is colluding with the corporations who fund the politicians who run the state to screw the consumers and therefore the voters, every which way via regulations that favour the corporations at every turn. This is why people are angry. The economics of their lives and the politics of their lives are bound up by the same political dynamic which us that the corporations basically bribe the politicians to regulate in their interests and against the interests of the voters/consumers who voted them into power to look after their interests. It sounds a bit convoluted but it’s pretty simple really.
The wealthy think everyone but those who will fill their ranks exists only to make them money. It's no wonder consumers are pissed. They have been demoted from citizens to consumers.
There is no anti-trust policy in this country. Most industries are duopolies or have maybe 3 to 4 competitors. There is widespread evidence of price fixing and wage fixing.
Market power does not diffuse. It is permanent and is exploited to disempower people. The patent system needs to be replaced with fewer opportunities for legalized monopoly. Antitrust laws need to be strictly enforced.
Unfortunately, none of these things will ever change because half of the country, if not 60%, thinks dystopian predatory capitalism is a net positive for the world.
It's the fact that the high prices were completely avoidable until a large enough number of dipshits and racists voted in a conman who had already staged an insurrection. That's where a lot of my rage comes from. And whoever said subscriptions. That too.
Because people have eyes. In the united states back in the 1950s to 1960s one could not only support 1 family on an incime but 2 (enough people found out grandpa had a separate family) but in all seriousness 1 full time job cpuld provide for a family. Now both people working full time doesnt even provide a secure enough life to afford a house and children. The share of compensation as a percentage of GDP has fallen to 51.9% from am all time high 58.4% in 1970. People arent asking for much. All we want is for a full time job to be able to meet Ines basic needs, food, housing, retirement. Sure there are some people that are doing fine like myself but even when I look at my situation, my wife and I have advanced degrees and I had help from my parents to pay for some of my college and we had help from family to buy a house. Even so my financial picture with my wife when we both have advanced degrees working in good jobs in our field isnt as good as my parents where only 1 parent had a degree. The social contract has failed and the worming class is getting squeezed to a point where we see societal structural problems.
Americans in general are angry across the board. Age old issues that still aren’t close to be resolved because (in my opinion) neither party is honestly interested in solving them. They are however interested in enriching themselves. Then of course there’s this one orange main problem
One frustration, that’s actually been around a while, is the total lack of accepting responsibility between a main company and its franchise operation. If you go seeking assistance from one, that side will always tell you it’s the others fault or responsibility.
I started making my own cosmetics recently and selling them to friends because of these prices for absolute garbage products. Demand practically exploded overnight, especially for the deodorant I started selling.
People know they’re being ripped off even if they don’t fully know what’s going on with what they’re buying. And they’re sick of it.
the ads are getting more aggressive, constant spam calls. More work, less pay, the world is slowly dying, the country going bankrupt, everything is stressful as fuck and things just get worse and worse
Everything is more expensive and everything is shittier. People first blamed Covid, then supply chain issues and now tariffs for price hikes and we all know they exaggerated it to us and we all know when those issues go away they aren’t going to lower the price to reflect not having it as a cost of production. I hate how I make almost double what I made 10 years ago and feel poorer, especially considering now I fewer bills.
I vote for politicians who at least claim that this is a priority for them and that they will fight for my rights as a consumer, but I know that’s ultimately out of my hands. What is in my hands is buying as little as possible and especially from companies who treat me like shit, so that’s what I’ve been doing.
There’s no worse feeling than paying a lot of money for a shitty product or service, and the only part you’re in control of (with the exception of essential goods and services- unfortunately not much you can do about that) is the “paying a lot of money” part.
Why are we angry?
Because everything is unaffordable and I can’t turn on the news without seeing “Trump and his butt buddies are requesting billions of tax payer dollars because he shit himself”
Probably because we have to work our asses off to afford what we need while the most powerful man in the country makes our economic situation worse by the day as he cheats the markets.
It’s 4 things. Groceries, gas, housing and healthcare. When prices are up on these essentials, it hurts lower income families much worse than the wealthy.
It’s the enshittification of all things, the having to pay a nonessential middle middle middle entity a ridiculous fee for use, designed obsolescence, constant sign up sign in password enter emails memberships, and on and on and on. When I first read the manifesto back in the day I was like ABSOLuTELY 💯.
It’s only a matter of time before cashiers start flipping the tablet around and, after tipping the perfunctory 20%, you get a second question “would you like to round up your purchase to donate to Israel?”
Propaganda. While there are certainly areas that could see improvement (ie - healthcare, housing, beef, fuel, etc.) everyone has 24/7 media blasting in their face to be angry. Don't forget that vacations and luxury purchases are near all-time highs. I'm mad because I want xyz on the cheap.
It's just how economy works in America, I just don't know why, they think the rest of the world is falling behind the American way of running the economy, like it's the only truth and best way to have an economy.
Things has to be more expensive, wages has to be at minimum, you'll to work more and longer, almost no vacation, no leave sick pay, no maternity leave pay, basically no rights for the working people.
Somehow, that's the idea of a good economy.
TheRealCabbageJack | 8 hours ago
The very idea that you should have to subscribe to a service to activate the seat heaters in a new car is absolutely criminal. That same attitude of "how much can we soak these rubes for" is pervasive in consumer products and extracting every last penny is a great way to infuriate customers.
Lonely_Fruit_5481 | 7 hours ago
“Ready to pay? Ok there is actually a 4% surcharge to keep menu prices down and to support our staff, even though we already increased menu prices.
Also we pay our staff less than minimum wage.
Would you like to add a post-tax tip? No, we can’t guarantee your tip goes directly to the staff”
I think you’re spot on and it goes beyond subscription fees. You’re nickel and dimed everywhere. Ever go to a sporting event in Europe? The prices for concessions and gift shop items are actually relatively fair
Ninja67 | 6 hours ago
When I was working at Staples selling shitty PCs and printers, my district manager questioned why I sold an HP envy printer instead of an HP office jet to an elderly couple. Explained that they were wanting a multi use printer to print photos of the grandkids, and some light office work (taxes and occasional document printing) but not a high use printer. Said the Envy fit there needs better (tried to steer them away HP but that's what they wanted).
District manager said I should have gone with an officejet because the ink was more expensive. Fucking vultures.
Quiet-Leader-7201 | 6 hours ago
and that’s why every staples is a ghost town now
Ninja67 | 6 hours ago
It was a whole checklist they'd have me try to sell. Extended warranty, tech support (3rd party), rewards membership, credit card (that only worked in store no where else) extra ink for printers. Keyboard/mouse/mousepad/monitor/flashdrives for PCs. Store service plan with AV. While we're at maybe a new router for that printer or PC so it has the fastest connection?
When it came to tablets the warranty plan we had at the time was probably the worst pricing compared to other electronics. (Like 70-80% of what we charged for the tablet, never sold many of those). But for some God awful reason if a tablet was on sale for 99$, it fell into the price bracket for the protection plan to also be 99$. Sales manager was PROUD they talked an elderly customer into that plan. Bragged how their stats were set for the month after that
_redlr | 5 hours ago
Jesus. Vultures is right. This is why people don’t go into the store to buy things anymore, no one wants to be treated like this! But who still goes in? The elderly. Because they need help. And they trust the salespeople. And then they get treated like this. It’s reprehensible.
Quiet-Leader-7201 | 5 hours ago
sales would be dope if wasn’t for the ghouls. keep fighting the good fight. i do rep work and i will not sell people junk they don’t need or want.
DetoursDisguised | 3 hours ago
I definitely don't miss selling electronics at Sam's Club and having to push the warranty. Sure, it felt good when I was able to prove that I was doing my job as they wanted me to (young kid needs a job), but I was also pushing customers to invest in something that not even I would buy.
Couldn't really give a crap about the product; a laptop from Sam's or Costco is typically as good as a laptop from anywhere else, but when my boss is making me sell shit that customers don't really need and getting in the way of actually addressing the needs of the customer (which are almost always financial and budget-oriented), it just pisses me off.
Like, sorry that I'm fucking with your margins, but I'm trying to do my job and allow your customers to trust us to not fuck them over or fleece them.
htownballa1 | 2 hours ago
I got into loud arguments over the dumbass hp instant ink when it first came out.
discgman | 6 hours ago
And now with added chips to make sure the printer only accepts HP's genuine high priced ink.
KayBear2 | 5 hours ago
That’s horrible
Original-Rush139 | an hour ago
My HP just bricked itself so I go to the UPS store and pay per page now.
Ninja67 | 57 minutes ago
If you're ever in the market for a printer again if your need goes up, I would recommend looking for a black and white laser printer. Brother is the preferred brand, but you can look at other options such as Canon or if I even dare say HP (I have a very compact HP laser printer). It's expensive to get for them in color so for photo printing I would still go to a store, but the great thing about laser printers is they have way higher yield on their cartridges and it's not ink it's a powder, it takes a lot longer for them to go bad. I bought a spare cartridge to go with my printer, I'm still on the original though from over 8 years ago but I don't print all that much. And since it's HP I also only use the USB cable, I don't trust that little bastard to go online and try to brick itself with some update forcing me to buy new cartridges.
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
Remember when it was cheaper for American Taylor Swift fans to fly all the way to Europe to go to her concerts than attend one here in the US?
BurntNeurons | 7 hours ago
Not to mention going international for affordable healthcare...
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
Yep. Went to South America for dental care, personally!
BmacSOS | 6 hours ago
I know of MAGAT assholes in west Texas that cross the border for cheaper dental care. Total hypocrites.
dust4ngel | 5 hours ago
i can't believe they're helping people from other countries steal the jobs of american dentists!
mistressbitcoin | 3 hours ago
What US dentist is going to accept Mexican dental salaries?
Is that something we can vote on?
Rough-Breadfruit-611 | 4 hours ago
That's still true. Hospital tourism in Thailand is a huge operation (pun intended) and is top notch.
Minimum_Principle_63 | 4 hours ago
My health insurance plan actually has provisions for medical tourism and how to get even more discounts with it. People I know get dental work done and a vacation.
Lonely_Fruit_5481 | 6 hours ago
I bought a baseball cap with the team’s logo for $10 at a tier 1 professional soccer game in the Netherlands. Same thing probably is 5x here in the U.S. stadiums. Also they were just giving out free food and little shots of wine. Ticket prices were $30-$50 I don’t remember but it was cheap
BmacSOS | 6 hours ago
I worked the F1 Race in the us and went to browse the merchandise and was repulsed by the prices for a shirt and hat. Higher than concert prices even by double .
TokeInTheEye | 6 hours ago
F1 has always been diabolical tbf
BmacSOS | 5 hours ago
But when you are hanging out in the Heineken tent dancing wearing an $80 hat and $80 shirt you think all the chics dig you cause you got money.
FearlessPark4588 | 3 hours ago
if they could charge $50 for a baseball cap in Europe they would
AsianCarp | 2 hours ago
What's stopping them?
_projektpat | 5 hours ago
My sister went to see her in Mexico City for this exact reason 💀
Sptsjunkie | 6 hours ago
We almost exclusively do concerts overseas (to be fair we don’t go to a lot of concerts). But the last few concerts we wanted to see were big name artists and even going to Europe or New Zealand (not hunting for the lowest cost of living place possible), we got close to front row seats for less than much further back seats in the US once you factored in Ticketmaster fees.
Given we get free flights since my spouse works in the travel industry, it was almost like getting a free vacation by just not seeing the concert in the US.
panderingPenguin | 4 hours ago
US concert promoters hate this one simple trick! Just have access to free international flights (no big deal!) and it's cheaper to see concerts abroad!
