Tag: broken-political-system

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 9: Death, Taxes, and Everything In Between

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    The Fee Economy Lisa decided to track every fee she paid for one month. Not the big stuff—rent, car payment, insurance. Just the fees. The extra charges. The convenience fees. The service charges. The processing fees. All those little costs that companies tack on for doing business. She’s 29, works as a marketing coordinator in…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 8: Insurance

    Mandatory Purchase, Shrinking Coverage David is 38, lives in Tampa, Florida. He’s a physical therapist making $68,000 a year. He’s healthy, doesn’t smoke, exercises regularly, hasn’t had a car accident in 12 years. He’s the kind of customer insurance companies claim to want. Here’s what insurance costs him every year: Health insurance: $4,800/year Auto insurance:…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 7: Phone and Internet

    The Monopoly You Can’t Escape Rachel lives in suburban Atlanta. She works from home as a customer service rep for a health insurance company. Her job requires reliable high-speed internet—it’s not optional. She’s on video calls, accessing patient records, processing claims in real-time. When she moved into her apartment, she called to set up internet…

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  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 6: Food Monopolies

    Paying More While Farmers Make Less Let’s follow a gallon of milk from farm to your refrigerator. At the dairy farm in Wisconsin: Tom has been dairy farming for 30 years. He has 150 cows. He wakes up at 4:30 AM every day—no weekends, no holidays. Cows need milking twice a day, every day. His…

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  • Broken By Design Part 22: Media Consolidation and Capitulation – Why You Don’t Know Any Of This

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    We’ve spent 21 parts documenting how the bottom 90% are systematically extracted from: • Healthcare monopolies charging you double what other countries pay (Parts 1-6) • Housing financialization pricing you out of homeownership (Part 7) • Student debt trapping you in economic servitude (Part 8) • Employer-based insurance making you afraid to leave your job…

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    Even that’s Odd