Can you squeeze blood from a turnip?
Well, metaphorically speaking, if “blood” means profit,
and “turnips” are customers, airlines are eager to apply the squeeze. As are
banks, credit card outfits, cable TV and Internet hucksters, car rental
companies, and concert promoters.
And can anyone decipher their insurance policies?
I’m not talking about fair profit, but junk fees, hidden
charges, undisclosed add-ons, and other “gotchas” that brand-name giants sneak
into the fine print of their price tags. It’s pure corporate larceny, adding up
to a stunning level of unearned profit for the perpetrators.
Airlines picked our pockets for nearly $7 billion last
year in baggage fees alone. Credit card dealers plucked $14 billion from us in
punitive late fees. The overall corporate haul from this secretive squeeze on
consumers now tops $64 billion a year.
Shouldn’t companies have to tell you — in plain language — what they’re actually charging you and for what? “Yes!” says President Biden, who’s pressuring the gougers to come clean. “Hooray!” exult consumers who are tired of being played for suckers.
Of course, as another saying notes, “Where there’s a
will, there’s a thousand won’ts.” So a flock of corporate lobbyists are now
swarming the Capitol crying: “Save junk fees!”
Their arguments are hilariously absurd: They assert that
price disclosure will “confuse consumers,” that government should not
“interfere” in the free market, that it’s “technically infeasible” to tell
consumers the real price. One group who actually quibbled, “What exactly is a
fee?”
To help raise common sense and plain fairness to high places, check out the work of the Public Interest Research Group at www.pirg.org.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.