Sptsjunkie | 4 hours ago
Lol. No, I’m definitely aware that our situation is the only reason this actually is cheaper. But even being able to go see a concert, be close to the front instead of towards the middle, and essentially have the hotels paid for is still a wild difference in ticket prices.
vand3lay1ndustries | 4 hours ago
It's currently cheaper to go to Disney Tokyo (with airfare), than it is to go to Disneyworld in Florida as an American.
https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/1pjgor6/request_this_cant_be_true_are_the_prices_really/
ALIMN21 | 5 hours ago
Its cheaper for American skiers to fly to Europe and go skiing than it is to go to Colorado and ski.
Constant-Plant-9378 | 5 hours ago
This is why I have almost entirely stopped eating out. With the exception of independently and locally owned and operated establishments, it has become complete bullshit. I absolutely refuse to support it.
Consumers who bitch but keep paying for it are 99% of the problem and should be slapped hard on the back of the head.
UniqueIndividual3579 | 4 hours ago
Self checkouts are now asking for tips.
Lonely_Fruit_5481 | 3 hours ago
Honestly my most controversial view among everyone I know is I agree with r/EndTipping. Reframing the problem as a progressive one isn’t intuitive but ultimately I think it’s just. The corps see that they can squeeze money out of people on self checkout systems - it’s the inevitable outcome of letting them embed the server tipping culture over the last 80 years
MAMark1 | 3 hours ago
That sub is a cesspool of people trying to frame being cheap as some moral high-ground and making really dumb arguments to rationalize it...but there is a valid argument to be made that tipping needs to end (so long as people realize that doesn't necessarily mean your final bill when eating out is going to go down dramatically).
Tipping was a product of post-slavery systemic racism. It then ingrained itself in our culture, arguably further entrenched by this American obsession with feeling like they have choice/control in all circumstances (even if they are all bad choices), so now it fully baked into the system in both laws and cultural practices. It feels wrong to imply it is some corporate machination when it is so deeply rooted.
That said, it is a bad system. However, it is going to stay forever without some sort of regulatory effort because consumers are irrational and will tend to pick the restaurant with lower menu prices and tipping over higher menu prices without tips. They'll say otherwise, but the data proves it. We'd need to enforce some across-the-board rule or else the incentive for owners is to keep the status quo.
And, people need to understand that hourly wage + tips is the market wage for servers. You can just focus on their wage in a vacuum. And you can't just suddenly pay them half as much and expect them all to keep working the same as always. That means their post-tip wage would need to be at least somewhat similar to the status quo, which means menu prices go up enough to cover that gap. You aren't going to see tipping go away and menu prices only rise 5%. I worry the anti-tipping crowd has not come to terms with that reality.
UniqueIndividual3579 | 2 hours ago
I have a simple rule, I sit I tip. But that means table service. Grabbing a bag off a counter doesn't get a tip. I worked at McD's for three years and never heard of anyone even thinking about a tip.
MAMark1 | 2 hours ago
Agreed, no tipping at the counter in almost all cases. Maybe a barista doing a more complex coffee like a pour-over? People hired to work a counter are generally not hired with tips built into their pay structure so their expected wage doesn't calculate in tips the way it does with a server. You aren't undercutting their expected wage by not tipping.
I can't determine if it just POS systems that have tip screens by default or if it really is owners expecting people to tip for to-go counter service, but I don't understand why people would tip (or even get stressed out that it asked them to tip...just push the button for no tip...). It's probably just a lingering impact of COVID when people mostly got take-out but still tipped because they wanted to support restaurants during a hard time.
Mushu_Pork | 2 hours ago
Don't forget the post sale email or text survey.
Mirabeaux1789 | 25 minutes ago
The idea of pooling tips should have any reasonable person stop in their tracks. It is naked admission by the employer that the staff are being underpaid.
jreed66 | 7 hours ago
In a world where John Deere wouldn't let independent repair shops have the diagnostic software and tools to fix people's tractors.
Salt-Instancer | 7 hours ago
The tide may be slowly turning. Below is a link to an article about a no-tech repairable tractor company. It was on another subreddit, I can’t recall or take credit for. If I spend $200k on a tractor, chances are it’s an important tool. That thing being down is a huge productivity loss. If Jonah the ranch hand can just swap a part with from an old tractor that should be the answer. Not getting on the phone with tech support, being told the part is not locally available, then that it needs to be overnighted to your rural location which is as much as the part itself. It is a fucking chain of infuriating nonsense. Designed like a catheter they shove in you that forces you to piss away a ton of money. For no good reason, besides greed, & shareholder loyalty.
There’s a huge demand for shit like that. I’m still bitter about the headphone Jack.
https://www.404media.co/demand-is-booming-for-ursa-ag-new-no-tech-repairable-tractor/
QuesoMeHungry | 6 hours ago
I remember reading somewhere that older tractors like 1990s and before were actually going up in value because of this. People actively seek out the ones not locked down by tech.
ditchdiggergirl | 4 hours ago
Yep. Have friends who are third generation farmers. They were proudly showing off the cabin of the huge tractors, bragging that newer ones would be full of screens but they had the good ones, all buttons and switches and dials and toggles. And they had a small workshop on the farm where the kids all learned soldering and basic metal work.
mystery_biscotti | 6 hours ago
Loved your catheter comment! 😁
Constant-Plant-9378 | 5 hours ago
When I was on my City Council and our Public Works Department wanted to buy a new excavator, I submitted a motion to ban any John Deere equipment from consideration because of their obstructive right-to-repair bullshit. I think we went with CAT instead.
Subject-Librarian117 | 6 hours ago
I'm a locksmith. We can't make replacement keys for many new vehicles because only dealerships can use the software to program the fobs and keys. Naturally, they charge triple what we would for the privilege of being able to turn on your vehicle.
CharmingMechanic2473 | 4 hours ago
Or allow them to make a simple repair themselves without voiding the warranty. I guess US military has now outsourced gun parts and repair not allowing soldiers to do something they are capable of and would prefer to do themselves. Just another way to fleece the tax payers.
Dry-Interaction-1246 | 7 hours ago
They can only do that stuff bc of market power. Trust busting needed. Amazon alone should be 4 companies.
TimeRemove | 6 hours ago
You're absolutely right; but the US has shown over and over again that it is a limp noodle when it comes to antitrust/antimonopoly. With those departments receiving zero funding; and even if a case gets going after 4 or 8-years, a new admin comes in, and after campaign donations closes the case.
The US public also don't really support consumer protections or antitrust actions. Every thread about the EU stopping US companies from doing [bad thing], half the thread (and heavily upvoted), are Americas telling us WELL ACTUALLY, why companies should be able to do whatever they want.
QuesoMeHungry | 6 hours ago
Seriously. The fact that Amazon can own movie studios, have a whole e-commerce system, grocery store chain, and leader in cloud infrastructure. It’s insanity. Imagine how many jobs would be out there if they all split into 5 or so massive companies.
Congenital0ptimist | 2 hours ago
"This very conversation brought to you by AWS. We're not more pervasive than fund managers & PE. We are fund managers and private equity. Discuss below. Go right ahead."
Corgi_Koala | 7 hours ago
In general it is becoming harder and harder to own fully functional things without a subscription or license.
I mean hell even new movies often aren't released on physical media.
MareNamedBoogie | 6 hours ago
this is what drives me back to the movie theater. at least a movie theater experience is a thing i like. but i refuse to 'buy' digital copies of movies and shows - or books - that reside in the cloud. if i can't save it off to dvd/cd/usb, OR get sent a physical copy, they don't get my money. if they can disappear the product, you don't actually own it. and the value is in the owning.
es-ganso | 6 hours ago
Digital copies of a movie, book, etc. that is locked into the sellers ecosystem has never sat right with me. I don't actually own it if I can't do what I want with it, like store a backup on my own drive, then why would I do it? It just becomes a long term rental until that company chooses otherwise (account ban, out of business, some other random stuff).
You're leasing it long term basically.
QuesoMeHungry | 6 hours ago
It’s a media labels legal dream. You pay for something and later on they can have a licensing dispute with the outlet you bought the media from, they pull it from your library, and then you have to buy it again. It’s all messed up.
AlphaTrion0 | 43 minutes ago
Pirate it.
Corgi_Koala | 6 hours ago
Yup and costs haven't gone down to even change the value proposition.
That Amazon digital movie purchase is still $25.
dust4ngel | 4 hours ago
> i refuse to 'buy' digital copies of movies and shows - or books - that reside in the cloud
market logic demands piracy.
CoolFirefighter930 | 7 hours ago
They just getting started. soon your car will tell you when you can drive it and when you cannot.
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
Ford has literally already filed a patent for this. Also it’s reading your lips.
MareNamedBoogie | 6 hours ago
this is why older cars w/o so many computer chips will become valuable again, if they're not already. of course, this will set our efforts to be green back a bit...
HeartlessCards2-22 | 4 hours ago
2015 Chevy suburban is more than the current model. As soon as hardware exists to easily hack our own car and sadly home goods computers it’s gonna be a free for all. And I think they know tech is close enough to render almost all of their subscription or paid services useless, they’re trying to scrape as much out of our economy before their tech bubble collapses.
Dan_Berg | 7 hours ago
And will drive itself back to the dealer if you fall on hard times.
Such_Radio_9152 | 5 hours ago
Already in the works
https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/federal-car-surveillance-mandate-2027-nhtsa-dadss-privacy-2026/
Majestic_Hare | 7 hours ago
Employers essentially have this mindset as well, and its freaking exhausting. Constant encounters in our day to day lives with the other side trying to extract every last bit from you is infuriating.
123-Moondance | 4 hours ago
Then add the folks getting paid shitty wages with no benefits struggling to make it day to day and their building anger that spills out at every encounter you have. Quiet quitting hits the consumer as well as the employer. (Not saying they don't have a reason, just we all get to feel the pain.)
Momoselfie | 7 hours ago
And everything requires an app. I have so many apps...
Ok-Refrigerator | 7 hours ago
And there are so many features that are free but behind an app. My dishwasher can't do a delay start without an app. Is everyone in my home supposed to have a device so they can fully use the dishwasher? Even the nine year old?
dust4ngel | 4 hours ago
> My dishwasher can't do a delay start without an app
"this dishwasher is in perfect working condition but we're no longer supporting the app that allows you to run it, so please deposit your perfectly good but artificially nonfunctional dishwasher in a local landfill at your convenience."
123-Moondance | 4 hours ago
I am only buying basic appliances going forward...if I can. Pisses me off that it is almost impossible to save my docs on my computer though. Forced to the cloud then they charge me for storing them. F U. Those are mine. Get the fk out of my computer.
Serious-Conversation | 6 hours ago
Basically everything has been enshittified since COVID
FFF_in_WY | 6 hours ago
It will get much, much worse before it gets better.
123-Moondance | 4 hours ago
Nah. The enshitification happened long before Covid. SCOTUS Citizen United is what started the shit ball rolling. Repugs and their drive to eliminate consumer protections and to gear all laws in favor of corporations keeps the shit ball rolling. We are now at the bottom of the hill getting covered in all the shit rolling downhill.
Wingzerofyf | an hour ago
You can go further back - the repeal of Glass-Stegal enabled corpos to gain the power to enact Citizens United.
