Forum Post: THEORY ON TIERS of corporate/ consumer treatment, discrimination, and secret redlining
Posted 8 years ago on March 28, 2016, 10:45 a.m. EST by elf3
(4203)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I have a theory on levels of corporate policies exerted on consumers....it seems like every month there is something new which I must dispute...some new level of ridiculousness or policies being inflicted on me by banks and companies which seem neverending...it has become overwhelming and exhausting playing this game of consumer whack a mole....BUT as I ask around and talk to others I notice that older baby boomers and, those in wealthier income brackets don't seem to be having these issues...they look at me like I am insane and in disbelief...so what I want to know is what percent of consumers are having these problems...and are they being delved out in either a generational or income based or perhaps even discriminatory fashion...or am I just the unluckiest person in the country or perhaps is it due to the nature of my political leanings and identification as a member of Occupy. I believe this needs to be further investigated and it is going to take an investigation and our reporting of these problems to figure that out...most of my spare time is spent on the phone disputing error after error after rate increase etc etc...is anyone else here in my boat?
Time is money...and some of us are paying far more than others in this regard. What protections do we have from this type of tyranny...When corporations are allowed to play games with our accounts...our precious time...and our health as ultimately the stress of such games begins to wear on us and our lives as it takes a toll on our well being and happiness?
I do think there is something to all that you say. I can't quite put my finger on it but in general I get the feeling that corporations have targets out on certain people, groups of people, neighborhoods, call it what you might.
Definition of Redlining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
Obviously, we are not all equal in this country, nor are we really in control of our lives. If we want to participate in society and have things like t.v., internet, phone, healthcare, education and food to eat, we have to participate. We have to buy their shit and deal with their nonsense.
Have you ever seen a Verizon Wireless bill? They are like 8 pages long. The company that made $39 billion in profit last year can't find a way to produce a shorter bill. Why? Because they want to complicate it so you can't understand any of the outrageous charges and they can hold on to their obscene profit from overcharging the American people.
Likewise, the K-Mart near me produces receipts that are as long as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's all to dupe and confuse.
We basically have no one looking out for our consumer rights. Like workers' rights, consumer rights are a thing of the past.
I'm so sick and tired of the discount cards you get at all the different stores and the friggin' rebate b.s. It's all such a waste of time, our time, as they try to get inside our brains to sell us more stuff and rip us off with exploitative prices when all we want to do is have some security and live peacefully.
I think you hit it with them complicating things on purpose...if not to confuse, than certainly to waste time and definitely exhaust us...it is not by accident. Tired people aren't as feisty....tired people can't go over things with a fine tooth comb or spend hours on the phone...often times it is just easier to pay...unless you are like a dog with a bone ...who will never let go...but things do get sacrificed that way. And if they could chip our brains they surely would be airing advertisements and reading our thoughts all day...kinda like when they spy on your web searches, listen to you through your remote (this one actually came true now...wow) and on your cell conversations...right up there with the books you take out at the library. ...but worse cause purchases are now cross referenced with income and daily patterns ...location...bank account data...just ...scary. Scarier still is the lack of younger generations awareness of why this is so frightening scarier still their inability to draw conclusions.
security from "security" ....give me liberty or give me death... being crushed by the evergrowing corporate thumb a far from peaceful living.
There is a name for this ...it is called extortion...is there a level they wont sink to? No they use human beings as slaves in other countries to produce our goods...if we want to know where they will go ...it has been spelled out for us
We either don't play the game, and remove ourselves from their economic control as much as possible, as Grapes rightly points out as a viable option, or we fight back.
Americans are beginning to realize that having "freedom" without economic freedom is not freedom at all.
From what I can see by the Sanders campaign and the millions of people behind him, change is coming. Let's hope :).
I don't know if we can believe any politician at this point. I honestly think an armed revolution against corporate rule and tyranny may be the only answer. Corporations have colonized this nation...they occupy our government, courts, rule of law, and run our elections. Nothing can be trusted. We need to lure corporations into crossing a blaring line in the sand...and then unleash a full throttle attack. Until Dow and banks FEAR the people ...we will have no voice...politicians will appease their whims. They will dupe and ignore us ...they will turn traitor like Obama did. Even Bernie can't fight the type of power they currently wield. Until we take that power away...until they fear us...the system will not change.
Check out Russel Means, and the Republic of Lakota. His message basically is "go local." Dealing with the establishment is a waste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LA-S64QY3o
See my comment below. "Go local."
A new way to redline...are corporations doing this by community right in blaring plain view...who is checking...redlining is illegal ...in all of its forms...even so far as pricing products by zipcode...higher for lower income areas? More hastle and skipping over laws for those in poorer zipcodes? Done perhaps by demographic? Who is checking? What methods are there for stopping these types of corporate games? Of course they would be less likely to bother those with incomes to afford lawyers and who can have time/ afford protection of the laws....but with an ever blurred line between big data...income information...nsa spying...and shared information on every bit of our information...who is to say this is not now happening with the ever infringement of our privacy and growing corpirate knowledge being shared with new technologies and public databases? Technology makes redlining invisible and easier than ever. Can't get a job lately...? Perhaps you have been secretly redlined for data which you are not privy to. Hastle with constant billing errors or credit errors ....perhaps it is no mistake.
Generational would make sense if companies are implementing a new normal on us...a just that is the way it is...would only work on those who had not experienced life without all of this insanity...boomers would be rioting in the streets if they had to deal with this since they grew up with different standards. As a gen exer being categorized as a millenial I too remember those standards so to me it is an absolute outrage to be living my life this way...at times I am so stressed and overwhelmed by it I am ready to have a breakdown. The lack of trackability on this matter is what really bothers me. I can see no real way of knowing just who they are playing these boundary games with. Since I can dispute and challenge it it doesn't stick...but I must spend half a day on the phone on hours of hold...wasting precious chunks of my life to do so. I can't imagine I am this unlucky...I imagine there are more of us. Where is the tea party when it comes to this as surely in days past such tyranny would result in a massive revolution....or perhaps they aren't experiencing it and banks are choosing sides and giving preferred treatment to their cronies?
I think your problem is you know you're getting screwed. (I got the same problem.)
Actually, I believe this economic warfare mental burnout thing is really focused in on the small time millionaires; the petty rich. The truly poor are just expendable pawns that the big money no longer needs to worry about. The problem for the ruling oligarchy is the small time money who still may have a word or two to say, and a card or two to play in the political game..
You're correct about this. The flies don't swarm a soiled baby diaper thrown astray beside the garbage can if it has coagulated solid. I guess camouflage can work to fool the flies.
I know a sure way to deal with these problems that I learnt a long time ago from watching the movie, War Games, "The only winning move is not to play."
Live far away from the financial mushroom clouds and you don't have to drink tritium Kaffee. Jesus told us not to accumulate wealth on Earth but treasures in His Father's house. Get needs met somehow without dealing with plutonium (which decays pretty fast) so you wouldn't care about finance.
Being from an older generation helps greatly because I knew that things had been done in many different ways before. They were neither fast nor convenient but they work without digital hounds eating cookie crumbs from my hole-punched pockets holding plutonium.