I’m getting really tired of getting ripped off all the time. You work hard, you make money, you try to accomplish something for yourself and the world, but you’re faced with a corporation-dominated world in which your every cent is squeezed out of you in the name of profit.
We’ve been meaning to get a new internet connection for a while now – we were paying for phone and internet separately, and it was fairly expensive compared to a lot of newer offers. So we, being poor (not we-can’t-afford-to-go-to-Bali poor, but how-will-we-afford-food-next-week poor), thought it might be a good idea to switch providers. Especially given the problems we’ve had on occasion with both companies.
But as it turns out, everyone just wants to rip you off. Oh, sure, the money per month is less awful than before. But then there’s a fee for setting up the account (which is utter bullshit), a fee for the router (you used to get them for free with your account; now you don’t even get to keep them), a fee for sending you the router and assorted stuff (way more money than it actually costs to send that stuff)… and by the end you’re paying nearly 100€ extra, which means that you’re not really better off than before unless you use the new account for a really long time.
It’s not that I’m not willing to pay for good service. I am. (Though I do believe that in a democratic society everyone should have free access to the internet.) But I’m willing to pay a reasonable amount based on the actual work performed. These companies could lower their prices quite a bit and still make enough money to pay all their employees – and have something extra on the side. But no. Every single cent that can be had must be had, even if means strangling people’s financial reserves until they can no longer buy anything. And then they wonder where their markets went and why everything is collapsing around their ears.
This was originally going to be my Major Project Update post, but right now I just don’t have the strength.