But if you really want to go back, it was ol' Jack Welch that gave all these milquetoast McKinsey & Co. bitches the gameplan - use all the companies resources to inflate the stock price - Henry Ford be damned - the stock price is all that matters - and tie your value/performance as an executive to the stock price. Also introduced stack ranking, and blaming/laying-off employees for the fuck-ups of executives.
When Welch retired from GE, he received a severance payment of $417 million; at that time this was the largest such payment in business history.
Forbes called Welch the CEO of the century in 2001 - he got wined and dined on GE's dime till he croaked in 2020.
As of late 2021, one year after Jack Welch passed, General Electric planned to break into three public companies and effectively cease to exist - LMAO.
Is this good business? Yes for Jack. Yes for the Executives. Yes for everyone who reads Forbes.
Fuck everyone else.
Fuck America.
Great book that draws the through-line from Welch to Glass-Stegal to Citizens United and links them to other American powerhouses that followed/are following the same shit-plan - The Man Who Broke Capitalism
Frustrable_Zero | 7 hours ago
A world we have to jailbreak our own cars we need to get to work just to use existing built in features that used to be free is incredible and draws to focus how little they’re innovating now. They’ve stopped making new things to pay for. Now it’s pay or we’ll take away old things.
dust4ngel | 4 hours ago
> draws to focus how little they’re innovating now
they certainly are innovating. just because they're innovating doesn't mean they're making something customers want. they're better figuring out how to maximize profit, independently of whether they're delivering value to anyone.
Frustrable_Zero | 4 hours ago
Right, they’re innovating on inventing concepts like ‘packaging’ and ‘premium’, ‘gold, platinum service’ and ‘elite’ models all of which is just the original service before they’d made it worse toward the effort of selling us what we’ve historically had for free and tacking on with a monthly cost. It starts with Netflix, and now it’s in your cars.
It’s innovating but toward your detriment.
ratczar | 7 hours ago
This is why my next car is the Slate truck, which strips out every piece of non-essential electronics. Even the windows are manual.
We didn't need to put so much wiring in everything.
BmacSOS | 6 hours ago
I hate subscription models on products. It’s disgusting and totally accepted now by businesses.
shmerham | 7 hours ago
Subscriptions make sense for options that requires satellite communications or something that continually requires support. I can also kinda understand something like hands free driving IF it was going to get regular improvements (not “improvements”)…but yeah, otherwise for something like a seat heater it truly is criminal.
FFF_in_WY | 6 hours ago
It's all just MBAs and finance bros running everything now. May the gods help us all.
es-ganso | 5 hours ago
Yeah, anything that requires a server behind it (ie remote start from an app) makes sense to have a subscription. I don't really see an issue with that. It's the cost of keeping servers and engineers around and it's totally understandable for a company not to want to eat those costs.
A subscription to use heated seats? Na... that doesn't work
Momik | 7 hours ago
Yeah I don’t have a car but I still find that infuriating. Makes me want a car even less, frankly.
LeftToaster | 7 hours ago
Fortunately BMW walked that back after backlash. But some features like self driving modes and in-car wifi that actually require the car to connect to some service are subscription based.
My pet peeve, which I mostly run into with rental cars, is when they disable Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The screen in most cars is useless. The on board navigation system is our of date and even if it's up to date, can not provide live traffic routing. So either allow me to mirror my phone to your screen, or install a phone holder on the dash.
TransportationTrick9 | 7 hours ago
Got to upsell the hire of a GPS unit
LeftToaster | 7 hours ago
But it goes beyond rental cars. Automakers are trying to walk away from Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as well because they want to control the "in car experience" - part of which is to offer you subscription services, unneeded maintenance items and advertising.
Edit: I predict we will see some third party provide software tools to hack the in-car infotainment system. Most of them are based on Blackberry QNS operating system.
FFF_in_WY | 6 hours ago
GameStop, hear my plea! Revive the mighty RadioShack and set us free once more!
supamario132 | 5 hours ago
I would still be extremely wary. They're definitely leaving the functionality to turn features off in their cars and I wouldn't personally trust myself to catch some sneaky wording in the contract that gives them the ability to introduce pay-to-play later on a car I already bought from them
MrD3a7h | 4 hours ago
> That same attitude of "how much can we soak these rubes for" is pervasive in consumer products and extracting every last penny is a great way to infuriate customers.
We're hitting the limit of the exponential growth capitalism depends on.
All downhill from here.
Fickle_Goose_4451 | an hour ago
Lenin, dick though he was, called it 100 years ago.
Capitalism has mostly finished with undeveloped world. Those resources have or are being exploited, and those regions have their own capitalists sucking them dry.
So now there is naught to do but take all the brutality they learned during imperialism and turn it on their own populace.
ALIMN21 | 5 hours ago
I mean, we paid for the seat and the heater when we bought the car. It absolutely should be criminal to then require additional payments to use the equipment you already bought. Id be game for a class action lawsuit.
dust4ngel | 5 hours ago
> The very idea that you should have to subscribe to a service to activate the seat heaters in a new car is absolutely criminal
from my point of view, those features simply don't exist. if i have to subscribe to seat heaters, the car simply doesn't come with car heaters.
drawkbox | 2 hours ago
Private equity, management consultants and MBA-itis is squeezing all margin and value that you get out of products. So even good things feel like they are robbing you. They don't want even a cent going to customers or employees extra and things seem like they are less of a value because they are.
Employees have every minute tracked at work. Products have all marginal value trimmed. Everything sucks even when it should be good.
HoneyImpossible2371 | 5 hours ago
Same with Sirius Radio put in every car or vehicle assist or other apps in the console. If they could charge for the air in your tires then they would.
United_Bus3467 | an hour ago
I read a post recently by a woman stating that it's crazy she has to use a touchscreen to adjust her AC vents as opposed to a tab you flick with a finger. She said she had to go 2 menus deep from the main screen just to get to it.
Sudden-Grab2800 | 5 hours ago
And literally everything is trying to sell you something. Ads on your fridge, that has a screen on it for some inexplicable reason. It needs wifi and you gotta make an account. In 10 years it’s gonna lock you out if you miss your monthly fridge payment. Your new Maytag washer has a lifetime warranty, but they stopped making the proprietary parts the next year. But here’s a $250 off coupon for your next Maytag.
earmachine | 5 hours ago
Its because we changed from a consumer economy to a shareholder economy… we financialized hard and thats when a country’s values change
123-Moondance | 4 hours ago
This has turned me off of any new car going forward...for a number of reasons. I'll take no frills from now on.
jetpacksforall | 4 hours ago
It isn’t soaking the rubes, it’s systematically turning every single useful item or service into a rental property (aka subscriptions).
In one of Philiip K Dick’s novels a guy lives in a rental apartment where most everthing is coin operated. Bathroom, coffee machine, fresh water, etc. Except that everything’s digital, that is the world we’re living in.
This is what happens when you allow capitalism to turn every single useful thing into a capital asset with no regard for the impact on people.
steve626 | 4 hours ago
There used to be an adage in sales: you can sheer a sheep over and over, but you can only skin them once. That's gone the way of maximum wealth extraction right now
che-che-chester | 4 hours ago
It's enshitification in general. Every company wants to find that line of how far can they push customers before they stop paying. And as customers, we always let them off the hook. They make their service worse (usually changing the rules after we entered an agreement), we cancel, they back off slightly and we come running back to give them our money again.
softwarebuyer2015 | 4 hours ago
Capitalism by definition must eat itself
A mature firm runs out of productive ways to grow and begins extracting value from the system that made it successful, its customers, workers, product quality, or reputation.
strolls | 24 minutes ago
They do it because it's cheaper to install the heating element in every seat (and then enable it only if the customer buys the upgrade) than to manage the logistics of having more different models of each car.
If a buyer wants a blue car with the heated seats but not the go-faster stripes and the only example of that model which has this exact configuration is on the other side of the state then the manufacturer could lose the sale.
Car manufacturing has high costs of capital - they need a billion dollar factory and production line and they have to borrow to pay for that, so they have to pay the interest before they make or sell a single vehicle. The automative industry is surprisingly low margin.
The reason cars are affordable is because of economies of scale - they're selling 150,000 - 250,000 of them across Europe each year for a decade. It's not realistic to expect manufacturers to make every car bespoke.
I won't pay a subscription to enable electric heating either, because it rubs me up the wrong way as much as it rubs everyone else, but the manufacturers are doing this because they'd make a loss if they didn't sell silly things like heated seats and fancy rims for a huge markup.
Everyone's cars would cost a bit more if the EU were to ban the practice of selling cars with heated seats that the manufacturer can enable electronically when the buyer chooses them.
Probably this is just staving off the inevitable anyway - heated seats will be a standard item in future, or you'll hire a local guy with an electronic box to hack them for you, the majority of cars will come from China, and the only remaining models made in Europe or North America will be high end ones that hardly any of us can afford.
Like I say, I don't particularly like it either, but it's amazing how anti-economics Reddit is, especially considering what subreddit we're in.
Alphadestrious | 5 hours ago
Just don't buy that fucking car man . Plenty of used cars. Tired of the dick swinging . I still drive my 2013 Honda Civic even though I may well over six figures . Fuck all this shit .
discosoc | 6 hours ago
The “correct” way would be for manufacturers to just increase prices all around, but consumers hate that as well.
FreeEnergy001 | 5 hours ago
BMW did have the option for you to pay for it up front. The logic was that the subscription could be cheaper if you just have it for the winter months. I think they were hoping this would ease people into the idea of subscriptions but the blow-back was heavy.
discosoc | 2 hours ago
Subscriptions actually start to make more sense in that market (BMW and Mercedes Benz, but the luxury market overall) where lease rates are higher and the two can be merged into the same terms. Of course it's not difficult to see leasing cars in the first place as just being a type of subscription, but leasing was never really meant for a lot of people complaining about this anyway.
Telstar_7 | an hour ago
That's because it doesn't exist. Just making up bullshit and getting mad at nothing.
TheRealCabbageJack | an hour ago
Hi! meet my friend Mr. Google! https://www.thedrive.com/news/bmw-commits-to-subscriptions-even-after-heated-seat-debacle
OnionQuest | 7 hours ago
The alternative is they increase the upfront price of the car $X of dollars for everyone. Subscriptions allow car companies more ways to tailor "trim" than the tradition standard, premium and sport.
American_PissAnt | 7 hours ago
But every car made comes with heated seats already installed because it makes the assembly line faster. Yet they want customers to pay a subscription to use a feature that is already installed
holymacaronibatman | 7 hours ago
They just do that too though, the MSRP for new cars has skyrocketed and they added subscriptions, or at least are trying too
TheRealCabbageJack | 7 hours ago
Then you increase the price. I don’t care how you try to spin this, this paying a subscription to press the “warm my posterior” button in a car, a feature that has always existed without a subscription and is a literal button that requires no ongoing maintenance, storage, or support is absolutely insane.
fenderputty | 7 hours ago
That’s what we used to call an “option”
But an option wasn’t something that was already installed needing payment to unlock. Thats BS
AmputeeHandModel | 7 hours ago
You're already paying for the equipment. You think that's not included in the cost of the car?
Alche1428 | 7 hours ago
The alternatve to that is that they allow real capitalism with real competition.
FFF_in_WY | 6 hours ago
Let's get some trust busting and regulatory reform going.
EasyE1979 | 7 hours ago
That doesn't make any sense.
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
Guarantee you this commenter works for a car dealership.
EasyE1979 | 7 hours ago
That or he has no understanding of how hardware unlocks via paying subs work.
