Biggest scam you didn’t know was a scam

Leasehold flats. I've lived in my flat for 16 years, paying £1000 per year to the landowner, to do nothing. The lease has "run short of years" with around 80 years left so last year I paid another £15,000 including legal fees to buy extra years.

what is tret?

Was going to post exactly this! Cleaning chair legs is bananas, I’ve never heard of it and would never do it, unless the chair had been splatted with food or something. Stop it immediately and spend the time doing something more fun!

my bank account is free AND I get free Disney+ and cashback

Three-quarter length sleeves. I hate them. They save money for the clothing industry. I can’t see the point of them, if it’s cold your lower arms freeze, if it’s warm you end up shoving them up your arms.

this. Is wiping chairlegs and washing walls actually a thing? Full disclosure. I do chase staircase cobwebs with a duster on a really really long pole and a cordless vac

Bottled water.

We've all been conned into thinking that we need to hydrate ourselves constantly and big business has tapped (see what I did there?) into the scam by convincing us that extortionately priced spring water or expensively filtered water is somehow healthier whilst we’re doing it.

There was an experiment several years ago on TV where they got identical adult twins, for 10 days, to either constantly drink water as we are encouraged to do, and the other one to only drink when she felt had the need to. At the end there was no difference whatsoever in skin clarity, texture or health benefits. There didn’t appear to be any need to additionally ‘flush’ out our kidneys as we are told, as it’s a perfectly normal process that our bodies just get on with regardless. The conclusion the experts came to was that unless you are exercising or sweating, there appears to be little benefit in consuming large amounts of additional water as your body just pees it away. Just drink when you’re thirsty, not set a target of how much you must consume.

Brexit
(except I knew it was a scam, it’s just the in-laws that have taken years to realise)

We downsized from a large country house. Most of the furniture had to go. I had a purge of everything for weeks on end boxing up the good stuff, binned the rest. Our local hospice came in a big van to take it all away.

It's freeing. I don't miss the cleaning at all.

Women’s lib.

We were told in the 60s that women working like men do would bring about a fairer society where the sexes were equally valued, and split all activities.

It hasn’t, it’s resulted in a society where women typically still do the majority of caring work and carrying of the mental load, PLUS they’re now expected to work and financially contribute as much as men. Two income households have driven up the demand for cars, resulted in higher housing and mortgage costs, and has created the ludicrous childcare market which seems to serve precisely nobody (and I’m including childcare workers in that!).

(And I’m posting this predominantly tongue-in-cheek but it’s a niggling annoyance! I work and love being independent and my husband is one of those people who does more than his fair share, but I see so many women around me broken my the constant juggling they’re not expected to do in the name of equality).

No idea. Someone mentioned up thread that they have then.

There's the energy scam, while we have a larger population. Just think about the amount of KW that we use now compared to say the 80s/90s. We had 100w bulbs in each room. Now we have low energy devices and get scammed with standing charges.

Water scam, citizens shouldn't have to pay for water as long as we aren't wasteful or polluters.

Packaging scam, we don't want all these plastics, and all plastics can be recycled, if the infrastructure exists, and we have better guidelines and systems in place. But why let companies sell this crap in the first place.

Paint. We are daubing pollutants onto our walls in our home when a bit of lime wash would do and be healthier. Who cleans this pollution up?

Farming and agriculture scam, they pollute the waterways, and the plebs are left to clean it up.

Car scam, most people could use a small electrified vehicles for the majority of journeys, but there is no revenue to be made that way.

Toilet scam, the greenest toilet is probably shitting in a bucket of sawdust and throwing it on a compost pile. But even a task as simple as that has been made overly complicated with mandatory sewerage system rental.

Cleaning product scam, there's something like a brand in America for soda crystals, where it's repackaged into about 10 different products, one for the kitchen, one for the bathroom etc. When all you need is soda crystals. And nothing much else. There's a whole load of hazardous materials filling supermarket isles for no good reason.

Pharmaceutical scam, cheaper to load people up with blood thinners than have them live a healthier lifestyle.

Meat scam, it takes a silly amount of energy to feed and sustain an animal that you then eat. Why grow fields and fields of food for animals when we could just eat those foods or grow alternatives instead? And why subsidise meat and dairy instead of vegetables? Why can I buy a pack of sausages for the price of a pepper and an avocado?

Banks that charge a monthly fee on your account to get cash back.
My bank says “you’ve earned £15 this month” - well I haven’t have I - take off the £3 you charge me and it’s actually £12.

Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Brunei, Bahrain, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Monaco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Somalia, and Western Sahara.

17 countries out of the entire world. Several not democracies and funded by vast oil wealth. Others funded by being offshore investment havens.

Funerals are surely the ultimate scam?

Those white Mercedes cars that every working class but thinks they're middle class, Mum's drive around in are a scam imo.

Just get buy second hand Fiesta and stop trying to impress people with your imaginary wealth via car finance.

Oh, I got another one.

Female pockets are a scam. They seem largely decorative, hardly anything fits in there and you still need a damn purse if you are gone for the day. Ultimate scam!

center parcs the holiday park?
I'm confused. Are you saying people would be happy with 15 minute cities because some people like center parcs?

Weddings are ultimate scam. We did the whole works 10 years ago for ours and I CRINGE looking back! I could only stomach about 10 minutes of the wedding DVD that we paid a fortune for. I have declined most of the invites we’ve gotten in recent years. I will send a card and cash gift but cannot bring myself to sit through one and watch people I know/love getting fleeced.

Cleaning is a scam. It's annoying, boring, unrewarding, relentless and when you're done it all just gets dirty again.

I saw a lady with a worn leather handbag. The good quality type that's retained its shape and the perfect size, not too small, not too big.
First thing I thought was how her life must be so well organised.
Didn't fall for the trends and to be fair, she seemed old monied.

I had one handbag growing up then started the greed😅, but have since downsized to 3.

I think it's what you get sucked into OP.

Which countries are they?

Weddings, good God. I am currently planning mine and the wedding planner (needed because it’s abroad in a country one of us is from) keeps trying to upsell me on things like renting designer chairs and sending long impassioned texts about how other couples are hunting for said chairs and she is stressed. Absolutely not.

most stuff on temp and TikTok shop - stuff you don't need and will last 5 minutes

bit like the betterware catalogue, full of items you don't need

What on earth are kitchen shoes?!