Some things are just odd, annoying or incomprehensible. For example:
- 9/10ths of a cent on the end of gas prices. When gas was 5 cents a gallon, this fraction was a clever psychological trick to help you ignore a 20% higher price. Now that gas is $3, it’s simply insulting.
- Baggage fees. A $20 baggage fee on top of a thousand dollar airline ticket is annoying and a time-sucking pain. If the cost was just built into the ticket, no one would really notice or be annoyed by the nickel-and-diming. The time suck of gate checks by those avoiding the fee would also be minimized.
- Resort fees. Even hotels not even close to being a resort charge them. It’s a sneaky way to charge internet fees, now that they’ve lost their ridiculous telephone fees to cellphones. The irony is that cheaper hotels give us internet for free.
- Opium from Afghanistan. Afghanistan is responsible for 90% of the heroin in the world. The Afgan war has been going on for 20 years, yet there has hardly been any mention of opium. Why?
- Catalog shipping fees. They are usually scaled by the cost of the order. This usually has no bearing on the weight/size of the order, which is the real basis for shipping fees. It is often a way for catalogs to make extra money without you thinking about it.
- Tipping. We tip at the end of service when it’s too late to influence its quality. This practice might help improve the service next time (e.g., a bellman during your current stay), but how many food waiters or car valets remember you next time?
- Health insurance. If a service is covered, there is no incentive to shop around. This is economically inefficient.
- Cable. So many odd things – you pay them but still get commercials, 90% of what you buy you don’t want/need (e.g., 200 of those channels), and the bill is cheaper with telephone than without.
- Internet ads. Buy something on the internet and the next time you open your homepage you will see adds for it. But you’ve already bought it, so why advertise?
- Infrastructure. How many politicians will work/spend for something that will most likely be built after they are out of office?
- Immigration. What is your view of immigration, given that most menial service jobs, jobs that 2nd+ generation Americans do not want to perform, are performed by immigrants?
- Presidential election. What is your view of US democracy, given that the Electoral College means a president can be elected without a majority of the popular vote?
- The Supreme Court. What is your view of US democracy, given that a Supreme Court justice can be approved by a Senate majority representing just 18% of the population?
- Penal policy (among other things). Isn’t it odd that a black man arrested for marijuana can be imprisoned for longer than a white cop who kills a defenseless black man?