Full transcript of “Why EVERYTHING Feels Like A Scam Now”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 I feel pretty confident in saying that I'm not the only one who's noticed that almost everything kind of feels like a scam lately. Like everywhere you go, people are just trying to take your money by any means necessary. There's a saying that capitalism breeds innovation. And I do believe there was a time when that was true. But nowadays, I'm not so convinced. Like it used to be that if you wanted to make a lot of money, you had to solve a problem or provide some sort of value to the public. Doing so is how companies would establish themselves and build a trustworthy reputation and brand loyalty with their customers. But those days are long gone and now we're living in what I've started calling the grift economy. In the grift economy, no one is really playing the long game anymore. No one is interested in providing true value and
0:46 reputation is basically meaningless. It's all about squeezing every possible dollar out of every possible person at every possible moment and providing as little as possible in return. Typically using tactics that are manipulative at best and completely exploitative at worst. Somehow we've gotten to a point where nearly every facet of life is a transaction that benefits someone else more than it benefits you. Like you can sign up for a subscription service in under a minute, but you have to jump through endless hoops making phone calls and emails when the time comes that you want to cancel. You order takeout and end up paying $30 for an $8 sandwich thanks to service fees and delivery charges and tips. And if your $30 sandwich is shitty, which realistically it probably will be, well, sucks to
1:33 suck. That's your problem. You buy clothing and it disintegrates after two washes. You're pressured to tip $2 on a $7 coffee that's only worth a buck to begin with. You pay $50 in convenience fees for buying concert tickets online. And hey, did you hear that Netflix is increasing their prices by yet another dollar per month? And whatever you do, don't miss out on the once in a-lifetime chance to own an NFT, of a meme, of a never mind. Over time, there has been a very deliberate shift in how businesses view consumers. What used to be a symbiotic relationship where money was exchanged for value is now just a race to the bottom funded by suckers. And all of us are the suckers. Money can be exchanged for goods and services. Woohoo.
2:20 You know how I said that companies used to have to solve a problem or provide some sort of genuine value to make money? Well, the clever workaround that they found is that they can just create a problem and then turn around and sell you the solution. Isn't that awesome? Planned obsolescence is obviously old news, but it's more rampant now than ever. Companies have figured out that if they make things shittier, make them break faster, and make them nearly impossible or at least cost prohibitive to repair, people will have no choice but to just keep buying them again and again. Do it enough times and it becomes normalized and now we buy $1,500 smartphones that we expect to replace every 2 to 3 years. But do you know what's even better than a shitty overpriced product that's made to break? a shitty overpriced product that's made to break and that requires a monthly subscription in order for you just to
3:06 use it. That way you can pay over and over again to replace the thing when it dies and pay every month until then just to use it. Sounds reasonable. I mean, why screw someone once when you can just screw them again and again and again? It sounds like something Bill Cosby would say. To be clear, I'm not totally against subscription services. Like I think it makes perfect sense to pay on an ongoing basis when you're getting an ongoing service, but that's just not the case for your printer or your heated car seats or your freaking doorbell. Do you remember when social media first became a thing? MySpace, Facebook, Instagram. They were platforms that were meant to connect you with your friends and family. You could use them to meet new people who were into the same things that you were into. They used to provide value, but now social media is almost
3:53 exclusively advertisements. And I'm not even really sure why we still use it to be honest because for every one post you might see from someone that you know, someone that you've actually chosen to follow, you're likely going to see four to five to maybe even 10 ads from companies that you've never even heard of yelling at you to let you know that there is supposedly a bigger, better, nicer version of everything and you need it. This t-shirt fits better than any t-shirt you've ever worn before. These are the softest underwear in the entire world. This is the greatest cookwware ever invented. This is the only case that will protect your phone from a drop. This shampoo will change your life. What you have right now is trash. So, buy what we're selling. Spend, spend, spend, consume, consume, consume.
