![way too expensive college](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/way-too-expensive-college.jpg)
You have probably heard the old adage, “you get what you pay for”. However, this isn’t always true, in fact, many times you really don’t get what you pay for, especially in this day and age; and even more in our current struggling economy where desperation and greed are exasperating the plight in which many companies both large and small exploit society by overcharging for inferior products and services. Here is a list of 10 things that you really don’t get what you pay for.
10 Internet Service
![Internet Service](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/internet-service-rip-off.jpg)
Moreover, once it is all set up, the only real expenses the company incurs are customer service expenses, which only exist because they charge too much and fail to provide adequate services. At most, internet service should cost $5 a month, or perhaps $5 per year, for gigabit internet, which would still bring the ISPs exorbitant profits. $100 per month for 100mbps internet is unreasonable.
9 "Freemium" Mobile Apps
![](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/freemium-scam.jpg)
Sure, developers might see it as a way to generate more revenue. However, they are missing the point that it is utterly a scam and entirely unethical, essentially robbery.
8 Music Labels
![Music Labels](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/home-alternative-to-music-label.jpg)
Essentially, the music labels leverage complex contracts to sign desperate, poor music artists (hereby the "victims"), and pay for all of the marketing costs to make the artist famous. Then, they collect royalties in the amount of many hundreds or thousands of times what they invested into the artist. What results is a famous artist who is not paid enough to even make rent.
Never buy a music CD! Buy the merchandise and go to concerts, it's the only way that the artists get paid. This is why many music artists are even giving away their music for free, because they never make a penny from it anyway, because all the revenue is stolen by their music label.
A prime example is 30 Seconds To Mars, one of the biggest rock bands in the world, who was sued by their music label for $30 million dollars; and this is on top of all the millions of dollars in royalties that were paid. It got so bad that Jared Leto, the lead singer of the band, left the label and became a free agent.
7 Car & Health Insurance
![Car & Health Insurance](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/car-insurance-scam.jpg)
6 Cosmetic Medical Services
![Cosmetic Medical Services](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/cosmetic-medicine.jpg)
Granted, for some procedures it is good to have prohibitive pricing to prevent people from having the procedure; but in practice this doesn't really work because people still find a way to pay for it. The point here though isn't so much the morality of the high prices, but that you really don't get what you pay for with most cosmetic medicine. Moreover, 1 out of 5 people (or more) end up worse off then they were in the first place for a procedure they couldn't even afford.
5 Lawyers
![Lawyers](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/justice-money.jpg)
Sure, they were to law school for a few years, but that doesn't give them a license to rip people off and exploit the poor. Well, actually, it does give them a legal license to do just that; it just doesn't give them the moral license to. A glorified paper pusher, lawyers should make no more than $30 per hour at the very most. Sadly, lawyers can charge whatever they want, and they do just that, charging exorbitant fees to exploit desperate victims of the broken judicial system.
4 Food and Drink (Groceries)
![Food and Drink (Groceries)](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/groceries.jpg)
3 Home Mortgage & Renting
![Home Mortgage & Renting](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/buying-a-home.jpg)
Renters are no better off. Spending the majority of their monthly income on rent is unreasonable, because most of rental properties have been paid off decades ago and are running on almost 100% profit. This is an outrageous exploitation of a basic human right, the right to have a place to live and call home.
This is worse in some parts of the country, most specifically Manhattan New York, where prices are as much as 500% or even 1,000% the normal price of rent in other areas of the country; and Southern California, where the cost of rent is 200% to 500% the cost anywhere else.
2 College Education
![College Education](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/college.jpg)
Worse, 9 out of 10 graduates end up without a job in this economy, and 7 out of 10 of the ones who do get a job end up working in a completely different field, like the food service industry. That certainly wasn't worth going $50,000 into debt for!
However, education itself isn't the problem. Education is great, and important. The cost is the problem. A college education should be free or near free. After all, as described in my other post, it really is already paid for! After you take away the millions going to paper pushers and thumb twiddlers like the university President and other useless overpaid executives.
1 Taxes
![Taxes](https://techreader.com/files/2015/10/taxes.jpg)
Depending on the state you live in, this can be much greater. For example, California is one of the worst, taking as much as an extra 20% of your income in state taxes alone depending on your tax bracket. When you add up all the hidden taxes and taxes masquerading as fines, penalties, or interest, many Americans could pay as much as 90% or more of their total income in taxes!
And yes, the national debt is in the trillions, most of America's roads suffer, all the governments are corrupt, the police and the justice system fails to protect the innocent and fails to prosecute the guilty; housing, food, and commodities are unaffordable; the economy is in the gutter; jobs are at an all-time low; and the 1% in power are holding 99% of the total revenue of the entire country. Americans are definitely not getting what they are paying for in taxes!
The founding fathers of America started this country largely because of the tyranny of a government who had the freedom to unfairly tax its citizens without limit. However, today, Americans suffer from the same persecution, even facing similar penalties of being forced to give up their personal freedom and safety for failing or being unable to pay the exorbitant tax rate. The poor are hit the worst, many ending up in debt slavery or even prison just for being poor. It is truly a travesty.
Americans are not the only ones, however. My knowledge of foreign affairs is limited, but most countries in Asia and Europe suffer from similarly corrupt governments and exorbitantly high tax rates.
There you have it! There are the top ten things that you definitely don’t get what you pay for. What do you think, do you agree with this list? Have any more to add? Let us know in the comments below and maybe we’ll do a part 2 with another 10 things that you don’t get what you pay for!