Hurricaneshand | 7 hours ago
I mean I'm paying for the hardware no matter what because obviously it's there so my price is increased already. The issue is I've already paid for that hardware and now I've gotta pay to use it
Malvania | 7 hours ago
Nobody likes to feel nickel and dimed, but especially the people who are dropping $100k on a car. They want to hand over money and get what they want. It's not rational, but they're exactly the people who will walk away from the deal because they're frustrated with the customer service experience - including repeating upsells and monthly subscriptions.
willstr1 | 7 hours ago
I wouldn't be as pissed off about it if it was a one time payment to enable, which would fit your custom trim theory. The real problem is why should we pay for it every month, it's not like my heated seats get frequent updates or depend on server support
Hot-Audience-8528 | 7 hours ago
It's honestly gotten to the point of cruelty and humiliation rituals. I have purchased 2000 dollar plus products that arrive broken. Getting replacement parts requires waiting on hold where the disembodied voice reiterates "your call is important to us."
Obviously it isnt or i wouldn't be on hold for hours. Just saying that seems like a fuck you to me when the evidence shows the opposite
FlowInternational996 | 7 hours ago
The automated customer service systems clearly designed/intended to keep you from speaking to a human as long as possible in the effort you get frustrated and hang up. And oftentimes said human is someone in India deathly afraid of getting their manager on the phone.
Hot-Audience-8528 | 7 hours ago
Yup. And they include the additional humiliation ritual of asking you for information like name and address. And yet when you get a human you have to provide the same data. What is the point besides angering customers? Like I honestly dont get what goes in in the heads of people who design these systems.
fumbledthebaguette | 6 hours ago
My favorite part is when companies have fake computer typing sounds when their automated system is taking your information over the phone.
Hot-Audience-8528 | 6 hours ago
Oh man. I know. They think we are stupid
meatspace | 6 hours ago
The design is often handed down by executives.
Executives who were taught in college that the most effective way to get money is to charge for bullets mid video game, or that you need to leave someone behind if it means not summiting Everest, or just fire the lowest 10% of statistical performers, regardless of what they do.
We teach this foolishness as "good business sense."
We do this. It's just us doing this to ourselves.
Hot-Audience-8528 | 6 hours ago
I mean, the we is a pretty narrow swathe of people
meatspace | 6 hours ago
That slice includes academics, economists, business leaders, etc.
Hot-Audience-8528 | 6 hours ago
Only academics on the business and economics side. You think anyone in the humanities is anything but a vociferous critic?
meatspace | 5 hours ago
If we were teaching the social contract, people would be honoring the social contract.
If ideas like the Dark Enlightenment are becoming popular, part of that is because they are entering the classrooms.
Hot-Audience-8528 | 5 hours ago
I dunno, I did a PhD in american history and the dark enlightenment was pretty much the opposite of that
meatspace | 4 hours ago
There's a lot of people with very expensive university educations from elite universities working for the Trump Administration, Heritage Foundation, etc.
The aristocrats of the West all studied much of the same history you did, and yet here we are. I just find it interesting that so many people arrived at the opposite conclusion of you. (I share your view as posted above).
Sptsjunkie | 6 hours ago
And you can only speak to a human after downloading the app and first talking to an AI chatbot.
purz | 3 hours ago
Yeah it’s why I just constantly chargeback now if I have any issues and it’s difficult to get actual support. Usually they’re also negligent at handling chargebacks and I get my money back 90% of the time. It is humorous though when a company won’t support you but responds back quickly to the CC company for chargebacks.
Best way at this point though for me not to get screwed and for any changes to be made. No one cares about customers being mad but if CC companies start getting annoyed dealing with so many CBs and companies not responding we might actually get changes.
Original-Rush139 | an hour ago
Seems like a good use for ai. Wait on hold with their ai.
Throwawayyoursynths | 5 hours ago
The blatant disrespect and feeling of powerlessness. They’re saying we know you have no choice so you will pay more and we will give you less.
We are getting fucking squeezed.
Hot-Audience-8528 | 5 hours ago
This has to end at some point. They are running out of juice to squeeze
skaestantereggae | 3 hours ago
I can turn my brain off during a hold. The worst is when the music stops and then pauses for the voice to tell me how important I am and it kills me. You wanna say that over the music or play little sales pitches while the music plays? Don’t care I’ll live. But stopping makes me think it’s finally my turn
Busterlimes | 3 hours ago
Capitalists hard at work in the capitalist economy. Its almost like Reagans trickle down theory was designed to put us in the same situation FDR fixed 100 years ago.
Tiny-Pomegranate7662 | 8 hours ago
The bottom line really is the perception of what is improving and what is degrading. Personal / customer interactions are a huge component of perception and can overshadow material gains.
Vulnox | 7 hours ago
Absolutely this. I have long lived the mindset of being willing to pay a bit more when it’s worth it. When I signed up with Verizon about 15 years ago they were the undisputed king of coverage, even if their support even then wasn’t always amazing, I never had to deal with it because stuff just worked. They were the more expensive provider, but everywhere I traveled the service worked.
Every year since they have made things more expensive, the plans more complicated, often with stuff I didn’t want, and the service has only gotten worse. Not to mention support is largely farmed out and poor or an AI chat bot.
I want to jump to another provider, but it seems they are all in a race to the bottom.
There are so many other examples too, brands known for being expensive but the best at what they do that stopped making their own stuff in house and farm it out to China, or they killed their US support teams, and all the while prices climb.
Yellowdog727 | 7 hours ago
The market share of almost every industry these days is mostly controlled by like 2-4 conglomerates. Even in the past decade it feels like the mergers and acquisitions have gotten insane.
Almost everything is either a publicly traded corporation or partially owned by private equity looking for permanent quarterly growth.
Technology has advanced to the point where everyone's data can be tracked and analyzed, prices can be micromanaged, and advanced algorithms are being used to optimize profit from absolutely everything.
Regulatory bodies and consumer protections have been completely gutted and nobody is really stopping any of this. The current administration is even more extreme in that it is actively looking to cut anything stopping these companies and the corruption isn't even being hidden anymore.
It's not even just that everything is expensive; everything feels like a scam meant to extract money from consumers and there aren't enough alternatives that aren't also involved in the same thing.
aNoob7000 | 7 hours ago
This is really the issue. There is no competition at certain levels. You can see it in cellular service, smartphones, computers, etc.
People are frustrated because there are no alternatives.
deerfawns | 6 hours ago
We neeeeeddd another Sherman anti-trust act but for monopolies like right now. And we're getting the opposite, which is the government actively encouraging conglomerates to screw us over
sweetjenso | an hour ago
The Sherman Act is still law! We just need politicians willing to enforce it
deerfawns | 58 minutes ago
I've been reading The Good Years by Walter Lord, which goes over some of the things going on from 1900 to WWI. It's very interesting seeing a lot of parallels
Mercury_Jackal | 2 hours ago
Agree with one caveat: there is competition in the smartphone space - Xiaomi/Vivo/Oppo/Honor/Poco and others. The issue is that Apple/Google/Samsung and the telecoms have done their best to keep those brands out of North America. I am in Canada, and our telecoms offer those three, plus a handful of budget options from Motorola or TCL. That's it. In conversations with friends and family, they're not even aware of these other brands (with bleeding edge camera hardware), and are complacent with their three options (and in the case of the Galaxy S22-S26 flagships, identical camera hardware year after year).
thicket | 7 hours ago
You weren't asking for recommendations, but I've been super happy with Google Fi for exactly this reason-- they're just there to provide a service for a price, and don't play games. The prices are great ($30-$60/month for me), but even if they weren't, I'd want to do business with them because they don't mess around. I feel like it's a fair deal, when a lot of other companies seem OK with everybody feeling like they're getting ripped off.
Vulnox | 7 hours ago
Thank you! I certainly don’t mind recommendations. I’ve been stuck since every time I look at one of the major carriers people say they are also as bad. I’ll look into GFi more.
thicket | 6 hours ago
I'm pretty sure GFi just resells TMobile spectrum, so whatever issues TMo reception has, GFi also has. But I've never had a connectivity problem anyplace besides deep remote desert, and I've been paying the same super modest bill for years now. I don't really love doing business with Google, but GFi and Google Fiber both seem like legit public services
Vulnox | 6 hours ago
What’s funny is at my home and around the city Verizon is awful, like 1 bar barely, but T-Mobile at my home I get rock solid connection and the data speed is over 300mbps.
I do well with Verizon outside my city. But at home it’s ridiculous.
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
It’s stunning how much worse Verizon’s coverage has gotten.
I think we also have had this expectations that things will always improve - technology will get better and cooler, new products with improvements will come out, etc. It’s the promise of the free market, right? But the opposite is happening and that’s bound to affect our mood, individually and collectively.
Vulnox | 7 hours ago
Great point about technology. I know it was a joke for a long time about people lining up for the new iPhone or whatever, but there was at least something fun about that even if you didn’t participate.
Yeah it’s still gross consumerism, but at least there was some community for those that did get that excited for something new.
Now you wait for a preorder date and it’s shipped to you, and a couple hours after setting it up you realize it’s maybe only marginally better than the perfectly fine three years older iPhone you are replacing.
Economy_Zombie_3026 | 5 hours ago
As a millennial who was a teen through the early aughts it's impossible to explain to younger people the "visions of the future" that were happening from 2000-2010s. Before the iPhone there was no set design for a cell phone. Every manufacturer was designing to their own whims and ideas. Really cool things came out. Really stupid things came out. Every facet of tech wasn't integrated into a singular device (iPhone). So it really felt like every 3 months some piece of tech was coming out that was revolutionizing how we related to and used technology.
Everything is obviously more efficient now but there's something culturally that has died and the spark has gone.
1_________________11 | 7 hours ago
If the providers all are in the toilet go for the bottom providers ive been happy with mint. But id gladly do any of the pay as you go small providers.
Nephroidofdoom | 7 hours ago
Most of those small providers are just leasing time on the big providers networks so you’re basically getting the same coverage anyways.
Maleficent_West_991 | 6 hours ago
Would recommend Spectrum if they’re in your area, they use Verizon towers for service so should be mostly the same in terms of coverage but there’s no contracts and they employ actual Americans for their customer service
paxinfernum | 5 hours ago
Some companies, I'd kill to even have an AI chatbot. A lot of the new crop of tech companies aren't even leaving that on their pages. I was trying to get in contact with one company a few months back to ask about a promotion, and I couldn't even find an email address. No phone number, no email, no chatbot, nothing. This wasn't a scam business either. It was a fairly large company. It's like tech has decided customer support isn't worth even bothering with. Just put a random discord server invite on there, and send them there to beg someone to notice their complaint.
Confident_Bee_6242 | 7 hours ago
Red pocket mobile. Cheap, easy, and uses the Verizon network
Vulnox | 7 hours ago
Thank you! I’ll check them out.
OkProcess5800 | 8 hours ago
are the material gains in the room with the 99% right now?
Tiny-Pomegranate7662 | 7 hours ago
They are, when you think of things like hardwood flooring finish options and ebike batteries.
Various-Dust285 | 5 hours ago
> what is improving
Error: empty set
Original-Rush139 | an hour ago
Yup. I just went to the dog park that has a little cafe where you used to be able to order coffee from the window. They just installed kiosks and don’t interact with you anymore. It really aggravated me to receive a plastic cup of coffee with all the extra garbage in it when I had my own travel mug.
