When coming up with this article, I initially wanted to ask “When” it become acceptable to screw people over as a matter of business.
However, it didn’t take long for me to realize that this has been going on for a really long time. The phrases “pig in a poke” and “cat’s out of the bag” both came out of con games that screwed people over during the Dark Ages. “By hook or by crook” makes reference to fraud and theft. The French story “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (“Dangerous Liaisons”), which was translated into several movies and even sequels, is all about screwing people over, some even quite literally. The term “robber baron” came about because of the ruthless and exploitative behaviors of 19th Century businessmen.
So the question really is... Why is the practice of screwing people over acceptable? And especially why is it acceptable when it comes to business?
Take a look at the insurance industry. The premise is that you pay a little and the insurance company covers you in the event something happens. You pay life insurance so that money is paid out to your family if something happens to you. You pay car insurance in the event you get into an accident. You pay health insurance to help cover the costs of a sudden health problem. You pay home or rental insurance if something happens to your home.
But something happened to that idea. You keep paying, but the insurance doesn’t cover what it used to.
Car insurance premiums keep going up for any number of reasons and what they cover goes down. Car rental? Oh how did that suddenly vanish from your policy? We’ll put it back, but it’ll cost a little extra. Where once you would get a discount for not being in an accident, that magically vanished. You may be an excellent driver and have a clean driving record for years, but you’re still paying more and more every year because… profit.
Heath insurance doesn’t cover what it used to. Now you’re expected to pay a portion upfront before they start covering the rest. Yes, it’ll usually completely cover your doctor’s visit, unless your doctor finds something wrong. Then you have to pay, because then it’s not “a preventative visit”.
In fact, the whole healthcare system is a colossal scam. If you go to the hospital, you’re dealing with multiple agencies in that same building. The Emergency Room is a separate business. So is the X-Ray department. So are the labs that test your blood. So are the doctors that treat you. Even the doctor that shows up just to say “hi” but doesn’t do anything… that doctor is a separate agency. Whatever medication they proscribe comes from a pharmacy that is also separate. So instead of one bill, like you used to get, you now have to deal with several bills from all of those different groups, even though they all operate from that same hospital.
And here’s the real kicker: not all of them may be covered by your insurance. Your ER trip may be covered, but not the X-Ray department. Your doctor may be covered, but that one that just stopped in to say “hi” would not be, and you have to pay full price for that “visit”. The Pharmacy may be covered, but the specific drug may not be on their “approved” list and, gosh darn it, you should have asked for the generic, presuming you even had the option.
And your home/rental insurance… well, that’s great to have as long as nothing happens to your home.
The people in the mid-western United States found out the hard way about the perils of home insurance when a major hurricane barrels up from the Gulf Coast. The homes along the coast that got destroyed by the storm surge were denied coverage because they didn’t cover “wind damage”. And the homes further inland that also got hit by the same storm surge were denied coverage because they didn’t cover “flood damage”, even though that water came from the damaging winds.
The people in Florida that lost their homes because of the recent collapse of the Surfside Condominium are learning now that the coverage they’ve been paying for all those years will take years to be paid out, if at all. Big Insurance is demanding a definitive cause of the collapse, and all the parties are pointing fingers at each other and nobody is accepting fault. Then, once that’s done, the next fight will be over whether or not they’ll actually cover the damage.
And now the thing is to get people to pay for “supplemental” insurance, because the insurance you’ve been paying for in terms of health and home coverage isn’t enough anymore. So you have to pay extra to cover your lost time from work, and you have to pay extra to cover your appliances, and let’s not forget insurance for your pets!
About the only kind of insurance that isn’t actively trying to screw people over is life insurance, although this commentator is certain that’ll come up at some point.
Cable and satellite companies would lure subscribers in with their channels, and then shuffle the channels into different “packages” that you have to pay extra for in order to see what you used to normally see with your subscription. Ditto for Internet access. Oh, you thought you were getting that “ultra-high speed”? Nope, read the fine print where it says “up to”, and then to the part that says they can downgrade your access during what they deem to be “peak hours”.
You ever look at your cellphone bill at all of the different little expenses they keep adding on? How about your bank with all the fees they keep adding? Cripes, Wells Fargo got caught not once but twice screwing their own customers with multiple accounts and fees on top of fees. Ever fly lately? The price you pay for that airline ticket is not the full price you pay to get on that flight.
Screwjobs one and all.
So why is all of this acceptable?
You know, when I go to the grocery store, and I get a bunch of groceries and take them to the checkout lane, and the cashier rings it all up and puts it in the bag and loads it back into my cart, the amount I see on the register is the amount that I pay. I’m not hit with a “checkout fee” or a “bagging fee” or a “plastic bag fee”. I’m not expected to pay the cashier separately from the rest of the cost of the groceries. I’m not given a “butcher’s fee” for selecting their ground meat package instead of a frozen tube from the freezer cases. I don’t have someone telling me that I can’t have all four tomatoes that I paid for because of “peak shipping hours”, or my bank debit card being declined because the brand of toothpaste I want isn’t on their “acceptable product list”. And if I go to that little Starbucks shop inside the store and I pay for that $7 coffee, I expect to get that $7 coffee as soon as they make it, not after an “evaluation period” where they determine if I’m “worthy” of getting that large coffee or getting it in a little bathroom cup.
And you know what? I think it’s safe to say that if that was going on, a lot of us wouldn’t be going to that grocery store at all. We’d find some other alternative.
Too bad we can’t say the same with some of these other businesses.
So back to the question… why is it acceptable in business to screw your own customers? Why is it that we the lowly people have to say “buyer beware” when that kind of fraudulent activity should be weeded out?
I’m sure many of these businesses are owned by or managed by people who claim to be religious, and the dominant religious groups all have some sort of rule that says “thou shall not lie”, “thou shall not steal”, and “thou shall not covet”. But I have yet to see a business exemption for any of these rules. That little passage that says “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” means the government, not businesses. So how can any business community full of people who are supposedly religious validate screwing people over or allowing the practice of screwing people over?
And bear in mind that I am not talking about putting in regulations or some kind of legislation. It’s already been done repeatedly and clearly those haven’t worked. The business community have been busy making sure any such legislation or regulation or regulatory body is neutered. No, I’m talking about this being weeded out from within the business community.
Let’s get brutally honest here… the business community, whether we are talking about utilities or finances or essential services, need to be the ones to end the practice of screwing people over as a matter of business. They create standards of excellence for a whole range of other things involved with business operations. This needs to be one of them.
Yes, the business community have a long and sordid history of screwing people over to make a buck or to expand their profit margins whenever they can. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t do better.
No, screwing people over should not be acceptable. Nor should it be standard business practice for any business.
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