How Every Industry Quietly Rips You Off 
Dumb-Explanation
📝 They save your info
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✨ Give it fancy name
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💰 Charge you 10-1000x
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😇 "It's complicated"
Overdraft Fees
💵 You have $100
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🛒 Buy: $10, $20, $30, $80
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🔀 Bank runs biggest first
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💥 3 overdrafts = $105 fees
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📊 9% of people pay 80% of all fees
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💰 Banks made $15.5 BILLION/year (peak)
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⚖️ Navy Federal: $95M fine (2024)
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🔄 Still happening
Where Loan Money Comes From
🙋 You ask for $100k loan
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🏦 Bank checks your credit
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⌨️ Types "100000" in computer
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✨ Money now exists
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💵 You pay back + interest
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💨 Original money disappears
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🏛️ Bank of England confirmed this
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🤯 Not a secret. That's how it works.
Reserve Requirements
📅 Before March 2020
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🏦 Banks must keep 10% of deposits
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📅 March 26, 2020
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🏛️ Fed says: "Keep 0%"
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💸 Lend everything
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📊 Still 0% today
Aspirin At Hospital
💊 Aspirin pill
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🏭 Costs: 2 cents
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🏥 Hospital charges: up to $25
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📈 1,000x markup
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📋 50,000 items priced same way
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🎭 All prices are made up
Hospital Bill Game
🤒 You get treated
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📄 Bill arrives: $348,000
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🏢 Insurance "negotiates"
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💵 Accepted: $50,000
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🤔 Wait... they took $50k instantly?
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💡 The $348k was never real
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😰 No insurance = you pay fake price
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📜 2021 rule: hospitals must post real prices
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🙈 Most still don't
Insurance Denials
💵 You pay insurance for years
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🤒 Finally need it
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📋 Submit claim
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❌ "DENIED"
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😤 You appeal
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✅ 81.7% of appeals WIN
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📊 But only 10% of people appeal
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💰 Insurance keeps 90% of wrongly denied money
Insulin
💉 Insulin
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🏭 Costs to make: $2-4
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🇺🇸 US price: $300+
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🌍 Other countries: 8-10x cheaper
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📅 1996: $21 per vial
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📅 2019: $275 per vial
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🧬 Same exact formula
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💔 1 in 4 Americans skip doses
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☠️ Alec Smith died rationing at age 26
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📅 2023: $35 cap for Medicare
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⏳ Everyone else still paying $300
Drug Middlemen (PBMs)
💊 Drug company makes pill
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🤵 3 middlemen appear
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📊 They control 80% of ALL prescriptions
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📋 "We'll negotiate lower prices!"
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💵 Take a cut
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📈 Prices go UP not down
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⚖️ FTC sued all 3 (Sept 2024)
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⏳ Case ongoing
“The Cloud”
☁️ Fancy name
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💻 Actually: someone else's computer
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📊 AWS = 17% of Amazon's revenue
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💰 AWS = 60% of Amazon's PROFIT
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📈 37% profit margin
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🏆 Best business model in tech
Software “Seats”
🏢 Company needs chat app
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💺 "$45 per person per month"
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💾 What they do: save username
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💰 Cost to add you: nearly $0
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📊 Half the seats never used
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💵 Company still pays full price
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🔄 Repeat forever
Military Shopping
🚽 Toilet seat (1985)
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🏪 Store price: $15
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✈️ "Military grade" for C-5 plane
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💵 Billed: $640
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☕ Coffee maker (1984)
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💵 Billed: $7,622
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🚽 Toilet seat lid (2018)
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💵 Billed: $10,000
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📰 Senator Grassley: "Doesn't pass smell test"
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🔄 Still happening 40 years later
Pentagon Audit
📋 Law: Must pass audit
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📅 Required since: 1990
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❌ Times passed: 0
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🗓️ 35 years straight
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💰 2024 audit cost: $178 million
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👥 1,700 auditors
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❓ Can't find: 63% of $3.8 trillion
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🤷 Response: "Working on it"
Lobbying Math
💊 Drug companies (2022)
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💵 Spent: $372 million lobbying
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📈 Documented ROI: 22,000%
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🧮 $1 spent → $220 back
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📊 Study: highest-return investment known
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🏆 Better than stocks, crypto, real estate
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💡 This is why things don't change
Congress Schedule
🌅 Morning
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📞 4 hours calling rich people
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💵 Goal: $18,000/day in donations
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🌆 Afternoon
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📋 2 hours actual work
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🔁 Repeat daily
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📄 Source: Leaked DCCC PowerPoint
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✅ Confirmed by Rep. Steve Israel
Does Voting Matter?
🗳️ You vote
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📊 Princeton studied 1,800 policies
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📈 20 years of data
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🔬 Result:
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📉 Your opinion = "near-zero impact"
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💰 Donor opinion = policy
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📄 Direct quote from study
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😐 Not conspiracy. Peer-reviewed.
