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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?

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA ,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

Blood

kittenzrulz123 ,

Most countries have Capitalism but few suffer as badly as post-Regan America (except maybe post-Thatcher UK).

Sam_Bass ,

Because we ordinary people do not possess extraordinary funds to buy that protection

KillingTimeItself ,

because private companies were never meant to big this big and powerful.

They have so much power because they lobby and control the government, part of the problem is dems being generally unappealing and trying to focus more on less significant social issues rather than doing things like, taking away the rights that big corpos never should’ve had in the first place.

It’s a give and take game, the less regulations you have, the more companies you have and the more capital you have moving through you, the more you have the less regulations you have and the less capital you have moving through you.

RangerJosie ,

I can’t tell you. Because the mods won’t like it.

But it rhymes with Piolence.

brygphilomena ,

$1000 is likely small claims court. At least where I was, no lawyers are allowed for small claims so the landlord would have to come to deal with it himself or a representative of the payment company.

emerald ,

I think going back in time and video gaming Reagan would be a good start

thelasttoot ,

Video gaming?

linearchaos ,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

You should consider the kind of things that happen in video games.

some_guy ,

I just started listening to a new podcast series called Master Plan that talks about how this happened deliberately and systematically over decades. It followed the Powell Doctrine. You can hear a conversation between the primary host, David Sirota, and Brianna Joy Gray (she’s not one of my favorites, but I tuned in because it was him) on Bad Faith podcast.

capital_sniff ,

Corporations tried out binding arbitration and the people just took it with very little complaining. So why not keep eroding consumer protections or the other rights citizens fought for in the before times?

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

That latter issue is actually being worked on, law wise, right now.

jg1i ,

Explain how!

MedicPigBabySaver ,

nytimes.com/…/us-government-unsubscribe-membershi…

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

The FTC is working on a bill or something to make “one click cancel” required.

Cryophilia ,

Which is an excellent answer to the question, “how do we fix it?” Vote for fucking Democrats!! Democrat administrations enact consumer protections!

chemicalprophet ,

Capitalism.

GiddyGap ,

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

swordgeek ,

Open revolution is about the only avenue left.

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.

Cryophilia ,

It also only has two parties that are both heavily influenced by lobbyists.

And yet, one party keeps enacting consumer and worker protection laws, with the other party taking them away. HMMM CURIOUS oh well I’m sure they’re both equally bad

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.
ALostInquirer ,

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

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