Highway Robbery
Mood:
irritated
I've about had it with our modern economy. I don't know if this phenomenon is limited to the American economy or if it is world wide... not that it matters. We are stuck in it, like it or not. I really wish we could afford to buy our own private island somewhere and just declare autonomy from the rest of the world... I get so frustrated with all of it! Theiving banks, insurance companies, government services, corporations, interest rates, and today I get this nice little message from Angelfire/Lycos about how they regret they are unable to grant my request for a refund after I cancelled my subscription just 3 days after my last billing, and neither are they able to remove the ads from my site for the remainder of the billing cycle since I already cancelled my account. When I told them that if they could not refund the pro-rated amount of money to my account that I would like the ads removed from my site they said I will have to pay for ANOTHER month (after they just stole the fees from me for a month without compensation!). No, I just want compensation for the $10 I paid, prorated is fine. They said they can't do that, and I could read "their policies" on their website. HOGWASH! The only reason the thieves don't return the money is because they KNOW that no lawyer will take the case for a measly $9 so they've gotcha! It's highway robbery... all perfectly legal and accepted by corporate America because they've got the lawyers and we've got squat. You figure if they do this to 100,000 people they've raked in nearly $1,000,000 for delivering ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in goods or services. Just like the theiving banks and their fees... fee for this fee for that... $400 later you've given half your paycheck to the theiving bank and there's none left to pay bills with! Making it all the harder to balance the bank account again the next paycheck, while the bank gets fat on our struggles. And credit card companies set their maximum limit, then charge so much interest that it takes you over the limit (without ever having actually bought anything) so that you get fees for being over limit to add to the interest rate, and before you know it the whole mess snowballs on you so that you can't possibly keep up. I think credit card companies should more regulations on them to prevent their outright stealing from people They offer nothing in return for the money they collect... just higher payments on the billing statement.
I'm fed up with all of it. Corporate America is corrupt, and the Biblical phrase "The love of money is the root of all evil" shows it's ugly head quite boldly in this global economic society we humans have created here. Childrn are raised (by the media) to believe that they should never have to work for anything they receive, that parents are endless fountains of money, and have no concept of the value of delayed gratification. Corporations, government agencies, banks, the media, and financial entities of all sorts act as if charging more and more fees will generate a larger income for the famlies they are pinching, when in fact it does the opposite. The rich get richer and the poor go broke and die.
There is no brotherly love left in the word of today... if it has ever been here at all. No one looks out for one another anymore. I am only 1/16th Cherokee indian, but many times I think it might have been better if the Native Americans would have won the battle for the Americas, and the European immigrants had adapted to the Indian lifestyle instead, living gently off the land, never taking more than they need. But perhaps that is they idealist in me... I'm sure either way the sins of human nature would have found a way to corrupt the society and cause chaos and frustration in the end.
Heaven help us all...
-Sparkling