College Prices
📅 1978: Tuition = X
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📅 2025: Tuition = 14X
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📈 1,335% increase
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📊 Regular inflation: 300%
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🤔 Why?
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💳 Government guarantees loans
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🚫 Can't escape in bankruptcy
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💰 Schools know you'll pay anything
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📈 So they raise prices forever
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🏛️ NY Fed confirmed this cycle
College Admins
📅 1987-2012
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👔 New administrators hired: 517,636
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🧮 That's 87 per day
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📊 For 25 years straight
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🏫 Yale today:
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👨🎓 Students: ~5,000
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🧑💼 Administrators: 5,460
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📊 More admins than students
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💵 Tuition: $62,000+/year
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📰 News: "Why are young people broke?"
Textbooks
📖 Textbook exists
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🔄 Students resell 7 times
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😤 Publisher profits once
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💡 Solution:
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📝 Change 3 pages
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✨ "NEW EDITION!"
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💵 $280 please
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💾 Make it digital
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⏰ Code expires in 4 months
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🚫 Can't resell digital
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😈 Pearson CEO admitted this on record
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📊 Result: 65% skip required books
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📈 Price increase: 800% in 30 years
Real Estate Commissions
🏠 House: $400,000
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🚪 Agent unlocks door
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💬 "Nice light in here"
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💵 Takes 6% = $24,000
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⚖️ Jury verdict: "This is conspiracy"
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💰 Fine: $1.78 BILLION
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📋 Settlement: $418 million
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🤔 Did fees drop after?
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📈 Nope. Went UP to 2.40%
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😂 lmao
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🌍 UK/Australia: 2% commission
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🇺🇸 USA: 5-6%
Mortgage Reality
🏠 Buy $300k house
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📊 Interest rate: 7%
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📅 Pay for 30 years
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💵 Monthly: ~$2,000
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🧮 Total paid: $719,000
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💸 Interest alone: $419,000
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🤯 Interest > house price
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📅 Month 1 payment breakdown:
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💸 $1,750 → interest
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🏠 $246 → actual house
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📊 87% goes to bank first year
Concert Tickets
🎸 Band says: "$100 ticket"
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🎫 Ticketmaster adds:
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💵 Service fee
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💵 Facility fee
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💵 Processing fee
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💵 Order fee
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🧾 Total: $128-$144
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📊 Fees: 28-44% extra
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💰 $16.4 BILLION in fees (2019-2024)
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⚖️ DOJ sued May 2024
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⚖️ FTC sued Sept 2025
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🏛️ 40 states joined
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🎯 Goal: Break up Live Nation
Credit Card Fees
🛒 You buy $100 thing
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💳 Swipe card
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💵 Visa/Mastercard take 2-3%
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🏪 Store raises prices 3%
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💵 Cash buyers pay more too
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📊 2024 total: $111 BILLION
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🇪🇺 EU caps fees at 0.3%
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🇺🇸 US: 2-3% (10x higher)
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🛒 Costco negotiated 0.4%
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💡 Proving normal rates are fake
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💸 Costs you ~$1,200/year in higher prices
The Cheat Sheet
 Thing |
Real Cost |
You Pay |
 Markup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspirin (hospital) |
2¢ | up to $25 | 1,000x |
| Insulin vial |
$2-4 | $300 | 75-150x |
| Concert ticket |
$100 | $144 | 44% fees |
| Card swipe |
fraction of ¢ | 2-3% | ∞ |
| Agent work |
few hours | $24,000 | lol |
| Cloud computing |
low | 37% margin | printing money |
Fight Back
Banks
→ Credit unions (member-owned)
→ Chime / SoFi = no overdraft fees
→ Turn OFF overdraft “protection”
Medicine
→ GoodRx = compare prices
→ Cost Plus Drugs = Mark Cuban’s pharmacy
→ Ask for generic (same drug, 80% cheaper)
Hospital Bills
→ ALWAYS request itemized bill
→ Errors found in 80% of bills
→ Negotiate everything (they expect it)
→ Ask for cash discount (often 40% off)
Insurance Denials
→ APPEAL EVERYTHING
→ 81.7% of appeals win
→ They count on you giving up
Textbooks
→ Library Genesis 
→ OpenStax = free + legal
→ Old editions usually identical
Real Estate
→ Commissions are negotiable now
→ Ask for 1-2% buyer’s agent
→ Flat-fee listing services exist
Fees
→ Privacy.com = virtual cards that auto-cancel
→ Pay cash at small businesses
→ Ask about cash discounts
The Point
🔍 All this info is public
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📚 Court records
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⚖️ Lawsuits
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🏛️ Government reports
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📰 Leaked documents
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🎰 They bet you won't look
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👀 You just looked
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🧠 Can't unsee it
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📢 Share it
!