4:39 Once again, these are problems that I don't really think exist. I don't think many people are sitting around on an everyday basis fixating on how soft their underwear is. And I'm even less convinced that some random company that no one's ever heard of happens to make the greatest t-shirt in the world. But if they can convince you that there's something better to be had, then maybe you'll give them your money. And hey, if word gets out that their product is actually crap, well, they can just pull the plug, disappear off the face of the earth, and start over under a brand new name just like that. Oh yeah, and a lot of these companies are also subscriptions because of course they are. What do you mean you don't want $70 worth of shampoo auto build to your credit card every month? Don't worry though, you can always cancel, if you can even figure out how to. I think that
5:24 the popularity of companies like Teimu and Shien really highlight how normalized the grift economy has become. Because chances are that if Timu was a brickandmortar store and you went in looking for something for anything really, you'd most likely leave without buying anything at all when you realized that the quality of their products is somehow even worse than what you'd find at a dollar store. So even at the low prices, it's just not worth it. But because they're online, you're shopping blindly, relying only on a bunch of product reviews that are very likely manipulated, if not entirely fabricated. And then you get your $20 worth of lead painted baby toys or whatever in the mail and realize that surprise, they're trash. But what are you going to do about it? Are you going to spend money to mail it back to China for a refund? Probably not. So, they've just sold you
6:11 $20 worth of asbestous and fire hazards, and there's nothing you can do. That's not enough. We demand more asbestous. More asbestous. More asbestous. Congratulations, you've been grifted. Fast fashion operates under the exact same model where they know that they can sell you something that is literal garbage, but if the price is low enough, you won't care enough to complain. Do this to a few hundred million people and before you know it, you've gotten rich, selling actual trash. But what I think is even worse than cheap, crappy companies selling cheap, crappy clothing is the bait and switch of companies who initially used to sell a quality product at a fair price and then gradually increase their prices while decreasing the quality of their products, all in hopes that no one would notice. It used to be that the term fast fashion
6:58 referred to stores like H&M and Forever 21 and Zara, like stores that are known specifically for being really cheap. But now you'd be hardressed to find a single store in any mall at any price point selling something that isn't fast fashion. Everything is fast fashion now. Even the brands that used to be considered decent. Levis's is fast fashion. Unilo is fast fashion. The Gap is fast fashion. All the department stores sell almost exclusively fast fashion. Guess sells jeans for over $200. And guess what? They're still fast fashion. I think I'm going to make an entire video about fast fashion soon. So, let me know below if that's something you'd be interested in. Now, we couldn't talk about the grift economy without talking about one of the most nefarious types of grifters around, data brokers. Data brokers make a fortune buying and selling your personal
7:44 information. Things like your full name, address, and phone number, where you work, your medical and legal history, your political affiliations, you know, all sorts of things that should be private. But they make this information available to basically anyone. We're obviously living in very politically charged times right now. So, imagine making a comment online and pissing off someone who has like a screw or two loose in their head, who then decides to Google you and find out where you live or work and come after you. It sounds crazy, but it happens a lot. This is why I've been personally using today's sponsor, Delete Me, for the last year to help keep my privacy intact and keep me safe while I partake in my favorite pastime, rattling cages. Delete Me works on an ongoing basis, scanning the internet to find out where your information is listed that it shouldn't be and then have it removed without you
8:31 having to lift a finger. Then they send you a quarterly report showing you everything they found and removed just like that. So if you care about your privacy as much as I care about mine, head over to joindeme.com/nicole or scan this QR code and use the code Nicole to get 20% off your US consumer plan. Another way that companies like to grift us is with manufactured scarcity. By convincing you that demand is high and availability is low, not only are you more likely to buy on impulse, but you'll probably be willing to spend more when you do, even if what you're buying is a turd that no one will care about in 6 months. We saw this with Stanley Cups. We saw this with Funko Pops. And as I actually just learned a few days ago, there's a new piece of crap on the market called a labubu. I'm not even really sure what the hell a labu is, but I promise you that you don't need one. Actually, I heard that word for the
