this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
504 points (97.5% liked)

No Stupid Questions

36154 readers
623 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm just a regular person making about $70K a year in a big city, and I've recently felt incredibly powerless dealing with private companies. For instance, my landlord’s auto-pay system had a glitch that excluded my pet rent and water bill. I ended up with over $1,000 in late fees. Despite hours on the phone, it turns out their system doesn’t really do auto-pay and requires a fixed amount instead of covering the full rent. It feels like a scam, and my options are to pay the fees or potentially spend a fortune on legal action.

Another frustrating experience was trying to cancel my pest control service. I had to endure a 40-minute call followed by 35 minutes of arguing, just to finally cancel. There’s no online cancellation option, and the process felt like a timeshare sales pitch.

Why do ordinary people seem so unprotected against these shady practices, and how can we change this? How does one person even start to address these issues?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago (6 children)

We need a kind of everybody union.

I had this conversation with lots of people if everyone saw a company is doing things or taking advantage of people imagine if on the exact same day, one million customers canceled their accounts. That kind of unity can give all the power needed to the regular people. But you can’t get people to cooperate or even to have enough self-discipline to go along with something that isn’t for their immediate and measurable benefit. And so the big players know they can abuse and exploit.

[–] rimmedalpha@lemmynsfw.com 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A more perfect union, that can establish justice and domestic tranquility. One that provides for the common defense, promotes the general welfare, and secures the blessing of liberty for ourselves and future generations.

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Dang, if only we had written that down and made it legally enforceable

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

One big union? For all the industrial workers in the world? I wonder if anyone has thought of that before.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 months ago

Too bad it never works.

[–] tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We need a kind of everybody union.

In a democracy, that's called a government.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

U.S.A. is not a democracy, it’s an oligarchy. Has been for decades, but more so now than ever before. Corporations have begun to openly ignore law and have no fear of punishment. Because they own the government they write the laws and they decide what happens everywhere.

As I said in a different comment, it’s a painful thing to hear, but the sad simple truth is, the bad guys won.

[–] lone_faerie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that ideally what the government is supposed to be? We can't all individually fight for ourselves, so we vote for people to represent us and work to protect our interests. That is, if politicians actual represented their constituents and not the highest bidder.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Well yes except our government is bought and owned by those corporations. That’s why we are not represented by them.

There’s a simple way to put it, but it’s painful to hear: the bad guys won.

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

I have had this same thought many times! Vote with our wallets en masse. It's kind of almost happening to fast food.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

In Australia ACCC takes care of abusive businesses, surely there must be something like that? Even 3rd world countries like Brazil has something like it.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nope. America is OWNED by rich people. It’s a corporation and they make the laws so all the laws are to help them have more power.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I wouldn't see it so black-and-whitely. I don't think Tim Walz is owned by anyone and he is running for VP.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He’s beholden to the corporations controlled by the wealthiest 1%. Anyone who gets elected is already someone who “plays ball” because they don’t get to there otherwise.

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ha you don't even get to run without people in line to donate to you. And since corp donates for both candidates it's a win or win situation for them, which implies lose or lose for everyone.

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

It would be nice if corporate bribery were not allowed. Giving tens of millions to them - to their “campaign” - which they all funnel and launder into their pockets - is literal and unambiguous bribery. And yet it’s the reality of our nation.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 0 points 3 months ago

AIPAC owns him.

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We have the Federal Trade Comission but it needs to have the balls to really protect us.

Even when they step up its usually a small fine the offender just writes off as the cost of doing business.

Corp breaks a law. Makes $100m profit. Gets $10m fine. All good for the books!!

[–] WammKD@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 months ago

True but Lina Khan's been doing some great work in changing that agency's track record.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I haven't been to Brazil but as far as its politics goes I don't think it's that 3rd world

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Wait until you see the Brazilian definition of poverty. People literally dream of having the chance to be poor in US.