17-07-2025
People Are Sharing The 'Silent' Scams In Society We All Just Kind Of Accept, And I Hadn't Even Thought Of Some Of These
Recently, I came upon a post from Reddit user Sweet_Programmer_592 on the popular Ask Reddit page that looked kind of interesting. In it, they asked, "What's a silent scam in society that everybody just accepts?" and whew, were the answers varied. Here are some of the best:
1."Subscription-based EVERYTHING nowadays."
—u/JTHuffy
2."Health insurance. It's all made-up numbers. 30,000% mark-ups. But hey, you save with insurance! All you have to do is pay $250 a month plus the entire $6,000 deductible for it to even kick in..."
Paramount Pictures
—u/ArboristTreeClimber
"Private health insurance. It's literally organized crime."
—u/Yereli
3."Health insurance and the fact that dental is separate."
—u/Cigaran
"And vision!"
—u/v13
4."Paying tax on a used car (or used anything, really)."
—u/IllustriousLength318
5."Taxpayer-funded research that is patented and privatized as soon as it yields results, and then is sold back to the same taxpayers that funded its development."
—u/---Spartacus---
6."Shrinkflation: Companies quietly reduce product sizes but keep prices the same, so we pay more per unit without realizing it. It's accepted as normal inflation, but it's really a sneaky price hike."
u/deleted / Via u/PiercedGeek / Via
—u/tessaemilybrown
7."Almost literally everything now. Everything that used to work, flawed or otherwise, is now a grift. Nothing functions correctly, companies don't sell or make things people want, nothing that used to work and last can work and last now because in order for the company to make more money this year than last year, they need to sell you another one."
HBO
"Coupons and reward programs? Pointless. It's all to track your purchases, the sale price is the regular price, and the regular price is inflated; if you aren't a new customer, there are no rewards.
Consumer goods? They're going to break. You need to buy a new one next year. Or it's a subscription. Or it's going to break and is a subscription.
Finances? The government is actively tanking the market to buy the dip, and everything that used to be somewhat reliable is exclusively for the wealthy already, or is some crypto that you SHOULD invest in, even though the entire point is to get in early and sell before everyone else and everyone involved knows that.
The boiled frogs' pan has been getting higher temp for decades, but COVID took the pan off the pot for 15 minutes, and when it sat back down, the burner was 150 degrees hotter and the pan is bending."
—u/glopthrowawayaccount
8."Megachurches being tax-exempt. They're allowed to meddle in politics, help sway elections, and all kinds of other BS, but get to reap billions of dollars tax-free."
—u/Ianm1225
9."Timeshares."
—u/norm_190
10."Ticketing fees. When you buy tickets online, extra fees get added for things like 'processing' or a 'service fee.' Everyone just accepts them, but it's basically paying more for an automated service."
ABC
—u/tessaemilybrown
"Absolutely this. I absolutely hate Ticketmaster, but if I want to see the show, I have to buy my ticket through them. I often travel to see concerts, so I can't just physically visit the venue and buy a ticket. I always buy an advance so that I get a good seat for a good price, because I do not want to pay hundreds of dollars for a resale ticket."
—u/True-University-6545
11."Taxpayers subsidizing ballparks and stadiums."
—u/kukukele
12."The cost of funeral services."
—u/NSFWdw
13."Pop-up ads. You use my bandwidth to tell me blatant lies about things I don't need."
NBC / Via
—u/defyclassification
14."Tipping. It's the employer's role to pay their employees fairly."
—u/draxenato
15."Paying to park at a place for which you also pay admission."
"Example: amusement parks. I already paid $200 for my family's tickets, and I'm sure I'll spend more on overpriced food in the park. Why do I also have to pay $40 just to have a place to put my car for the day?"
—u/HawaiianShirtsOR
16."I'm shocked no one has said credit scores yet; the three credit monitors/clearinghouses are publicly traded, for-profit companies."
"They constantly try to sell you other services and affiliated services like credit cards (which, since they know your credit score, is a complete conflict of interest in my opinion); credit scores don't transfer across borders; everyone is forced to interact with these companies in some way; and the things that affect your credit score are often a mystery. Definitely a fucking scam."
—u/ellsego
17."Taxes. The IRS knows what 99% of Americans owe, and annual reconciliation is a 100% scam that H&R Block lobbyists bribe Congress to maintain. Both Obama and Trump publicly wanted it reformed, but both were rejected by well-bribed Congress."
NBC
—u/ManufacturerPublic
18."I hate that every few months or years it seems I need to call my phone provider, garbage company, cable, car insurance, and threaten to leave to get them to lower my bill, or switch to a new company to get 'new member pricing.' It's beyond annoying."
—u/Mimi4Stotch
19."YouTube reviews and demos."
"It used to be a platform for the people by the people, showing what things really are. Now it's filled with marketing folks dreaming of being famous, who make you think you'll be like them if you use the products they're 'reviewing.'"
—u/Square-Heat-3758
20."Rounding up at checkouts so that corporations can use our donations to cover the overhead of the charitable organization associated with their business, while also using those 'donations' to get themselves massive tax breaks."
"Never donate to a non-profit through a for-profit. Give the money as directly as possible to the people who need it."
—u/lxnarratorxl
21."Cars. Can't really be a member of modern society without one in most places, and they are extremely expensive, extremely dangerous, extremely loud, and one of the worst sources of air and water pollution."
—u/Cache-Cow
Got any "silent scam" observations of your own to share? Tell me all about it down in the comments. I want to hear it all!
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