Have you noticed how so many companies run on people not actually knowing things? This way people can be tricked out of their money.

Some examples:

1. The consumer finance industry (credit cards, "Buy Now Pay Later," high-interest loans)

2. The "Wellness" Industry with expensive supplements that often contain simple vitamins

3. The selling of our personal data for thousands of dollars

4. Making people believe the purchase of the next material thing will will finally be the thing that makes them happy

5. Banks actively profit from people's financial illiteracy and they actively fight against better service providers like Wise or Revolut because they cut into their profits

Companies are incentivized to make the truth hard to find or understand, because if something seems complicated you are okay with paying for someone else to do it.

There's no conspiracy here, companies exploit people to make money. But it's all consensual, you sign for it…you buy it…

More like dishonesty and greed but yeah

I think you're mistaking ignorance for desperation/necessity in a lot of cases.

1. Kinda self explanatory - people know better and still get trapped out of necessity

2. Our lifestyles have been engineered for profit instead of wellness and busy working class people are looking for a silver bullet

3. You literally cannot exist in modern society without the internet

4. Consumerism is LITERALLY that for billions of people living mundane lives. A little slice of actually experiencing something new and exciting through falling for marketing is all most can afford

5. Nobody believes that banks are a pure and just institution, not even in the middle ages

Edited February 3Feb 3 by Sheep

I agree. It's why we need education

that's just capitalism

Ignorance aside, justifying or normalizing these kind of practices by saying "it's consensual" or "it's just capitalism" is the real issue

I thought this thread was more about the narrow-minded rather than reluctance out of necessity, about society not wanting to know about real issues that concern everybody so they pick and choose where to look at instead. Goes from consumerism, to politics, beliefs, etc.

1 minute ago, Spicy Pisces said:

I thought this thread was more about the narrow-minded rather than reluctance out of necessity, about society not wanting to know about real issues that concern everybody so they pick and choose where to look at instead. Goes from consumerism, to politics, beliefs, etc.

Yeah. It's a tricky experience of knowing better than you're able to actually do, because your brain assesses the danger of maybe the ideal action in every given scenario not being the one that keeps it easier for you to remain with food, shelter and resources.

People can believe in something strongly and still not die for it, so the resulting culture is miserable because everyone feels compromised before they actually are.

we're living in hell actually

its not just ignorance, the system is just built to squeeze every dollar. older people are especially vulnerable to this.

Fashion fits this too

it's been building up to this for quite a while

It seems like a very u(s) problem to me?!

(E)u can live without it tho

Well…yes. It's no conspiracy that wealthy people are all extremely financially literate while poor people are not or have no time to be because living has become the same as drowning. It starts at home, in schools, with the unaffordability of higher ed, etc.

I had to learn everything about money on my own because my parents sucked at it and even now I'm still learning new things. It's a ridiculous system.

Yes, you're right (and you should say it), but the good news is that I suspect it is slowly getting better.

• Less smoking

• Less alcohol and drug consumption

• More emphasis on healthy eating and exercise than even 20 years ago

• More emphasis on work/life balance than 20 years ago

• Less trust in the institutions you mentioned: banks, credit cards, insurance companies, etc

• The internet has democratized people's ability to access information. Wise and Revolut are popular now. 20 years ago, the big banks were the only options people used

Sometimes I see old videos on YouTube of the public being interviewed or talking about something, and sorry to say but they seemed far more ignorant, naive, and trusting than people are today. It's going to keep getting better.

Edited February 5Feb 5 by Capris Groove