I ChatGPTed a list of scams. This list is quite impressive and depressing at the same time. Humanity is full of scams.
1. Holiday gift cards
2. “Breakfast is the most important meal”
3. Diamonds
4. Black friday engineerd hysteria
5. Pink/ blue colors to sell more clothes to parents
6. 8 glasses of water a day - water bottle company backed campaign
7. Recycling - shifting of responsiblity from producers to consumers
8. Low fat driven by sugar industry
9. Mattress companies
10. Fashion seasons
11. Beauty standards
12. Loyalty programs to harvest data
13. College rankings
14. College - added by me
15. Sunscreen inflated skin cancer claims
16. Flouride as means of waste disposal - aluminum industry
17. Plant-based foods - owned by meat conglomorates to hedge bets
18. Streaming services rotating content with “expiring”
19. Psychology of pricing - price anchoring etc…
20. Artificial delays between streaming services show seasons, split seasons etc to draw out subscriptions
21. Manufactured drama - in hollywood, between artists etc…
22. Manufactured news drama
23. Detox products - pseudoscience
24. Supplements
25. Essential oils
26. anti-aging creams
27. Shampoo cycles - overwashing
28. Gendered products - pink tax
29. “Natural” label - legally meaningless
30. Sugar-free / fat-free
31. Bottled water
32. auto dealer addons, already pre-applied highest margins
33. Extended warranties
34. Apple Care
35. Planned obsolescence
36. Credit scores
37. 401k fees
38. Buy now pay later
39. Home staging
40. Smart home add-ons
41. Greenwashing certifications
42. “eco-friendly”
43. Printer ink pricing
44. Phone planned obsolescence
45. Texbook revisions to kill resale market
46. For-profit colleges (I’d say most colleges actually)
47. Carbon offsets
48. Compostable plastics - rarely composted
49. Recycling - rarely done due to costs
50. Evergreen patents on pharma products
51. The entire healthcare system “sick system”
52. Sales tax (I’d say ALL taxes)
53. Paint industry - same paint, different labels
54. Eyewear monopoly and markups
55. Funeral industry one giant scam
56. Fake MSRP in mattress industry
57. Hotel resort fees
58. “Limited runs” in brands to create artificial shortages
59. Pretty much all online marketing manipulation (1 left, 5 other people bought etc….)
60. Charity donations
61. airline fuel surchage
62. academic publishing industry - Elsevier etc, taxpayer funded research paywalled
What else?
Does bitcoin fix these?