Apprehensive-Ad9523 | 5 hours ago
Who did you vote for or didn't vote at all? Yea dems are not much better in many ways..But you can put pressure on them..Been saying this for decades...LOL all. good luck with see a dentist....Is granny hungry yet? Is she in a privately controlled home where she is abused when you are not there? This is not where we are headed..No this is where we are..Time to grow up...
Murder_Bird_ | 8 hours ago
EVERYTHING is a scam. Or it’s set up to feel like a scam. Even perfectly legal things are now structured in ways that they feel like you’re getting ripped off, mostly because you’re probably getting ripped off.
potentialPast | 8 hours ago
Yes, the country is based around taking advantage of others. It's not as big of a deal when you have a little cushion, you get annoyed and shake your fist that life isn't fair. When your cushion and safety net erodes and disappears, annoyance turns to anger as one is confronted with some of the harsher realities of how we've setup life.
WinterDice | 8 hours ago
By “erodes and disappears” you mean “removed, stolen, and made inaccessible.”
OriginalChri | 7 hours ago
Hey hey Donald J, how much money have you stolen from Americans today!?
Stable-Jackfruit | 6 hours ago
His followers will be quick remind you that he is not taking his presidential salary
WinterDice | 5 hours ago
Right. Because it’s pocket change compared his colossal grifting and it gives him a talking point for MAGA.
214ObstructedReverie | 5 hours ago
Also, there's no actual evidence that he's not taking it. So he's probably taking it. This is a guy who once cashed a $0.13 check from Spy Magazine. His signature was on the back of it.
WinterDice | 5 hours ago
Very good point.
CantRememberMyUserID | 4 hours ago
In the news yesterday: Order shielding Trump family from IRS audits will Remain so no one will ever be able to prove it.
That's a NYT article, but many other sites have the same-ish story.
BarkerBarkhan | 6 hours ago
Throwback.
I'm thinking, for rhythmic reasons: "Hey hey Donald J, how much did you steal today?"
Ridara | 7 hours ago
While this too is accurate, we can't ignore the fact that we're frogs in boiling water. They started feeding us a little bullshit. Then a little more. Then a little more.
If we ever break out of this, we'll need to be more vigilant
Chicken-Chaser6969 | 7 hours ago
I dont think the royal we applies. I didnt setup life this way. Most of us didnt. They did. Be mad at the correct, responsible people, or perpetuate thr in-fighting they want for us
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
77 million Americans actively voted for this though.
DisneyPandora | 5 hours ago
This happened before the election. This terrible economy and inflation was high under Joe Biden which is why he got kicked out as President.
In fact, Joe Biden is the one that started inflation with his sky high 2 trillion dollar stimulus which economists warned against and Joe Biden also kept tariffs.
Joe Biden is one of the stupidest presidents in American history and actively destroyed the economy way before the election
Economy_Zombie_3026 | 5 hours ago
"Don't be the last sucker." - American Ethos
dathrowaway1239 | 7 hours ago
Smells like baguettes in here
Fe_Mike | 7 hours ago
Do you hear the people sing…
font9a | 3 hours ago
dark patterns everywhere. When "convenience" (at premium prices) is manufactured by making the base experience bad on purpose.
ltbr55 | 7 hours ago
Building off of this. Everything is turning into a subscription. It feels like we dont really "own" anything anymore.
Edit: And even on products we do own, they pay wall useful features with subscriptions or microtransactions.
Momik | 7 hours ago
And as a result, it’s harder to afford things like movie tickets or eating out. If everything’s a subscription, nothing’s special.
(I know these are all choices, but the choices used to be structured in a way that felt a lot more like being a person)
ltbr55 | 7 hours ago
I joked a couple years ago that restaurants are going to start having a membership subscription to access cheaper prices and deals. What's scary is that there's talks about it becoming a reality.
justherefor23andme | 7 hours ago
The do via apps already. A lot of places have better prices if you order through the app.
ltbr55 | 7 hours ago
Yes, but those apps don't charge you to use them.
slinger301 | 5 hours ago
Shhh... Don't give them ideas.
tbreeves13 | 5 hours ago
You pay them with your personal information
ltbr55 | 5 hours ago
So what? Anytime I buy ANYTHING online, I give them my personal information. What's the difference?
Stepfordhusband69 | 7 hours ago
AMC subscription saves me a lot of money
Sptsjunkie | 6 hours ago
I mean subscriptions themself are not inherently bad. If you watch a lot of movies, a movie pass type subscription can be a great deal and guarantees say AMC you go there versus another theater.
The problem is all the products that basically only offer a subscription or put basic features behind a pay wall.
Like at some point movie theaters will get the idea they need to push more subscribers so instead of just paying $20 a month and getting X movie tickets a month, they will start making it so you can’t sit in a middle or aisle seat unless you are a subscriber. You can’t recline your seat unless you scan the app to prove you’re a premium subscriber. And it slowly degrades the entire experience.
Swoly_Deadlift | 2 hours ago
I recently bought a bed cooler. One of the biggest names in the industry is a company called Eight Sleep which sells $3000 mattress coolers. With that $3000 price you also get the privilege of spending $200/year on their base subscription just to use it. I ended up going with a company called Bedjet which was $700 and doesn’t have a subscription, but is unfortunately controlled through an app so I’m sure at some point it will be a brick.
My friggin alarm clock has an optional subscription service with it as well, and of course a required app.
I don’t really care if you add a subscription service to something as an option for people who want more. But it just infuriates me so much how wasteful we are in making things require apps and subscriptions just to function. If something can in theory be operated using nothing but buttons on the item itself, it should be required to include that functionality. Otherwise we are just creating piles of e-waste all in the name of increasing shareholder value.
ygg_studios | 6 hours ago
even job listings are scams.
Yellowdog727 | 7 hours ago
Yeah we have stripped away far too many consumer protections
discgman | 6 hours ago
"business friendly policies"
CharmingMechanic2473 | 4 hours ago
And predatory marketing. So many times a product is not as pictured, or has fake promises. In other countries that is not legal.
SofaKingStonedSlut | 8 hours ago
Been saying it for years, we live in continent wide flea market.
HumptyDumptruckFire | 7 hours ago
A transcontinental strip mall, it’s embarrassing.
SpicyPandaMeat | 7 hours ago
I don't think the average person has been aware of the fact that they are no longer the "customer."
sighclone | 5 hours ago
Not only is everything a scam, but scamming pays.
The president of the United States' path to the presidency is paved with scams - whether it be as a spokesperson for MLMs, refusing to pay workers, or adjudicated scams like Trump University. He's still scamming in office.
Crypto and NFT pyramid schemes, "prediction markets" that totally aren't gambling, billionaires running roughshod over municipalities to install diesel-fueled AI nightmares sold to us as the end of our economic lives, rolling back of the most milquetoast of consumer protections, etc.
No wonder we're upset! We live in a fucking garbage society and are also seemingly surrounded by millions of people that scream, "PLEASE, ADD MORE TRASH BAGS ON TOP DADDY!"
ConfidentPilot1729 | 7 hours ago
It is the engineered to break products or subscription economies.
wavewalkerc | 6 hours ago
Yea if its not a subscription then it has a ton of fees. Nothing is transparent in terms of pricing. You never get what you think you pay for. Everything is optimized to piss you off but squeeze you out of a few dollars more per interaction.
PabloBablo | 5 hours ago
What do you mean. No one is acting exactly like the drug dealers they warned us about in the 90s.
drawkbox | 2 hours ago
All value margin has been trimmed. Pricing right up to the edge of unaffordable then one half step back. No one gains on anything anymore.
Financial-Sweet-4648 | 7 hours ago
Wealth inequality has reached Gilded Age levels. The top 10% own 93% of stocks and account for 50% of all consumer spending in the real economy. This makes everything more expensive as businesses shift to cater to the top 10%, because only they have disposable income left to spend. Everyone else struggles to cover essentials and slowly drowns. Hmmm. Wonder why people are so angry.
brijito | 5 hours ago
The US surpassed the level of wealth inequality that was seen during the French revloution in like 2011. We've been past the level of the gilded age for probably 30 years now.
Financial-Sweet-4648 | 5 hours ago
That’s… great. Absolutely fantastic. We should probably scream at each other about unisex bathrooms some more. That’ll fix it.
drawkbox | 2 hours ago
> scream at each other about unisex bathrooms some more. That’ll fix it.
Which they never think about the family bathrooms and ADA people that need those. More places are not putting these in now and families and the disabled are suffering while people worry about some fear mongering fantasy that isn't happening.
Financial-Sweet-4648 | 2 hours ago
Yep. Also, Madison is my favorite. Good work on that profile image.
DeusExMcKenna | an hour ago
We could try the other thing.
Carbon-Base | 5 hours ago
Worth mentioning that the same top 10% buy out politicians to retain and enforce their dominance at the top. Laws and regulations can't touch their wealth so the inequality keeps growing. They've somehow influenced many in the working class to defend their wealth too. Folks have the right to be angry, but they should know where and who to direct their anger towards.
Financial-Sweet-4648 | 5 hours ago
Also worth mentioning that in 1929, Congress placed a cap on itself so the House would stop scaling in size with the population. We’ve been stuck at 435 House Reps ever since, while the nation has subsequently tripled in size. This created a fully insulated, small, elite class of federal politicians that the wealthy can network with and buy out. Ordinary Americans don’t actually have representation at all. Ironic, for a nation founded on the principle of real representation.
MidSpeedHighDrag | 5 hours ago
Exactly. Our shares of democracy have been diluted in favor of those with preferred stock.
Bay1Bri | 5 hours ago
> Our shares of democracy have been diluted
Yes, but not equally everywhere...
Iwantedthatname | an hour ago
The states with lower population, income, and education are cheaper and easier to subvert.
Financial-Sweet-4648 | 5 hours ago
Yep. A people can only take so much. The system will self-correct with time. But it will likely be rough, when the breaking point arrives. If you look at the economic numbers for the masses, I can’t imagine we’re far out from it. People are throwing Molotov cocktails at Sam Altman’s house. Amazed how this stuff starts rumbling, and the response of the wealthy is to double down and grip the reins harder. Human nature, I suppose.
AK_Panda | an hour ago
I don't think it's a safe bet that the system will self-correct. Unless by self-correct you mean violently explode.
There is also the very real possibility that any attempt at correction will be violently suppressed.
Financial-Sweet-4648 | an hour ago
That’s what I mean. But yes, you’re right. Whatever happens, I think everything will go from maximum strain/tension to a sudden snap.
h4ms4ndwich11 | 5 hours ago
Yep. Corporate profit margins are also at record highs. These are consequences of the US and other countries putting the people with the most money in charge of everything. Their greed and corruption seem boundless. But they also own all, or the majority of the media and refuse to hold themselves accountable, so things only get worse.
IM_A_MUFFIN | 38 minutes ago
So when do we start rioting? When is it enough?
Financial-Sweet-4648 | 21 minutes ago
When enough people can’t feed themselves or their kids, or lose their homes, or something. Hard to tell. It’ll be a thing that isn’t there, and then suddenly is. But almost everybody around me is struggling and upset right now. It’s no scientific gauge, but people seem to have had about all they can take. Running on fumes.
Rurumo666 | 8 hours ago
Private Equity has monetized nearly all formerly local services and industries to the point they are no longer affordable-Veterinary care, Dental care, even Garbage services-everything that used to be locally owned and operated is now owned by some mega corporation that raised prices and reduced services right to the point where people are about to go berserk.
rawkguitar | 7 hours ago
This☝️
I’m a firefighter. There was some big stirring in the news and within Congress recently because people found out how Venture Capitalists have taken over the fire truck industry and driven up prices while reducing build time and increasing parts replacement costs.
