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Why does the USA have so few legal protections for ordinary people, and how can we change that?

I’m just a regular person making about $70K a year in a big city, and I’ve recently felt incredibly powerless dealing with private companies. For instance, my landlord’s auto-pay system had a glitch that excluded my pet rent and water bill. I ended up with over $1,000 in late fees. Despite hours on the phone, it turns out their system doesn’t really do auto-pay and requires a fixed amount instead of covering the full rent. It feels like a scam, and my options are to pay the fees or potentially spend a fortune on legal action.

Another frustrating experience was trying to cancel my pest control service. I had to endure a 40-minute call followed by 35 minutes of arguing, just to finally cancel. There’s no online cancellation option, and the process felt like a timeshare sales pitch.

Why do ordinary people seem so unprotected against these shady practices, and how can we change this? How does one person even start to address these issues?

Rentlar ,

It’s because the American culture of individualism has successfully divided up worker’s power that makes standing against wealthy and powerful individuals next to impossible.

I will say this because people in the US don’t seem to look out for neighbours that they can’t see.

Vote for politicians who will empower the working class and take billionaires and multinational corps down a notch. Don’t let culture war distractions take people’s eyes off the ruling class intentionally diverting the attention away from them.

Team up with your neighbours… you don’t have to start a protest/riot immediately but ask them if they’ve had a similar issue with the landlord’s autopay system. Have barbecues or potluck dinners with them on occasion.

Go to your local city council when an issue you care about comes up. Write to your city council, state rep, house rep and senators about things that concern you. Join local movements or participate in their events to enact change you want to see. United you will be stronger.

GBU_28 ,

It can be very cheap to get a letter written by a lawyer on their letterhead, to demand things like service cancellation.

It’s not perfect and shouldn’t have to happen, but what’s your time and mental health worth?

partial_accumen ,

a glitch that excluded my pet rent and water bill. I ended up with over $1,000 in late fees. Despite hours on the phone, it turns out their system doesn’t really do auto-pay and requires a fixed amount instead of covering the full rent

You got over $1000 in late fees from a single month of not having the full amount?

UncleGrandPa ,

One of the things more and more companies are doing is

Ignoring the Laws.

They have learned to ignore what they are required to do or what they are allowed to do . Knowing few will sue and those who win will get no more than they were due.

The companies have learned there is no downside for being criminal… So they have become criminals.

Linktank ,

People don’t fear for their lives when they fuck people over any more. We need to bring that back somehow. Ratfuckers should be fearful after they ratfuck somebody that they’re going to get theirs.

fiend_unpleasant ,

everytime I start telling people how to make guillotines everyone gets upset and says that they really didn't solutions they meant.. like... bandaids

RobotToaster ,
@RobotToaster@mander.xyz avatar

Have you seen the price of timber these days?

Professorozone ,

Because non-ordinary people make the rules.

Sabre363 ,

It’s just corporations and rich assholes running the show and they absolutely do not give a fuck about anyone but themselves, especially if the anyone is poor ordinary. The only way to solve the issue is to completely remove these entities from the equation and start making our own protections.

HubertManne ,

Yeah I am seeing this more and more. You even see it business to business. We need regulation, monopoly busting, and progressive taxation.

WammKD ,

I don’t know if you’ve been following what Lina Khan’s been doing with the FTC but there’s some incredibly antitrust work which she’s been putting into play. They’ve been really going after monopolization and Biden’s been putting forth rules to make breaking subscriptions easier, which would help with OPs particular problem: nytimes.com/…/us-government-unsubscribe-membershi….

dan1101 ,

I don’t know, but companies shouldn’t be allowed to merge if you call either of them and the wait time to speak to a person is more than 2 minutes.

Also companies should have customer conceriges, call them and explain your issue and they navigate the company infrastructure, resolve your issue, and report back.

ALostInquirer ,

Have you seen the !politicaldiscussion community? This would be a good post there as well, I think!

FireTower ,
@FireTower@lemmy.world avatar
  1. Contact local counsel. There’s probably an attorney who practices in rental law near you that does free consultations.
  2. It’s not that we don’t have protections it’s that we have an access to justice issue.
olafurp ,

The US is incredibly bad at reining in capitalism. It also only has two parties that are both heavily influenced by lobbyists.

To fix it, not sure, calling politicians and showing up to stuff will help but it’s always going to be an uphill battle. Anyway, just vote, if you get the option to choose then vote for a third party as long as you’re not in a swing state.

The real solution is still voting reform to get more diverse opinion so if that’s on the ballot vote for it and try to get other people to do the same. The UK missed a major opportunity for voter reform.

This can happen over a couple of generations by removing winner take all representatives for a state and cause a hung parliament. Coalition talks will then be more likely to include concessions on the two state systems to get a governing coalition.

You can look at the UK as being the same only one generation ahead if things go well.

SubArcticTundra ,
@SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml avatar

Yes, IMO when there is more competition, politicians start caring about the little things besides the big things like inflation.

Landless2029 ,

I agree with one correction.

Vote even in non swing states.

There are far too many registered voters who don’t vote.

Texas could be blue every year if half the dem no shows just voted.

Also even less vote outside of the presidential election.

Maeve ,

Did not the same international business conglomerates and the same billionaires donate to both major political parties?

KillingTimeItself ,

moving away from something like FPTP (what the majority of america uses) and to something like IRV (maine uses this iirc, and most euro countries also do) can vastly improve things.

As for american elections the states themselves have a lot of control over their own voting process, and even some of the federal process. So just voting locally for voter reform can be quite impactful.

swordgeek ,

Open revolution is about the only avenue left.

chemicalprophet ,

Capitalism.

GiddyGap ,

European countries are also capitalist countries, but they have much better consumer protections and laws. It can be done.

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