504
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

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
[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

The US is incredibly bad at reining in capitalism. It also only has two parties that are both heavily influenced by lobbyists.

To fix it, not sure, calling politicians and showing up to stuff will help but it's always going to be an uphill battle. Anyway, just vote, if you get the option to choose then vote for a third party as long as you're not in a swing state.

The real solution is still voting reform to get more diverse opinion so if that's on the ballot vote for it and try to get other people to do the same. The UK missed a major opportunity for voter reform.

This can happen over a couple of generations by removing winner take all representatives for a state and cause a hung parliament. Coalition talks will then be more likely to include concessions on the two state systems to get a governing coalition.

You can look at the UK as being the same only one generation ahead if things go well.

[-] Landless2029@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I agree with one correction.

Vote even in non swing states.

There are far too many registered voters who don't vote.

Texas could be blue every year if half the dem no shows just voted.

Also even less vote outside of the presidential election.

[-] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

It also only has two parties that are both heavily influenced by lobbyists.

And yet, one party keeps enacting consumer and worker protection laws, with the other party taking them away. HMMM CURIOUS oh well I'm sure they're both equally bad

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah, Democrats are way better at making legislation that benefits an average person. They're also respect the parliamentary conventions and the democratic process.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Yes, IMO when there is more competition, politicians start caring about the little things besides the big things like inflation.

[-] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

moving away from something like FPTP (what the majority of america uses) and to something like IRV (maine uses this iirc, and most euro countries also do) can vastly improve things.

As for american elections the states themselves have a lot of control over their own voting process, and even some of the federal process. So just voting locally for voter reform can be quite impactful.

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Exactly, state elections with referendums on voting reform are absolutely crucial to move the needle.

There's a major thing happening right now in the US where states are agreeing to pledge their vote to the winner of the popular vote as soon as the pledged electors get past 270 which is a big win in my opinion. It's still doesn't help with the two parties situation but any democratic improvement is a win.

[-] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

yeah, it's a good starting point and a big mover potential, though to be clear the supreme court ruled that electorates pledging doesn't mean they have to legally follow that statement. They can be unfaithful electors, it's just likely to get them ousted next election cycle.

It was part of the concession ruling that they can be made to pledge, it's just that they can't be forced to vote in one particular way.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth -2 points 2 months ago

Did not the same international business conglomerates and the same billionaires donate to both major political parties?

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

No Stupid Questions

35868 readers
1013 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 1 year ago
MODERATORS