Everything is a racket.

[Dave Gray]

I'm at a record low when it comes to faith in the American system of business.  Everything is built to screw you and squeeze every last drop out of you.  I have resigned myself to just being the guy that "wins" by being diligent and protecting myself.

I was just kind of going back through things that we've talked about here, but also seeing how my parents lived and got fleeced by every company for 30 years.  When combining all things:

- car insurance you have to research and change every 3 years
- phone plans that overcharge and bundle bullshit
- cable/internet that gets your for introductory rates and then balloons over time
- streaming services that give you a commercial-free rate, then bump the rate but give you the old rate to add commercials....and then bump that.  Making it difficult to share with family.
- heath insurance that charges you, limit or denies you, and then you can get cheap meds online by skirting the system if you know where to look.
- medical bills from the hospital/insurance from my kidney stone experience
- red tape bullshit from my solar panels and FPL getting a hand-out
- stores asking for you to "round up" to help sick kids, while they take record profits and then use your donation to get themselves a tax write-off
- gift cards / redemptions that make it hard to redeem or a pain in the ass to rectify, so it's easier to let them go uncashed
- auto-renewals and other predatory pre-installed bullshit
- stores that make it hard to tell what shit costs because everything is marked up and then put on sale
Edited to add one of my new favorites:
- Legalize sports gambling, but only for one company, so it's essentially an app to funnel money from the poor class to Native American Oligarchs, instead of being run by the state or open to competition.

I'm realizing that so much of the economy is just a grift on people not paying attention.

[Sibster]

Valid points on a lot of stuff here.  Especially car insurance.   If you didn't have an accident, didn't get a ticket, or didn't file a claim of any kind, your insurance should not be going up.   Period and end of discussion.

[CF DolFan]

For the past three years we have had to re-shop our homeowners insurance as well because of huge rate increases. Oddly enough ... after being pissed off this year when we got the bill we are now paying less than before.

[Spider-Dan]

My car insurance (through 21st Century Insurance) was very consistent and reasonable for almost 20 years.  Even after they were purchased by Farmers in the late '00s, everything basically stayed the same.

They rebranded to Toggle Insurance in 2023 and there was a dramatic rate hike of $900/year.  (For the record: I haven't had a ticket, an accident, or submitted any sort of claim since 2011.)  I bought a new car back in August and switched to Farmers, who is also my home insurer.  The Farmers rate with the new car was $500/year cheaper than the Toggle rate with the OLD car, and something like $2000/year cheaper than Toggle with the NEW car.  (The two cars had comparable sticker value but the old car was a 2016 and the new car is a 2024.)

On the subject of scummy mobile providers:  I've been really happy with Google Fi.  The plan I'm on is $20/month with data costing $10/GB until you hit 6GB, at which point all data after that is free.  I don't use a lot of mobile data (as I've mentioned before, I don't stream music, movies, or TV) so my monthly bill is almost always under $40.  (Google Fi also has a $60 unlimited plan.)  Google Fi also offers free international roaming, which is nice if you like to travel.

If anyone is unhappy with their current provider and is interested in switching, let me know and I can give you a referral that gets us both $60 off.

[Downunder Dolphan]

The Macquarie Dictionary word of the year for 2024 is Enshittification.

That seems so appropriate because it's applicable to more and more of what we have to deal with today (banks, insurance, utilities, groceries subject to shrinkflation, etc) and not just the typical software/tech products that inspired it.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-26/macquarie-dictionary-word-of-the-year-2024/104648884

[CF DolFan]

I have to give a shoutout to my electric company though (SECO Energy). It's a co-op so basically the "members" own the not for profit company. If there is extra money at the end of the year we get a credit. My current electric bill from November is $214. I live on 5 acres in a 2200+ SQ Ft home, electric heated pool, with a barn and a shop that is pushing constant electricity in some form. I also sleep at least at 70 degrees every night so we aren't afraid to run the air. I had no idea what a co-op was before moving here but I think all utility companies should be co-op because I paid a heck of a lot more when I lived in an HOA with nothing more than a house.

[Spider-Dan]

I don't live in the coverage area, but nearby Sacramento has something similar (Sacramento Municipal Utility District, or SMUD).  They don't do gas service, but they do handle electricity, and their rates are notably cheaper than the normal alternative (Pacific Gas & Electric, which I have).

Personally, I think the state should nationalize the utilities.  Part of the reason why PG&E's rates are so high is because they had to pay out billions in lawsuits after their above-ground long-distance power lines caused some of the huge wildfires over the past few years.  And the reason why those power lines were above ground is because PG&E didn't want to spend the money to bury them (note: they are now), because they would rather return that money as profit to the executives and shareholders.

But if we can't nationalize the utilities, at least returning them to a municipal/co-op model like SMUD or SECO would put those profits back into the service or refund them to the customers.

[Dave Gray]

Another one for me is Internet.  Like, why are we all paying for the same Internet that we all use.  Can't we just have that exist everywhere as something provided by the city?  It seems that individually paying for this doesn't provide anything better.  It's not like electricity where you pay more to use more.  And everyone needs it.

Even if my taxes on my household go up $75 x 12 and my Internet costs $0, I come out ahead.  But I imagine they'd be able to provide much more comprehensive and reliable and faster service by pooling all of those resources.

[Spider-Dan]

Dave, I'm surprised (in a household with kids) that you aren't familiar with paying more to use more when it comes to internet.  You haven't run up against monthly bandwidth limits?

[Dave Gray]

Dave, I'm surprised (in a household with kids) that you aren't familiar with paying more to use more when it comes to internet.  You haven't run up against monthly bandwidth limits?

No.

I play video games at night.  My kids stream youtube and we stream for TV, but that's pretty moderate use.  But we are not excessively on devices.  There are 4 of us.  I have, over the years, been on different bandwidth packages, but there aren't noticeable differences.