What's the biggest RIP OFF you've ever experienced?

[Cubbiecakes]

I'm guessing there were always these cases, but modern medicine means that there's more people surviving and passing on these genes. Mortality tended to be extremely high even a century ago. You'd have children who died, and nobody really talked much about it.

Technically, we are making the problem worse by letting these people get to childbearing age.

 

[bcla]

Technically, we are making the problem worse by letting these people get to childbearing age.

Well yeah. I'm rather nearsighted myself. There are conditions people died of even 60 years ago. But expensive medical treatment (but is it a ripoff?) has allowed these traits to be more commonplace. They would never go away, but technology has definitely altered the balance.

 

[Erica_Haley]

Those stupid access codes for college. We really have to pay over $100 for one class just to submit homework? (MyMathLab, I'm looking at you) And that doesn't include the overpriced textbook I have to hope I can find discounted online.
And when I try to sell that overpriced textbook at the end of the semester, websites want to take $5 for a book I paid $80 for
I did have one professor that just printed out a packet of pages for us and I think a couple students cried in relief of not having to buy another expensive textbook

 

[bcla]

I did have one professor that just printed out a packet of pages for us and I think a couple students cried in relief of not having to buy another expensive textbook

All depends on what it is. I remember one English prof who compiled a bunch of samples of poems into a "course reader" that we could purchase at one of the local copy/print stores. And the best part was that if they never ran out, although one might need to wait for more to be copied off the master copy. I think once they did that while I waited. I'm pretty sure that they need to seek copyright permission too, which is a hassle for the prof.

One time we were working off of a textbook in progress written by a campus professor. It wasn't officially published yet, so we got to use it in a "course reader" format. Something like 600 pages of 8.5"x11" copy paper bound in a binder. It might have been $40 though, although the prof changed it every year so it wasn't like we could resell it.

 

[RedAngie]

The cheapest book I had to buy in college was $60. Most off my books were in the $150-$200 range (each)

My $25 to $35 texts were back in the late 70s and early 80s. That's back when a hardcover best-selling novel was about $12.95. I don't think anything was as high as $60.

DD just graduated in June, and yeah, there were plenty of texts she had to buy in the $150 and up range.

 

[mjkacmom]

I just heard a news segment that the average cost of a college textbook is $200, up 800% in tbd past 40 years or so.

 

[kimblebee]

My kid has gone to classes or even entire summer camps where all tree nuts were banned. This is kind of odd for me as a kid who grew up with with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

You know these aren’t the same. Peanuts aren’t nuts..

 

[bcla]

You know these aren’t the same. Peanuts aren’t nuts..

Well yeah. But when I see a sign saying "no tree nuts" I get that it includes peanuts even if they're not nuts and don't grow on trees.

 

[kimmar067]

I guess I can at least concede that my gondolier gave me the courtesy of serenading me...

....that could be a good thing OR a bad one, depending upon the gondolier's singing voice.

 

[Domo]

....that could be a good thing OR a bad one, depending upon the gondolier's singing voice.

It was... loud.