America is contract crazy. Want to watch TV? Sign a contract. Want to buy a phone? Here’s your contract. Use a parking lot… we have a contract. Hell tons of people are stupid enough to live in neighborhoods with a covenant agreement which is no more than a contract promising to pay monthly dues and mow your grass or a group of strangers (those people you call neighbors you’ve never talked to) can foreclose on your house. That’s brilliant. These are often the same people who complain about the evil government dictating their lives while they sign up for their neighbors to tell them what color their front door must be. Then complain about it. Here are a few more stupid American contracts people feel obligated to sign so their pride and prominence in society won’t be tarnished.
Mobile Phones
How about this level of ignorance: a cell phone contract. Most people carrying a cell phone are truly this dumb. Sure it’s their choice. They chose to commit to at least $69 a month, often much more, for two years so they can enjoy $200 off the cost of an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S5. If you don’t sign up for a AT&T, Sprint or Verizon then you must have bad credit, right… or a little mathematical competency and some fucking common sense. $299 for an iPhone 6 and a two year commitment with AT&T for unlimited (6GB) data and voice. That’s an easy $119 a month alone. Probably around $79 a month on some family share plan. What a win! Nope… you’re a financially challenged poser who just hasn’t realized many are way ahead of you. How many? The the majority of the planet including all other industrialized nations.
You can go to many prepaid mobile phone carriers and for $199 or less you can get a Galaxy S4 on a truly “unlimited” voice and data plan for a firm $50 a month, get this…. without a contract. Cancel any time without penalty. Choose another phone without paying $600 for the privilege. The data plan is truly unlimited because Virgin uses Sprints network which I’ve found is as good or better than Verizon where we live. My wife carry’s a white Galaxy S2 so she must live in a trailer park without any credit or she would have an iPhone 6, contract and an absurd bill right? Prepaid phones are for two types of people: People with bad credit and people who are smart enough to know better than to sign up for AT&T, Sprint or Verizon extortion. I can’t include T-Mobile because they recently saw the light and dumped contracts.
TV and Internet
Unfortunately these contracts are hard to avoid. No real way at all to avoid them if you accept the introductory pricing. I actually do know a couple of people who have abandoned TV contracts entirely. Instead of Time Warner, satellite or AT&T U Verse they are opting for rabbit ears. Yep, HDTV over the air. Combine it with a contract for internet access and a $8 a month Netflix subscription for a lot more content than we had at the dawn of cable TV. There are even options to get the broadband internet access without a contract as well. If you want a full lineup of premium channels so you won’t miss Game of Thrones on HBO you can get service from Time Warner without a contract but the will be giving you introductory pricing. AT&T, Verizon and most satellite providers are still clinging to the old early termination fee model if you cancel before paying their contracted ransom. All in the name of revenue protection and projection.
Employment Contracts
These may work great for high level executives, athletes, Hollywood and some union workers but for the typical job seeker they are usually just a contract to make someone else money. Recruiters, headhunters, what the hell ever you want to call them have literally taken wages away from many workers by playing the HR middle man. They are middle men on the dole too. When someone signs up to work for them a new level of evil begins. The headhunter gets a commission or finders fee. The flat finders fee is not necessarily a bad thing. The whole practice should stop right there. Find an employee with specific skills, match to an employer for a permanent position…. done.
But no says the employment agencies. We need a model where 40% or more of what a W2 contract employee is being paid to go to the staffing agency. So if an IT worker is getting $35 an hour the staffing agency is usually clearing about $70 an hour. Granted they are paying a few benefits but they are typically weak compared to those offered to permanent employees. Staffing agencies make a fortune off these middle man employment contracts. Furthermore it states that employer believes the position the contractor is working in is worth $70+ an hour. When a permanent offer is made they cut that rate in half “benefits” being the argument. I’ve worked with payroll and benefit numbers. While many companies are paying half the cost of health care plans it still does not take 50% of someones salary to cover benefits cost. This is a perverse lie repeated by the staffing industry to justify their outrageous hourly rates. It’s a lie told by employers to suppress wages. No matter how you cut it the rates charged by staffing companies for contract employees is a farce wrapped in a profitable lie.
Business Contracts
These might not hurt individuals or consumers…. or do they? Payroll…outsourced to a contracted service provider. Everything from janitorial services to company parking lot attendants are outsourced. These all mean more contracts.
The Small Print
More contracts means more lawyers. Lawyers cost money. That cost is passed on to consumers. As more environmental laws, accounting laws, copyright, patent, tax laws are passed the more disclaimers, contracts between manufacturers and consumers, are required. Entire industries and law firms are in business of finding risk and creating billable hours by rewriting contracts to negate these risks. Create a problem, charge for a solution. Then there are email and website legal disclaimers, ticket stub small print reading “the holder of this ticket agrees to…”. What? Don’t remember agreeing? It’s right there in the contract sir. Check out what Charles Green has to say about the expanding use of commercial contracts.
Less we forget many businesses today have so many contracts they actually employ contract management departments. Would fewer contracts mean fewer jobs?
