Time Warner’s “Free” HD cable:
If you ask for a cable card they will send 4 different techs who will tell you they do not know how to install a cable card. Then they will show you the do not know how.
One HD box is 8 bucks a month. The dvr box is eight, and you pay an additional 8 for DVR service.
Though I recent got a Roku, so I suspect I will not be buying into TW “Free” HD much longer.
Mary Kay. But my sister-in-law sells it, my wife wants to buy it, so we buy it.
The Social Security (retirement) system. I don’t buy into it because of any pleasure or because it’s smart financially; I’m basically at the point of a gun.
So are CZ, and 100th the cost.
I fall for the seductive wrinkle cream ads as well. I know they can’t fix it, but I’m still hopeful every time I buy something. I do limit myself to only buying something when the last bottle is empty. At least my Oil of Olay stuff looks really cool (it’s the one with the twist inside the clear bottle) even if I still have lines on my forehead.
Three years ago I visited a chiropractor for the first time against my better judgment. I was suffering from lightheadedness (still am), and thought it might do some good.
I knew during the first appointment it was a scam. I told him my neck has always been stiff. He x-rayed me and said the bones around my spine/neck area looked like they were from an 80 year old man (which is BS). Over the next few sessions the young, large-breasted female assistants put me on a variety of contraptions. The whole time I knew it was BS, but I went to 5 or 6 sessions anyway.
None of this makes any sense to me. Demand is demand. Nothing has intrinsic value; value is determined by demand.
Uggh! Vanity sizing has become ridiculous. It’s terrible for tiny people… I used to be able to fit some 0’s or 00’s… but now they’re all too big. Little girl’s sizes don’t fit either - they’re not made for curvy figures.) I need to find a negative size.
I rarely buy bottled water but when I do it has to be Evian. It’s refreshing. :dubious:
There are studies that show Chiropractic can be a treatment for mild-moderate back pain. Other than that, it is a scam. Many DC’s preach Chiropractic can treat just about anything.
But I never got the "young, large-breasted female assistants " routine, you were lucky, you dog you.
Religious holidays.
I fast for Yom Kippur and celebrate most Jewish holidays with my family. The food is always awesome. I love matzah ball soup.
I’m not actually losing out here, but I do carry out the senseless traditions of the holidays.
I’m a traditionalist in this one area: Real diamonds or nothing.
The only difference is the scam. You have been sold a scam.
I fall for that scam all the time, willingly.
There’s a scam where a buxom young lass approaches your car at a stop sign and proceeds to strip off her top, soaps herself up and washes your windshield with her bosoms. While you are thus distracted, her accomplice secretly opens your rear passenger side door and steals whatever he can out of your back seat.
I was hit by this scam six times last week. Every day except Tuesday – I drove around and around and finally decided they must take Tuesdays off.
You’re saying that market manipulation is impossible? What an interesting point of view.
(Note: I gritted my teeth and bought my wife a diamond ring, of course.)
Ok, if it makes you feel better.
Razor blades.
Forget the replacement cartridges – even when I’m buying disposable razors, I wind up getting the Gilette three bladed dealies with the swivel head and lather strip. And I know from experience that the single blade Bic’s will do me just as well but I feel like a hobo when I buy them in all their eighty-nine cent (for a pack of three) glory.
Way back while I was in college I bought* a seller’s pack (or whatever it’s called) from Amway :smack:
I thought the whole thing was a con from the style of presentation they gave (get rich quick, you can’t lose, don’t be an idiot like those dopes that aren’t doing this etc).
But being a reseller appealed to me more, just for a moment, than the alternative: minimum wage employment (and note in the UK few such jobs tip well).
- Actually I managed to cancel the order. This was not easy to do.
No, I didn’t say that. What I said was that demand is demand. It doesn’t matter why people want something; there’s no meaningful distinction between demand for diamonds and demand for, say, televisions or books or clothes or food. Everything’s advertised, and everything is subject to supply limitations of some kind.
I mean, what does “market manipulation” even mean? All advertising is market manipulation. Actually, just entering a market manipulates it. The instant I start selling widgets, I’m making changes to the widget market.
I’m also saying that the notion that diamonds have no “intrinsic value” is a claim without any reason or meaning. Nothing has intrinsic value, economically speaking; all value is subjective. If you value diamonds, they’re worth something to you, and if you don’t, they they’re not. The same works for most anything else. I don’t place any value at all on motorcycles; unless I was allowed to immediately resell it for a higher price, I would not want to possess a brand new Harley for any price, not even a dollar. But I do value cars. I own a car, gladly pay for it, and likely always will. That doesn’t mean motorcycles have “no intrinsic value” but that cars do. It’s just my opinion as to what has utility and what does not.
It’s not a “scam” to limit supply or market your wares, or else basically everything sold by anyone is a scam, including, incidentally, almost all food. Nigerian emails are scams. Ponzi schemes are scams. Misleading people with confusing invoices, that’s a scam. Saying diamonds are a scam because you like them less than other people is absurd.
I don’t think anyone was saying that.
One difference arguably between “fair” and “unfair” market manipulation is whether a given practice would be successful whether or not a company is in a monopoly position.
Controlling supply the way De Beers has would fit the latter term, IMO: it was only made possible because of the monopoly they had.
Even Cecil has described what De Beers did as “a con, pure and simple”.
De Beers no longer has a monopoly, so some are saying that diamonds are now (correctly) demand-driven.
I disagree. Competition still seems sluggish to say the least. Doesn’t look like an open market.
Alcohol. That is the biggest scam of all time. It is a beverage that alters behavior and packs on empty calories. Basically, you pay to have mood swings and get fat.