9:17 first time a few days ago, and I swear to God, I thought that it was a euphemism for a labia, and I was like, "Oh, is that what we're calling it nowadays?" Because I've still been calling mine a hoo-ha. But I guess if you want to have your labuazzled, be my guest. Apparently, it's just a stupid toy. But, uh, yeah, FOMO leads to impulse spending. We all know that. But you can't spend what you don't have, right? As if. Buy now, pay later, Just another way to grift you into spending money you don't have on you don't need. Oh my god, there are going to be people out there going into debt, buying lab boooos with CLA. They probably already are. And of course, we couldn't talk about fake scarcity and speculative value without acknowledging the wildest pump and dump of our lifetime, cryptocurrency and NFTTS. What Stanley Cups were to bottle
10:04 blonde Mormon housewives, NFTts were to basement dwelling alt-right neck beards. something completely valless for them to wet their pants over all in hopes that owning one would make them look special. And yeah, it did. Do all those dweebs know that you can rightclick and save any JPEG for free? But okay, let's say you're someone like me, a reasonably conscious consumer who doesn't use Door Dash and doesn't pay for unwanted subscriptions and doesn't buy random crap from Instagram. Maybe you've never owned a Stanley Cup, never bought an NFT, and never got your labuazzled. You're immune to the grift economy, right? Nope. The grift goes so much further than just fats. It's ingrained in almost everything we do. Like, let's talk about tipping culture. Tips used to
10:51 be a gratuitity, a few extra bucks that you'd leave for your server at a sit-down restaurant if they went over and above to make your experience amazing. But quickly it became a way for not just restaurants but businesses of all types to offset their employees pay to the public. Now everywhere we go we get screens turned towards us to just ask us a few questions while we're guilted and shamed into paying 20 or 30% more for everything we do. Here in Toronto we have a franchise of bakeries that sells freshly baked bagels. So, you go in, you grab a paper bag and a pair of tongs, and you put as many bagels in your bag as you want, and then you take them up to the register to pay. The bagels are good, don't get me wrong, but they're not cheap. They're like $11 a dozen, which I think is a lot, but fine. So, I was there last week. I got a dozen
11:36 everything bagels, still warm out of the oven, brought them up to the register, and when I went to tap my card, I was prompted to leave a tip for the bagels that I counted and bagged myself. The week prior, I went to see a City and Color concert, and it was amazing. The tickets were $115 each, and I bought one for myself and one for my friend. Yet, somehow, the order came out to $277. How'd that happen? $23 worth of service fees per ticket. That's $46 in fees for I don't even know what cuz I picked the tickets. I bought them online. I didn't interact with a single human. No one provided me with any service of any type. My god, do I hate Ticket Master. Is there a single human alive who doesn't hate Ticket Master? But wait, it gets better because just this past
12:23 weekend, I went to another music festival out in the boonies. So, picture this, okay? I make the drive out to Nowhere Ontario. Service fee laden tickets in hand. These tickets were like $200, by the way. And when I finally arrive, I'm told that parking is $40. There wasn't even a parking lot. It was just $40 to park your car in a big muddy field. But fine, there's really no other choice, right? So, I reach for my wallet and I'm told, "No, no, no. You can't pay here. You have to buy a parking pass online through the festival's website." Seriously? So, okay. I pull over. I open the website on my phone. And guess what? Not only do I have to give them my contact information and agree to receive their stupid marketing emails that I definitely don't want, but the parking pass has another $13 in service and handling fees despite there not being
13:10 any service or handling involved. I don't want your spam emails. I don't want to pay a premium for the privilege of being forced to use your website whether or not I even want to. I just want to leave my goddamn car in this goddamn field and go see my goddamn bands. Goddamn it. $53 for parking. Honestly, this video could easily be an hour long and I still probably couldn't cover every way that we're being constantly ripped off every day. But let's try a quick rapidfire round, shall we? There's greenwashing. when companies try to make their product look all fancy and eco-friendly so you're willing to pay more for them thinking you're doing a good thing but uh no it's it's all There's shrinkflation when the quantity or the size of a product gets smaller while the price stays the same or even increases. So like there's less chips in the bag or the olive oil is now
