The first scam that affected me personally was the call to arms to fight in the Vietnam War. LBJ masterminded that. I spent seventeen months on aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin, never directly in harm’s way, but close to pilots, air crewmen, and ship crewmen who died from enemy action and accidents.
Richard Nixon was a crook. He is probably the patron saint for the CEOs of today.
I get multiple scam calls per day about extended warranties for my car, the IRS, and my credit card.
Garmin, having sold me two lifetime updates for the maps on my GPS devices, has decided they made a bad business decision. Apparently, the fact that maps are available for free on most cell phones has hurt their pocketbook. They disabled both of my devices, and now want me to pay them to update the software that allows me to download those maps for which I already paid.
Insulin and epinephrine, both discovered over a hundred years ago, are now so expensive that patients in need have to decide whether to eat, pay rent, or buy their medicine. Epinephrine has been manufactured for a hundred years; human insulin has ben manufactured for forty years.
Razor blades are so expensive that growing beards make more sense.
DirecTV and DISH scam customers with come-ons and bait and switch tactics. DirecTV offered me one service, signed me up for another because the first was unavailable. The DISH sales representative neglected to tell me that if I paused my account that all incentives would be null and void, and to restart the account would cost 50% more than the price he quoted me.
CEOs make thousands of times what their average worker makes, more than they could spend in a lifetime.
The tax rate on the richest people in the U.S. and successful companies doesn’t cover their cost to the country: for infrastructure use, the rule of law, the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, or protection of the country and citizens by the military.
I am retired now. I was an adequate physician. I worked many, many different jobs because of one fault: I didn’t feel obligated to prescribe unneeded medication to patients just because they wanted it (antibiotics and narcotics, usually). Most clinic directors and hospital CEOS desire that patients go home happy, so they will return in the future. They don’t care if there is a national crisis, or two, with antibiotic resistance or opioids. I usually lasted a year or two before the number of complaints by patients made moving on a good option.
Big Pharma bribes hospital CEOs and physicians with free meals, clinic presentations, continuing education, kickbacks, etc.
Congress and local politicians line their pockets with lobbyists’ money. The Supreme Court sees no conflict with PACs or the corruption brought on by donations to political campaigns without controls by rich citizens and wealthy corporations.
Software vendors statements about privacy and use of their products are so long and so full of legal jargon as to be unreadable and worthless.
Scientific American recently published a study about bribery. People who think bribery exists tend to want to participate. That attitude is contagious. People who see speeders and aggressive drivers tend to assume that is normal and copy that style of driving. Corruption and selfishness breed more of the same.
Until a sense of integrity is restored in the U.S., we are stuck with this mentality.