I was trying to explain to some coworkers the other day that this isn’t just a fire truck thing, the same people have done this to almost every industry.
Even the funeral industry.
It’s insane and unsustainable long term.
Swoly_Deadlift | 2 hours ago
Private equity behaves like an electrician who realized you can make quicker cash stripping all the copper from buildings rather than installing new wires. Eventually we are going to be left with no more buildings to strip and realize we could have put that same effort into building new things and improving society.
Congenital0ptimist | an hour ago
And whatever Private Equity isn't sucking dry, the same people are still sucking it dry, they just wear Fund Manager hats instead, while they vote trillions in proxy shareholder power everywhere.
ContestAntique7179 | 7 hours ago
Scumbags are squeezing every last dollar and piece of culture out of America, and for what? More yachts? More prostitutes? More drugs?
I don't know how people aren't beyond angry.
Kooky_Membership9497 | 7 hours ago
I think the goal is to keep people so desperate to survive that they don’t see how they’re being ripped off.
rawkguitar | 7 hours ago
And keep them angry at the wrong people-it’s the immigrants, it’s the Democrats, it’s poor people abusing the system. Anything but the actual problem.
MontrealChickenSpice | 5 hours ago
Look over there, a trans kid is playing a sport!
Economy_Zombie_3026 | 5 hours ago
I would argue this for investors and restaurants and rising restaurant food costs.
I managed at an upscale restaurant for 10 years where the owners had made their money in the 70s-90s. They were both teachers who opened a french restaurant and ran it at night. They did double work for a decade. They built their clientele through good food and reasonable prices and have ROI from that currently (still a million annual revenue with a 50 seat restaurant). They are older and take very little for their profit (around $75k on a million revenue). Everything else went to paying off the building or keeping an account for slow times.
Now I'm looking at current new restaurants who have all these investor groups who want to produce livable income instantly on a totally renovated dive bar with 20 seats. So they want to claim the "industry is dead" which means they've extracted all the easy profit they can and what's left is having to create organic growth and interest. But that takes too long and creates effort.
To me, it feels like this is every single industry now.
JoeTiccalo | 7 hours ago
You’re spot on with this. I’ve noticed that dental work has skyrocketed over just the last few years, I hope we have some kind of revolt soon as this type of situation is not sustainable. I met a woman recently who spent 9 grand getting one tooth fixed!
PinkyLeopard2922 | 6 hours ago
I had to pay out of pocket for root canal and crown because I did not have dental insurance. It was almost $4500.
AdLatter3755 | 2 hours ago
I for the life of me can’t understand why private equity is allowed to operate like this without any oversight. They buy hospitals and no government entity looks into how they operate them.
Private equity is even buying youtube channels.
Also I don’t understand why leveraged buyouts are a thing. They buy companies using the aquired company to payback debt while they take everything. Private equity killed toys r us and I will forever hate them for it
billbo24 | 7 hours ago
Obviously we’ve always been this way, but rent seeking behavior is now king in this country. Businesses are realizing it’s much easier to squeeze every last penny out of a consumer than innovate and offer something better
Dry-Environment5122 | 7 hours ago
Part of what changed is data driven pricing made price discrimination way easier for companies. Back in the day there used to be hacks and ways you could feel like you were getting a leg up on companies. (Regardless of if you were). Now with so much data everything is price discriminated and everything is an extra nickel and dime
Hot-Audience-8528 | 7 hours ago
It also doesn't help that you often have to hope what you are buying is decent. Ever use Amazon? How can I tell the seemingly random phoneme generated products apart.
Google shopping won't sort for price much of the time because that hurts ad revenue. They really think we are such cows that we dont notice the way things have changed
bladel | 7 hours ago
Yes. Every transaction is an experiment. Businesses are continuously testing us to determine our breaking point (what they call “willingness to pay”). The actual price will vary for different people, or for the same person on different days.
Sptsjunkie | 6 hours ago
I rented a car recently and when I went to a site that used to sort by “price (low to high),” it was now sorted by “recommended” and was putting a bunch of expensive cars up top and hiding the cheaper ones.
I was able to find a way to change it back. But I am tired of every transaction and interaction being a 10 step process where you have to actively try to not be ripped off.
Not to mention 10 screens of extra add ons at the end. No, I don’t want to buy 10 extra things. I want to rent this car in as few clicks as possible.
Digitalispurpurea2 | 6 hours ago
Just wait until the digital price tags hit more stores. Dynamic pricing for milk and eggs.
bladel | 6 hours ago
Yes. Everything becomes a subscription or a real-time auction.
watusiwatusi | 7 hours ago
Yes and at every level of the supply chain/value stack. Unchecked, optimized greed is the system
avocadosconstant | 5 hours ago
In the old days companies had to rely on economic signals in order to price discriminate. Sometimes those signals were reliable, sometimes they were not. So they’d regress to the mean and call it a day.
Now, they already have all the information they need.
Dry-Environment5122 | 5 hours ago
Yeah now everything you want is exactly at the breaking point, these no “oh shit I found a sweet deal on this thing I needed”
OnionQuest | 7 hours ago
This cuts both ways, though. As consumers we've never had more access to pricing data.
Dry-Environment5122 | 6 hours ago
Right but that takes serious energy and time. The two resources most people already spend to make money. It’s also gone from “a cool hack to get extra” to “how to get eggs”
Hot-Audience-8528 | 6 hours ago
Bullshit
Mathias2392 | 8 hours ago
Comments so far have been spot on. I’ll also add shrinkflation and planned obsolescence. The entire premise of the US economy is to extract as much money from consumers as possible, even if it’s detrimental to the long-term health of the economy.
Momoselfie | 7 hours ago
Planned obsolescence drives me nuts. Even if I buy something seemingly nice (made of metal), there will be some tiny joint made of plastic that snaps and ruins the whole thing.
NoCoolNameMatt | 7 hours ago
This has been undeniable since Juicero, but it's good to see the mainstream public catching on.
Digitalispurpurea2 | 6 hours ago
This is what happens when shareholder primacy is king. No other stakeholder matters. It might be great for my 401k but it hurts everyone’s wallets and has degraded society.
BothCan8373 | 14 minutes ago
At my work we have these propane heaters. You've seen them. Anyways the bolts in them use 3 different types of measurements. No reason. Also the nuts where the flame hits are not treated so they corrode. Again, no reason. The only possible reason is to make it break quicker and hard to find replacement parts so you buy another heater.
Danktizzle | 7 hours ago
I cancelled paramount plus recently. I’m a soccer junkie and there is a competition that paramount picked up the rights for called the champions league. It’s my favorite event hands down.
But after Ralph Ellison did what he did with bari Weiss, it is now clear that my subscription (used to be $100/ for prem, fa cup, champs league, and Bundesliga when I first got into the sport. Now that the Judas goats that we are have led the corporate giants to our spring, they have partitioned it all out. ESPN, nbc sports, a cable subscription (just for USA network), and paramount + are what I would need for the same access. But that’s a different story) will potentially be used to take away my rights. At the minimum it is being used to enforce fascism at cbs.
For this reason alone I don’t like to buy stuff from American companies. The Koch brothers and the paper aisle were my first glaring sign that my spending is directly hurting my freedom.
Subject-Librarian117 | 6 hours ago
This is what I don't understand about people continuing to buy from Amazon. They're paying for the privilege of seeing their country be destroyed. Is another pair of sneakers really worth that?
Graveyard_Runner | 3 hours ago
As soon as Amazon transitioned from just books, I could see this coming from a mile away. I'm the only person I know who's never had a Prime membership or bought more than a few books and a random item here or there from Amazon. Don't feed The Machine.
AdLatter3755 | an hour ago
I hate Amazon but unfortunately Amazon can provide value. I stopped buying from them as much as I could be still. Random little odds and ends is what I purchase. The biggest thing is convenience especially when ordering diapers and wipes. As a parent Amazon sometimes saves my ass. They sell things I can’t find locally.
I wish Costco had the capabilities the Amazon has but they don’t. But when I need diapers or formula asap Amazon was the winner by default.
brewbake | 5 hours ago
FYI, I have been doing that for a couple of years now. Cancel after the CL final. So far at the beginning of the new season they always had an offer to return for just a few bucks per month (it's a "with ads" subscription but that's fine for soccer, they just have ads at halftime). I feel doing this gives me a little leverage over them.
exitosa | 4 hours ago
I once read a comment here on Reddit that said “companies have started to act annoyed they have to go through us to get to our money,” and I’ve never forgotten it
Some_Refrigerator147 | 4 hours ago
Love it
AdLatter3755 | an hour ago
That’s the best way of putting it I seen.
yourlittlebirdie | 7 hours ago
Another thing I don’t see talked about much is that a lot of companies have completely disempowered their frontline customer service staff. It used to be that they could offer you a refund or discount or some sort of incentive to keep you as a customer, but many companies have taken this away and they cannot do anything now.
One example is Ulta, the beauty store. If you go on that sub you’ll see a lot of people who have ordered expensive perfume or makeup items and then not gotten their packages or had the wrong items delivered. In the past, customer service agents could immediately refund the customer or reship the missing package and offer a $10 gift card as an apology. But corporate has changed this and now everything has to be “escalated to an internal team”. This means if you have a problem, customer service is only your first stop and then you have to wait a week or two for someone else (that you cannot contact or speak to directly) to decide whether you get your refund or reshipment. Gone are the days of being able to resolve a problem on the same day you contact the company.
It seems like companies have decided that frontline service agents are now just there to absorb your anger without being able to actually do anything. Maybe it’s because companies have gotten so large that they’re not worried about losing customers anymore, I don’t know. But it sure seems like they don’t care about customers at all anymore.
PinkyLeopard2922 | 6 hours ago
About 12 years ago I ordered an eye shadow palette from Sephora and accidentally had it shipped to my old address in another state. I called to see if it had been returned to them and if so, if it could be re-shipped to my current address. They just sent me another one with absolutely no hassle at all. The post office eventually had the original returned to them and contacted me. I had them just return it to sephora as I had the replacement. I really doubt things would go that way at this point in time.
Carbon-Base | 5 hours ago
Amazon used to do the same. You could get a refund or replacement without any hassle through their self-service customer service. Now, it's like they demand proof for damaged items even though their workers take pictures of the same damaged box at delivery.
Penny pinching customers and their workers, but record payouts and packages for anyone in the C-Suite.
Throwawayyoursynths | 2 hours ago
The job of the frontline staff has changed from a service position to a defensive position. They are there to get you off the phone and prevent you from talking to that next level. Some companies are insanely aggressive because they’re essentially monopolies. They know how powerless we are.
Had to deal with Ticketmaster (no surprise). It was obviously their error and they kept refusing to help or escalate because they said it was the venue’s responsibility. Had to say “I’m not ending this call until this is resolved” in response to everything they said and they finally gave in and connected the call to someone who could help.
Same thing with mobile service. Ended up cancelling my service with at&t who’d id been with for literal decades and they didn’t even try to retain me lol.
TGAILA | 7 hours ago
This is why you don't get an actual person (customer service) on the other side of line to answer your call. Companies know customers are angry and complain a lot. Instead, you'll get an automated voice messages. How often have you heard, "Please listen carefully, our menu options have changed," followed by, "Your call is important to us"? Is it really?