13:55 3/4 of a liter instead of a full liter. I picked up a medium pizza last week and ate the whole thing myself in one go. A medium pizza used to feed two to three people. There's the gig economy where massive venture capitalbacked companies like Uber and Airbnb and Door Dash make billions of dollars every year by bypassing regulations and dodging liabilities and paying their workers less than minimum wage while systematically offering less and less value to the public at the exact same time. Do you remember when Uber used to be way cheaper than a taxi? Pepperage Farms remembers, wasn't that supposed to be the whole point? that it was cheaper, but now it's not. So, there are MLMs that lure stay-at-home moms into starting their own business for the low
14:41 low price of just $500 only to stick them with thousands of dollars worth of inventory that they'll never sell because, fun fact, but 99% of people who join an MLM lose money. Yes, for real, 99%. The list of everyday griffs is truly endless. But the real question is, how did we get here? I think a lot of this comes down to the fact that for most of us, at least here in the Western world, we already have everything we could ever need and more. But if we all acknowledged that we don't really need anything else and mostly just stop buying stuff, this giant pyramid scheme we call the economy would collapse and we'd all be in trouble. So instead of redesigning the economy to fit the needs of the people, we just manipulate the needs of the people to benefit the
15:27 economy. Pretty clever. When we no longer have problems that companies can solve with their products, the only way they can continue to rake in record profits year after year is to start creating problems so they can sell us the solutions. So they do. And with that, we now live in a world where almost everything is a scam. Pair all of that with a population of overworked, underpaid, burntout people just looking for a little excitement in their day and the convenience of things like one-click purchase and buy now pay later. And you have a recipe for exploitation. And I hate to say it, but it's probably only going to get worse. But the good news is that you do have some control in all this. The only person who ultimately gets to decide how you spend your money is you. So unsubscribe from email lists
16:12 that tempt you to buy garbage. Unfollow influencers who prey on your insecurities and try to make you feel like what you have isn't good enough. In fact, you know what? Spend less time on social media altogether. Try reading a book instead or watching a movie or listening to a full record front to back. Remember when that was a thing? Go for a walk. I don't know. Whatever. When you do buy, buy less, but better. One really high quality sweater might cost as much as 10 fast fashion sweaters, but it will last you forever. And I promise you that no one needs 10 polyester sweaters, and that you can live a tremendous life without ever placing an order on Teimu. This one might be controversial, but stop tipping for things that aren't a sit down service. The more passive we all are about this, the more widespread it's going to become. This isn't really about the two extra dollars at Starbucks. It's about
16:59 the fact that it's not your responsibility to pay Starbucks employees for them. And making you coffee is not exceptional service. It's just their freaking job. And no, I'm not tipping you when you ring me up for the bagels that I bagged myself. For that matter, you know what? Learn to cook at home. You don't have to be the next Gordon Ramsay. But being able to feed yourself decently well is a basic life skill that everyone should have. What are you? An idiot sandwich. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a video with some easy, budget friendly recipes. If you do get takeout, call the restaurant directly, place your order, and go pick it up. Screw Door Dash and their 300% markup. They're scamming you and the restaurant. Most importantly, just be aware of what's happening around you. As John Stewart likes to say, the best defense against is
17:44 vigilance. If you smell something, say something. I love that guy. If you like this video, like the video, subscribe for more. Follow me on Instagram. And don't forget to check out Delete Me at the link in the description box down below. Use my code Nicole at checkout. You'll get 20% off. Other than that, thank you guys so much as always for watching. Take care and I'll see you next week.
