Diamonds. Diamonds are a fairly common gemstone but the world's supplier of them is a monopoly and they hoard the majority of their stock to jack the prices up. Emeralds, Rubies and Sapphires are actually rarer than diamonds but cost less because of this.

Paying money to a religion to guarantee your eternal salvation.

Unpaid internships. What the actual f**k is wrong with America.

Contrary to popular belief, there a very few hot Russian singles in my area.

Planned obsolescence. Appliances being designed to fail sooner in order to sooner create demand for a replacement. In the same vein, devices being designed to not be repairable, so that you need to invest in a shiny new specimen whenever fashion or the predesigned breakdown require it.

The US healthcare system. Hell, just name any aspect of life in the US and there's probably a scam somewhere in there.

Scientology... And by most people, I mean those people in it.

Having to pay $100+ bucks for Microsoft word.

.99 cents at the end of pricing.

"Woman's" anything. 90% are just colored different. Razors are the biggest offenders IMOP.

The concept of "superfoods" and "organic" anything. I work at a smoothie bowl place, and people will come in and literally pile 1500 calories full of peanut butter and granola into a bowl and think it's healthy because they put some superfood organic something into a bowl. It's literally pumpkin granola cereal from the store down the street, it's not going to cure cancer.

Insurance. You’re obligated to get it legally but when you actually need it, they’ll do everything in their power to not pay out…

Printer ink.

Boomers getting free healthcare (Medicare) while voting against anyone else getting it.

Psychics.

Recycling plastic. The “recycling symbol” with the number on it is not a recycling symbol. It’s a resin identification code. It was intentionally designed to look like the recycling symbol to fool consumers. Only around 10% of plastics are recycled and usually only once. The whole campaign about recycling plastics and consumer responsibility was set up by the bottling companies to avoid legislation banning plastics because of their harm to the environment.

The Humane Society of the United States "HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter. HSUS is not affiliated with any pet shelters. And HSUS only gives 1% of donations to pet shelters." Most of the donated money goes into the higher up's pension plans. Seriously don't donate money to them, instead donate to a local shelter near you, they're the ones doing real work & helping animals. Any "charity" whose president is living high on the hog on donations is a scam.

In app mobile purchases. Especially for kids games.

Trickle down economics.

Supplements. Because they are considered a food they are not regulated. A recent study found that 25% don't contain any of the substance it is sold as. About as many others contain actual prescription medicines that are not listed. In the US about 23 000 people a year are hospitalized, have organ failure or need a transplant due to taking unregulated supplements.

Insurance, at least in the US. If you have to fight for something YOU PAY FOR to pay THAT WHICH IT'S LITERALLY SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR and in return GET SCREWED with higher premiums, higher deductibles and higher copay amounts, then it's basically useless. We're paying into a scam cause we're idiots who don't understand, and don't WANT to understand how much better off our we'd be with Universal coverage, due to cost alone. But hey, what do I know?

Willfully deciding that a week inside the casinos of Vegas sounds like a good vacation.

Bottled water.

Out of network ATM fees.

Most extended warranties on electronics. Usually you're paying extra for the warranty and extra on top of that as a "labor cost" of whoever is fixing the device. Cheaper than a new device? Sure but can still be pricey.

Our (US) health care system.

Lottery tickets.

Pretty much all of this first world bulls**t. The idea of money, wealth, work, the entire structure of our society, I mean, take your bloody pick.

Ordering a full carafe of wine in a restaurant. Where I work, a full carafe can fill 4-5 glasses. Ordering 5 glasses of some of our types of wine is actually $1-2 cheaper than the full carafe. Check the prices and do the math before ordering! Same goes for pitchers of beer!

Religion.

Weddings.

Premium cables. In order for one hdmi cable to have better quality over another, you'd need hundreds of yards between the source and display. Cat5 vs. Cat 6 makes a difference for high bandwidth companies, not for your cable internet ass. Really the only thing it matters in is phone charging durability. Yes, don't get the gas station cables if you help it, but if you do, your phone will still charge at the same rate.