Schlitz001 | 5 hours ago
Even with a real person, they are don't have the customer's interest in mind.
I recently had a Best Buy order canceled on me. I used a "$10 off anything" coupon to help pay for it. They refused to refund me the coupon even though THEY canceled the order. I knew there would be a customer survey after the call, but the representative refused to hang up because they knew that the responses would be negative. We can't win.
dmadSTL | 7 hours ago
How many times will the same article be written? How many times will we come to the same conclusions in those articles? How many times will they be posted to this subreddit?
The answers are out there. It's just the shareholder class will not cede their power and wealth without significant disruption driven by the working class to achieve actually material change.
Kooky_Membership9497 | 7 hours ago
The Proles must rise up.
But that’s the problem. They’re Proles, and are easily controlled with reality TV and cheeseburgers. We provide just enough relief that they don’t blow under the pressure.
bigbonton | 6 hours ago
The relief is aka: "bread and circuses", a phrase from the French Revolution, which is a phase in history that very much matches our 21st century socio-economic situation.
nerfedname | 6 hours ago
“Bread and circuses” is actually translated from LATIN, and it was a Roman phrase.
People been falling for the same scam for 1000s of years…
h4ms4ndwich11 | 5 hours ago
This applies to sports and entertainment especially, but even politics and governing are their own reality series these days, which is unfortunate. It's like a cruel joke or bullying of the working class that never ends. Maybe someday we'll stop believing the BS and start demanding some accountability and change. This only gets worse until those happen.
No-Transition0603 | 4 hours ago
Yeah i get so confused when people hype up the moments when these corporations get “ripped” by congressmen in hearings.. that lead to nothing. Politics has for a long time been kayfabe, but its getting worse by the year.
DisneyPandora | 5 hours ago
The answer was out there under Joe Biden, but Joe Biden’s dumbass was too stupid to listen to anyone or any economists which showed in his high inflation and many Democrats criticizing him
PathosEatsLogos | 7 hours ago
Because they realize that their pain is a mix of political leadership incompetence and apathy to their struggle as well as a massive amount of corporate greed while they watch corruption being openly rewarded.
Confident_Bee_6242 | 7 hours ago
Our culture is about monitizing every damn thing. Nothing is free, and customers are disposable. It's a race to the bottom in the name of continuous, and unrelenting profit growth . Late stage capitalism is a failure.
howdiditgetinthere | 7 hours ago
Higher prices plus shittier products equals angry customers. Especially when so many companies are reporting record earnings while their employees, who are also customers, don't get any rewards from those record profits. It is not hard to figure out.
richkonar50 | 7 hours ago
People are angry because all hope has been lost. The so called American Dream has been completely destroyed for most. And there’s virtually nothing that can be done about it.
northpalmetto | 7 hours ago
Just about the only thing an ordinary person can do about this is to try and decorporatize your life. Simply don't engage with companies in the first place. Don't sign up for any subscriptions, don't finance any purchases, always read the fine print, especially when it comes to payment. Try to live without as much as possible.
It's easier said than done, but the purpose of modern society is to feed off of those within it, and you have to disengage or it will consume you.
stein63 | 7 hours ago
It’s not just inflation, it’s the steady collapse of basic competence. You pay more, get worse products, worse service, and then lose your own time fixing mistakes that never should’ve happened. Companies keep squeezing customers harder while delivering less and less.
Azmtbkr | 7 hours ago
It’s the never ending enshitification cycle that’s seeped into every product and service. Even when I do manage to find something decent, in the back of my mind I’m wondering how long the business model will last before being eaten by the enshitification monster. This happened to a local salad chain that offered great ingredients and prices, over time the prices went up while the portion sizes and quality went down. I did some digging and sure enough it had been bought out by private equity. Every fucking time.
sobercrush | 7 hours ago
I think people have realized everything is stacked against them...own a house, having a baby, having a damn vacation, this generation is the first to know they have no future.
h4ms4ndwich11 | 5 hours ago
I don't think there is no future. I think people were, and still are, simply misled for 50 years by a class of people who aimed to exploit them. Now that the results of capital greed are increasingly plain to see -record corporate profit margins, political corruption, etc - a complacent working class must realize they'll have to fight if they want progress, else they'll continue being exploited. Trust was taken for granted. It will require more than asking nicely to get that back.
After_Preference_885 | 5 hours ago
The future will be water wars and climate disaster, not picket fences, family and retirement
golfmd2 | 5 hours ago
Unless one has rich parents the debt burden required to get an education and acquire housing is becoming essentially a major roadblock to achieving the American dream. The biggest predictor of future success is the zip code they grew up in.
paxinfernum | 5 hours ago
It's not just that they're hurting. It's that everyone in charge is either ignoring that they're hurting or actively mocking their pain.
Adam Smith said in The Theory of Moral Sentiment:
"It is to be observed accordingly, that we are still more anxious to communicate to our friends our disagreeable than our agreeable passions, that we derive still more satisfaction from their sympathy with the former than from that with the latter, and that we are still more shocked by the want of it."
We can shrug off someone not sharing our joy at getting a promotion, but we'll quickly grow to hate someone who refuses to acknowledge our suffering.
Right now, people are hurting, and the chortling assholes in the White House are literally saying that they don't care or calling affordability a liberal hoax.
AliveJohnnyFive | 6 hours ago
Monopolies have been allowed in every segment of the economy. Until that is corrected, there won't be the real competition that would sort this behavior out.
Ada_Pearce | 7 hours ago
I can't stand the lies. Don't tell me you are struggling as a corporation when your quarterly profits keep going through the roof every quarter
Toribor | 6 hours ago
The Reagan era promised that even though everything would be shitty at least it would be cheap.
Now everything is shitty and expensive and you never stop paying for it.
So yeah it sucks.
ungodlycollector | 7 hours ago
The market is no longer shaped by consumers, and everyone feels that loss of power. When businesses are 'too big to fail' RTO is mandated because local businesses are failing and real estate reasons, they no longer need a middle class. The goal then becomes appealing to another business or politician for funding, and extracting as much money as possible.
If you're still political, you've playing the wrong game. Voting is now done exclusively with money. Spend responsibly.
rawkguitar | 7 hours ago
What is RTO?
ArrivesLate | 7 hours ago
Return To Office
empress_tesla | 3 hours ago
Every single thing in this country is built to strip people of their wealth (unless you’re in the 1%). And the argument that “if you don’t like the price, don’t buy it” is a straw man argument because we don’t always get a choice. Not to mention, not spending money on anything but bills is a pretty awful life experience. I’m pretty fucking angry. And that feeling has been building even since before Covid.
Shadowfox186 | 7 hours ago
Prices up. Quality/quantity down. Stuff used to last but now because of Planned obsolescence, everything is made to break so that you have to buy a new one or impossible to repair.
BwanaPC | 6 hours ago
Prices up, quantity and quality down. Customers treated as the enemy. Users of services are exploited. Current customers are ignored while new customers are feted. I've stopped eating out unless the restaurant is a small local ethnic one. Chains all taste like Sysco delivered in a bag and dumped in the fryer or stopped on the grill.
discgman | 6 hours ago
It is capitalism on steroids. Then capitalism goes into that back room and does a bump. Ayn Rand is rolling in her grave. Before the attack on consumerism, companies would try to develop a healthy relationship with the consumer. That way they would come back to buy their consumables more and more. Loyal customers was the goal. Now, companies are shoving high prices down their throats and charging them service fees along with it. There is no loyalty, only gains in stock prices and profits per quarter. The consumer is just a machine to extract more money from like an atm. And they use technology to make it twice as bad.
h4ms4ndwich11 | 5 hours ago
Why is Ayn Rand rolling in her grave? The right wing libertarians I know love what's happening today, and only want more of it. Some think it isn't extreme enough! I don't think they realize that concentrated power and wealth and historic corruption eventually hurt them too. I suppose their manufactured hatred for socialism is so strong it prevents them from considering any serious consequences.
lickuntilyoufaint | 5 hours ago
Indeed not just about the high prices.. Americans should be worried about the lack of checks and balances in the system.. US has gone from the moral leader to becoming the lawless warmonger with low credibility..
And americans living in their flintstone world.. Riding old school ICE vehicles and teslas, while the rest of world moves in BYDs, Great Wall, Xpengs and thrives in high performance renewables..
Sorry but US has become a complete joke.. The amount of global disdain and disgust towards the US brand.. Yikes..
artbystorms | 5 hours ago
Enshittification is the name of the game. As companies have to compete less due to consolidation within their industries, they don't feel as beholden to their customer base. Quality, customer service, and price competition go out the window because the consumer has less ability to shop elsewhere.
In the 70s my grandma was a bit of a busybody and would write letters to companies complaining about products and they'd send her free stuff or refund checks.
That would never fly today, pretty much every company would ignore you or tell you to go to the retailer if you want a refund.
filmguy36 | 5 hours ago
It’s not just because of high prices, it’s the “enshitifcation” of everything.
High housing prices, low wages, inflation, stagflation, the stupid Epstein war, being gaslighted daily by trump and his room full of dopes, trump telling everyone who will listen that he doesn’t care about the people of this nation, the list of women’s basic right, gerrymandering, ICE, the list goes on and on and on and on, etc, etc
Does this question even need to be asked? It’s freaking obvious.
ForsakenAd545 | 7 hours ago
America elected people who are very hostile to consumer rrights and protections. They have systematically dismantled protections against all kinds of consumer abuse and have done it in record time.
This is what America voted for, this is what Republicans stand for. You vote for Republicans this is what you can expect.
h4ms4ndwich11 | 5 hours ago
It's worth pointing out that the public was and is continuously lied to. But the outcome is the same nonetheless.
Happy_Feet333 | 4 hours ago
No, the information was freely available at Trump's election and Project 2025's websites.
Voters CHOSE not to know.
Jealous_Tutor_5135 | 7 hours ago
But consumers need to actually change preferences. When Doritos are 3x the price of the store brand, yet people still buy them, they're just sending a signal that the price is correct.
I heard endless complaining about the price of eggs, but a lot fewer people saying they'd stop buying them. As a person who lives in a developing country, most of these complaints just feel performative to me. It's hard to trust that people are actually struggling if they're still complaining about the price of Doritos and Coca-Cola, rather than substituting.
Ketaskooter | 7 hours ago
Eggs are a basic commodity, there's not really other options but it was also a temporary supply shock that the media hyped up. Doritos on the other hand there are tons of options like you pointed out.
Jealous_Tutor_5135 | 6 hours ago
Despite what Cool Hand Luke tells us, eggs can be substituted for no eggs.
The moral position of "I must have my eggs" is so far removed from objective reality. That's my point. If the line is drawn at "eggs are necessary for life", of course the consumer is vulnerable to abuse, in the same way they're actually vulnerable to abuse by healthcare providers for life-saving services, or utility companies.
Sensible countries identify these natural monopolies and regulate. But the only mechanism for eggs is consumers' willingness to forgo them. That didn't happen. Instead we got an angry, entitled discourse and another trump term.
Happy_Feet333 | 4 hours ago
~~Powdered eggs are a cheaper substitute.~~
Edit: Not anymore. 😞
ObstreperousOverture | 5 hours ago
More than the high prices its:
-Ad bombardment
-Planned Obsolescence
-Nick and Diming
-Bad Product Quality
-Cornered Markets and Monopolies
-Market Manipulation
-Pricing that no longer reflects Market Forces.
