Rants & Raves
Fee Fucking
Fee for this, fee for that — fuck off!
Years ago, Bill Maher closed one of his shows with an editorial called “Fee Fucking.” It was a cleverly written and delivered take on how out of control fees are in the United States, and painfully relatable. Virtually everything has a fee attached to it, and most of the time, there is no functional business justification for it other than to make a profit and price gouge us more than we already are being sucked dry for.
Late fees, rebooking fees, ATM fees, overdraft fees, cancellation fees, maintenance fees, or my favorite, convenience fees. There is an endless list of them, but the ultimate is the hidden fee. The one that lurks in the background with the sole malicious intent to drain your funds and your soul as it’s up to you, the omniscient consumer, to discover its origin and cause.
What is this, a video game? Why do we as consumers have to inquire about what these fees are, and understand them to their fullest extent, merely by clicking “Agree” to a reem of text fit in a two-inch scrolling dialogue box that wants us to acknowledge we read the terms and conditions — all 12,500 words of them in two seconds — for the sake of using an app to book a reservation at a restaurant or hotel? Better yet, why is this all unregulated?
