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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?

Replies (45)

↩ replying to npub1v40s...2y09
Except that isn't necessarily true. No one brushes their teeth perfectly, which is why its recommended that you have plaque removed twice yearly or roughly every six months. I used to be a dental assistant. No one, even the best of examples, hits every spot perfectly. And the results over time can be damaging. There are also other screenings performed. We've caught early cancer development between cleanings. Other issues can be caught early too that may lead to complications if left unchecked. There are also certain conditions that people may be unaware of that can create a harmful oral environment. This isn't a scam. It's based on broad data for a very diverse population. I've never met anyone, even dentists, who don't benefit from at least an annual cleaning and exam. I've never seen a single patient waste their time coming twice annually. There's always preventative measures to take. Oral health can also affect other organ systems.
↩ replying to 🐈
Those are usually for SRP to prevent or treat gum disease. In fairness, that *usually* is due to poor hygiene. On average, most people, even the ones with good hygiene, benefit from 2 cleanings and screenings per year. If you only go when you have a problem, you almost certainly could have caught the issue much earlier and prevented damage or decreased your chances of more serious outcomes, such as tooth or jaw bone loss or infection, including of the heart and other systems. People can do whatever they want, obviously. But almost everyone is better off going every six months if they can. You can go less and save whatever low amount dental insurance is, but all you're doing is increasing your odds of health problems to save a few bucks a month. I saw a young guy in the emergency department a few months ago for what ended up being pericarditis secondary to a dental problem that would have been discovered on dental xrays and exams before it became a major problem. He didn't even know the problem was that big yet. A dentist would have known when it was small. Really small. To each their own.
↩ replying to 🐈
Even if rare, you may prevent early death by just getting your teeth cleaned and screened every six months. It's worth the few bucks to me. This is why I don't like to use words like "scam" so loosely. People tend to conflate shit they don't want to do or pay for or anecdotes with fraud. YOU may indeed be okay up until now. But many others, on average, weren't (hence the recommendations).
Milspec - not because military specifications aren't real and honored by some manufactures. The term is used falsely a lot though. Similar: military grade, industrial grade (again, not always strictly meaningless, but often enough that you have to verify actual specs)
In the US, we have a general scam related to compensation for government abuse. IF someone can sue and IF they win, the damages are paid for using taxes stolen from the abused citizens. So you tend to see government abuse people simply because it has nothing to lose. If it goes to court, so what? The People pay regardless. The violators usually are protected from personal liability. Government overreach and abuse has no meaningful downside for government officials. The incentive is to just throw as much spaghetti as possible at the walls and see what sticks. It's a never ending battle for freedom that WE have to pay for. A scam if there ever was one.
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↩ replying to 🐈
It depends - you're right if it's limited runs of an otherwise mass-produced product. Then yes, it's manufactured demand. But if it's limited runs as a business strategy, like those pens →
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 it's not. It's just a business model.
I don't agree that all of these are necessarily scams or even wrong, but many are and there is a veritable mountain of marketing bs out there for sure, and we really have to guard ourselves against it.
🐈's avatar 🐈
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?
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