Gotcha Capitalism

[flwyd]

Today's Fresh Air program featured an interview with Bob Sullivan, author of Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day -- And What You Can Do About It. He talked about arbitrary fees charged by banks, cell phone companies, cable companies, and others that can make up a major percentage of their profits. It sounds like a very

Comments

[hattrickflyer]

I may be in the minority on this, but since switching to Verizon, I've had zero surprises or unexpected charges (in a little over four years, now). They don't tell me when my contract is up (which makes me eligible for a discounted/free new phone) but the bill is what I think it's going to be.

As opposed to AT&T, who arbitrarily decided Maine was not part of New England (my plan covered New England and the Mid-Atlantic) and billed me $300 for calls I made while stuck there for two weeks.

I know what you're saying, tho, there's a ridiculous amount of unseen charges out there. And I also agree that letting business run around unfettered is a bad idea; I'm just not sure that most government regulation is in practice a much BETTER idea.

[mackys]

I think most big-L libs fail to take into account a couple of obvious things about human nature. A) People are stupid and B) people are sheep. The idea that the market will select the best price is only true if people are intelligently able to figure out which price is the best one. And as you've said, lotsa companies go a long way out of their way to obscure the real price of their good or service. The first big downfall of lassiez-faire economics is that a real free market requires that all consumers have (near-)perfect information about cost and availability of just about every good almost all the time. But this assumption is almost never true in the real world.

The obnoxious dogma that's continually spouted by the free-marketers on this issue is one of the big reasons I don't claim to be a big-L lib.

[flwyd]

I think the most succinct way to describe what I don't like about the Libertarian Party is "lack of nuance." Unfortunately, nuance is hard to find in other parties too. Lately it's fallen to Democrats like Dodd and Biden to be the poster boys of nuance (nuancy boys?). And it's pretty hard to get people excited enough about nuance to write a big check and tell all their friends. The Senate is the home of nuance, but Presidents don't come from the Senate.