Are we 'uncomfortable enough' yet?
sierrackh | 5 hours ago
This thread is pretty much a microcosm of all of our anger and angst about over commodification. I enjoy reading BIFL but even there, most things are horrifyingly disposable. Something needs to change, this is getting insane
htownballa1 | 3 hours ago
We are angry because we have zero protections, companies continue to invade our privacy and steal our data without consent, we are bombarded with ADs for almost any interaction we might have, and things seem to be regressing.
Companies have started giving less, charging more and gatekeeping products behind subscription services because they can and we have no alternative or government protections in place to safeguard us from these predatory capitalistic parasites.
If I want to pay a bill, I can pay in person, but there is an in person fee. I can pay online via debit or credit card but there is a fee for that two. Banks immediately take funds from us when we purchase something, but its like pulling teeth to get that money back, let alone the fact that it can take 7 full days to process an instant transaction because they can.
LurkerBurkeria | 6 hours ago
Funny they used a pic of a grocery cart: the new ones got rid of the bulk item lower section, because after all, to modern corporations, its worth infinite inconvenience to the 99.999% of your non-criminal userbase if it means stopping that .0001% from walking out with paper towels
dodohead974 | 6 hours ago
products are smaller, cost is higher, quality is shittier, credit card interest rates are almost double what they were a few years ago, wages stagnating, unprofitable AI companies somehow have soaring stock prices, and now index funds are changing the rules so a billionaire can become a trillionaire using our 401ks as his exit liquidity....but geee i wonder why consumers are so upset?!
Educational_Sea6013 | 5 hours ago
feels like a bunch of mismatch between “official” numbers and what people experience day to day. CPI can be cooling while the stuff you notice most (rent, groceries, insurance, childcare) is still up, and wages lag so it never feels like you caught up. and even when prices stop rising, you’re still paying the new higher baseline, which people read as “it’s still getting worse” even if inflation rate is lower. the vibe is basically: my paycheck didn’t reset, but my monthly fixed costs did.
slowhand11 | 5 hours ago
The economy is predatory and they are actively removing any forms of protection. If you ever try to move outside or evade it you will find laws that prevent you and force you into economic exploitation.
Bmor00bam | 5 hours ago
It’s also a great way to farm out the customer service, and have the poor harvest all the bad feelings of their customers, increasing division, while the Epstein class, yachts near their Mediterranean islands.
cunninglinguist | 5 hours ago
I had to book a JetBlue flight today and there was a bit of a hiccup and getting the credit card alert push approved at checkout. But this was all done and completed within five minutes. By the time that I got the credit card information accepted incorrectly loaded I’ve been informed that my fare had increased by $45.
What the actual fuck? It just feels like it was known that I had gone through all of the flight selection, seat, selection, loading of my three other family members details along with my own, and they’re just like yeah you’re gonna pay this. “What are you gonna do go back and start all over again?”
123-Moondance | 4 hours ago
Truth right here. Boycott, boycott, boycott! Rob these MFers of whatever you can. Shop at small business when possible. Go to the farmers market instead of a chain store. Let's bankrupt these MFers.
>“It feels like a war on consumers,” said Sally Greenberg, the executive director of the National Consumers League, a 125-year-old consumer advocacy group. Households are being hit by “a tsunami of fees and hidden charges and tricks and traps”, she said.
gorte1ec | 4 hours ago
Americans are financially exploited at every turn. We are taxed every which way possible and none of it goes towards the betterment of our lives. We have pissed off all of our allies. Consumers get no protection and bail out. Wealth transfers 1 way and its not to us. Everyone is waking up to the fact that the scales are tilted against our favor.
fakeamerica | 4 hours ago
Consumer stratification and mobilization is the worst unless you’re at the top. Everywhere people go there are reminders that others are experiencing a higher class of service because they can pay.
Airplanes and airports are the example that people are probably thinking of, but it’s everywhere now. Door dash will let you pay to get your order faster, sports stadiums have all kinds of perks for big spenders, Disneyland is just a giant sorting machine now. Everywhere people look they’re being asked to pay more for the best experience. It feels nice when you can afford to upgrade, but the rest of the time you’re just feeling like a sucker for being poor.
I’d add that turning everything into subscriptions is also corrosive. Lots of them are cheaper if you pay up front. Sometimes substantially. And the subscription pricing model allows for companies to operate a giant ratchet of increasing prices without having to really improve the product because people are locked in or oblivious.
fooperina | 3 hours ago
Because we’re tired of “consuming” and being dehumanized and called consumers by mainstream mouthpieces. We are humans who just want a livable wage, affordable healthcare and food.
tweedleduh | 2 hours ago
You know, we switched to streaming and now it’s about comparable to cable…. Betting it’s gonna funny when Netflix raises their prices again, and people just start pirating again….
The very thing Netflix got popular for (streaming services legally on the cheap), because they got greedy, are now going to force people to go back.
Meh, I liked Limewire anyway, is PiratesBay still around?
schtickshift | an hour ago
Basically the consumers are the voters. The state is colluding with the corporations who fund the politicians who run the state to screw the consumers and therefore the voters, every which way via regulations that favour the corporations at every turn. This is why people are angry. The economics of their lives and the politics of their lives are bound up by the same political dynamic which us that the corporations basically bribe the politicians to regulate in their interests and against the interests of the voters/consumers who voted them into power to look after their interests. It sounds a bit convoluted but it’s pretty simple really.
Nom_de_guerre_25 | 28 minutes ago
The wealthy think everyone but those who will fill their ranks exists only to make them money. It's no wonder consumers are pissed. They have been demoted from citizens to consumers.
There is no anti-trust policy in this country. Most industries are duopolies or have maybe 3 to 4 competitors. There is widespread evidence of price fixing and wage fixing.
Market power does not diffuse. It is permanent and is exploited to disempower people. The patent system needs to be replaced with fewer opportunities for legalized monopoly. Antitrust laws need to be strictly enforced.
Unfortunately, none of these things will ever change because half of the country, if not 60%, thinks dystopian predatory capitalism is a net positive for the world.
johnnybna | 6 hours ago
It's the fact that the high prices were completely avoidable until a large enough number of dipshits and racists voted in a conman who had already staged an insurrection. That's where a lot of my rage comes from. And whoever said subscriptions. That too.
CautiousOptimism09 | 7 hours ago
Because people have eyes. In the united states back in the 1950s to 1960s one could not only support 1 family on an incime but 2 (enough people found out grandpa had a separate family) but in all seriousness 1 full time job cpuld provide for a family. Now both people working full time doesnt even provide a secure enough life to afford a house and children. The share of compensation as a percentage of GDP has fallen to 51.9% from am all time high 58.4% in 1970. People arent asking for much. All we want is for a full time job to be able to meet Ines basic needs, food, housing, retirement. Sure there are some people that are doing fine like myself but even when I look at my situation, my wife and I have advanced degrees and I had help from my parents to pay for some of my college and we had help from family to buy a house. Even so my financial picture with my wife when we both have advanced degrees working in good jobs in our field isnt as good as my parents where only 1 parent had a degree. The social contract has failed and the worming class is getting squeezed to a point where we see societal structural problems.
CantRememberMyUserID | 4 hours ago
I love your typo of "worming class". That does seem like the way to describe the common people in this awful timeline.
King_Fisher99 | 5 hours ago
Americans in general are angry across the board. Age old issues that still aren’t close to be resolved because (in my opinion) neither party is honestly interested in solving them. They are however interested in enriching themselves. Then of course there’s this one orange main problem
Aerodrive160 | 7 hours ago
One frustration, that’s actually been around a while, is the total lack of accepting responsibility between a main company and its franchise operation. If you go seeking assistance from one, that side will always tell you it’s the others fault or responsibility.
Ebiki | 6 hours ago
I started making my own cosmetics recently and selling them to friends because of these prices for absolute garbage products. Demand practically exploded overnight, especially for the deodorant I started selling.
People know they’re being ripped off even if they don’t fully know what’s going on with what they’re buying. And they’re sick of it.
Ill-Top9428 | 4 hours ago
If you think subscriptions are insane, wait until they start charging everyone by the usage (metered). AI companies are already started that.
Effective_Olive6153 | 3 hours ago
the ads are getting more aggressive, constant spam calls. More work, less pay, the world is slowly dying, the country going bankrupt, everything is stressful as fuck and things just get worse and worse
repwin1 | 3 hours ago
Everything is more expensive and everything is shittier. People first blamed Covid, then supply chain issues and now tariffs for price hikes and we all know they exaggerated it to us and we all know when those issues go away they aren’t going to lower the price to reflect not having it as a cost of production. I hate how I make almost double what I made 10 years ago and feel poorer, especially considering now I fewer bills.
JennaTulwartz | 2 hours ago
I vote for politicians who at least claim that this is a priority for them and that they will fight for my rights as a consumer, but I know that’s ultimately out of my hands. What is in my hands is buying as little as possible and especially from companies who treat me like shit, so that’s what I’ve been doing.
There’s no worse feeling than paying a lot of money for a shitty product or service, and the only part you’re in control of (with the exception of essential goods and services- unfortunately not much you can do about that) is the “paying a lot of money” part.
FootballFan-Joe | 2 hours ago
Why are we angry? Because everything is unaffordable and I can’t turn on the news without seeing “Trump and his butt buddies are requesting billions of tax payer dollars because he shit himself”
Acceptable_Deal_4662 | 2 hours ago
Probably because we have to work our asses off to afford what we need while the most powerful man in the country makes our economic situation worse by the day as he cheats the markets.
128-NotePolyVA | an hour ago
It’s 4 things. Groceries, gas, housing and healthcare. When prices are up on these essentials, it hurts lower income families much worse than the wealthy.
chihuahua2023 | an hour ago
It’s the enshittification of all things, the having to pay a nonessential middle middle middle entity a ridiculous fee for use, designed obsolescence, constant sign up sign in password enter emails memberships, and on and on and on. When I first read the manifesto back in the day I was like ABSOLuTELY 💯.
Dchama86 | an hour ago
Because we’re feeling the direct effects of late-stage capitalism.
Ridiculous inflation and cost-of-living
Enshittification of products and services
Scams everywhere
Corrupt and/or indifferent lawmakers and politicians who could otherwise greatly improve our conditions, but refuse to
West_Flounder2840 | an hour ago
It’s only a matter of time before cashiers start flipping the tablet around and, after tipping the perfunctory 20%, you get a second question “would you like to round up your purchase to donate to Israel?”
BehindBillionStories | 55 minutes ago
It's not just inflation.
People notice when products get worse, customer service gets worse, and companies keep finding new ways to charge more while calling it "innovation."
A small price increase is annoying. Feeling like you're constantly getting less value for your money is what really makes people angry.
Super_Mario_Luigi | 7 hours ago
Propaganda. While there are certainly areas that could see improvement (ie - healthcare, housing, beef, fuel, etc.) everyone has 24/7 media blasting in their face to be angry. Don't forget that vacations and luxury purchases are near all-time highs. I'm mad because I want xyz on the cheap.
Rooster_Ties | 5 hours ago
Shut up, and enjoy your luxury vacation.
Massive_Signal7835 | 3 hours ago
59% are one paycheck away from homelessness.
L4gsp1k3 | 5 hours ago
It's just how economy works in America, I just don't know why, they think the rest of the world is falling behind the American way of running the economy, like it's the only truth and best way to have an economy. Things has to be more expensive, wages has to be at minimum, you'll to work more and longer, almost no vacation, no leave sick pay, no maternity leave pay, basically no rights for the working people. Somehow, that's the idea of a good economy.