Welcome to the Grand Fleecing: A Humorous and 100% Factual Field Guide to Modern Consumerism

debunked claim everything is designed to take your money

Welcome to the Grand Fleecing: A Humorous and 100% Factual Field Guide to Modern Consumerism

Introduction: The Cyan Cartridge Conspiracy

It begins, as so many modern tragedies do, with a printer. You need to scan a single, time-sensitive document. You place it on the glass, press the button, and are met with a cold, digital sneer: "Cannot Scan. Replace Cyan Ink Cartridge." You stare at the message, a slow-burning rage building in your chest. The scanner, a device that uses light and a sensor, requires no ink. The document is black and white. Yet the machine, a marvel of modern engineering you paid a handsome sum for, is holding its most basic functions hostage over a thimbleful of colored liquid you have no intention of using.

This is not a glitch. This is not a flaw. This, in a nutshell, is the entire architecture of modern consumerism. These are not isolated annoyances but the deliberate, calculated outputs of a vast and brilliantly engineered system of value extraction. From the moment a product is conceived to the day it unceremoniously dies, every step has been optimized not for your benefit, but to ensure you return, wallet open, as quickly and as often as possible. Some users have discovered that their printers won't just block scanning; they'll refuse to print in black and white if a color cartridge is empty, sometimes because the printer is secretly using all four colors to create a "costly cocktail of wasted resources" it calls black ink. Others have found that a sudden firmware update from the manufacturer has rendered their perfectly functional third-party ink cartridges useless, forcing them back into the branded-ink fold.

This report is your guided tour of that architecture—the Grand Fleecing. The printer ink scam is the perfect entry point because its absurdity is so blatant it has trained us to accept that the products we own will actively work against our interests. It primes us to recognize the more subtle deceptions that govern the rest of our lives. We will peel back the layers of this consumer onion, and it will almost certainly make you cry.

Section 1: The Incredible Shrinking, Self-Destructing World

The assault on your wallet begins with the very atoms of the things you buy. The physical goods that fill our homes are now subject to two foundational principles of the Grand Fleecing: they will give you less than you expect, and they will not last.

Honey, I Shrunk the Biscuits (And the Cereal, and the Cleaner...)

Welcome to the world of "shrinkflation," the corporate magic trick where the product gets smaller but the price stays the same. It’s a stealthy price hike designed to protect corporate profit margins from rising production costs, all based on the cynical but accurate bet that consumers are more likely to notice a price change on the sticker than a few grams missing from the box.

This isn't a vague feeling that things "aren't what they used to be." It is a measurable, documented strategy. Consider the evidence. In Australia, a box of Coles' Mighty Grain cereal quietly shrank from 560g to 495g, with no change in its $4.50 price. McVities' digestive biscuits withered from 400g to 355g, while the price remained locked at $4.40. The phenomenon is not limited to subtle reductions. Jif's Power & Shine Bathroom cleaner underwent a dramatic transformation, shrinking from a 700ml bottle to a 500ml one, while its price simultaneously jumped from $2.50 to $4. The result? A staggering 122% increase in the cost per 100ml.

Then there is its insidious cousin, "skimpflation," where the size remains the same but the quality is degraded. This can manifest as cotton swabs with noticeably less cotton on the ends or, as many consumers have alleged, a change in the sacred cream-to-cookie ratio of an Oreo.

The Shrinkflation Hit List

Product Name

Category

Original Size

New Size

Price Change

Effective Cost Increase Per Unit (%)

Coles Mighty Grain

Cereal

560g

495g

None ($4.50)

13.1%

Woolworths Corn Chips

Snacks

200g

175g

None ($2.30)

14.3%

McVities' Go Ahead Biscuits

Snacks

218g

174g

None ($4.40)

25.3%

Jif Power & Shine Cleaner

Cleaning

700ml

500ml

Increased ($2.50 to $4.00)

122.4%

Community Co Hot Cross Buns

Bakery

480g

450g

Increased ($4.00 to $4.50)

18.8%

Red Rock Deli Dips

Dips

150g

135g

N/A

11.1% (based on size)

Data compiled from a 2024 investigation.

A Eulogy for Your Toaster: The Gospel of Planned Obsolescence

If getting less for your money is the opening act, the main event is the product itself being designed to die. This is planned obsolescence, a concept that sounds like a conspiracy theory but is, in fact, a foundational business strategy with a long and storied history. Its origins can be traced to 1924, when the world's leading lightbulb manufacturers formed the Phoebus cartel. They secretly colluded to engineer their bulbs to fail after about 1,200 hours, a significant reduction from the then-standard 2,500 hours, purely to generate more frequent replacement sales.

That spirit of deliberate sabotage is alive and well today, refined into a sophisticated art form. The modern playbook includes several key strategies:

Contrived Durability: This is the practice of using inferior materials in critical components. Think of brittle plastic gears in a child's toy designed to snap under normal play, or the flimsy ribbon cables in some Samsung AMOLED phone screens that are known to deteriorate over time, causing the screen to fail—sometimes conveniently triggered by a software update.

Systemic Obsolescence: This occurs when a perfectly functional piece of hardware is rendered obsolete by software. A computer can no longer run the latest operating system, or a new peripheral uses a port your old machine doesn't have. The most famous (and litigated) example is the accusation that Apple has used iOS updates to deliberately slow down older iPhone models, creating a frustrating user experience that "encourages" an upgrade to the latest hardware.

Prevention of Repair: This is the holy grail of planned obsolescence. It involves making products physically impossible for consumers or third-party technicians to fix. This is achieved by using proprietary "pentalobe" screws that standard screwdrivers can't open , welding key components together, refusing to make spare parts available, and, most commonly, designing devices with irreplaceable lithium-ion batteries that have a built-in lifespan of two to three years.

The consequences of this throwaway culture are staggering. The constant replacement of goods creates mountains of electronic waste, much of which is not properly recycled and leaches toxic materials into the environment. This cycle also drives the relentless extraction of scarce raw materials, such as the coltan needed for smaller batteries.

The true genius of the system, however, lies not just in making things break, but in making us want them to break. The physical failure of a product (planned obsolescence) works in perfect harmony with the psychological manipulation of marketing (perceived obsolescence). A company like Apple doesn't just rely on your phone's battery dying. First, it spends months bombarding you with advertising for its new model, showcasing a slightly different camera and a new color. This creates a sense of being "outdated" and plants the seed of desire. Your current phone works perfectly, but it's no longer the latest. Then, a software update arrives, and suddenly your once-snappy device feels sluggish and its battery drains faster. This engineered failure provides the tangible excuse you need to act on the desire that marketing has already created. One strategy manufactures the desire, the other provides the justification. Together, they dramatically shorten the replacement cycle, achieving the ultimate business goal: making you buy the same thing all over again.

Section 2: The Digital Venus Flytrap

As our lives have migrated from the physical to the digital, so too have the mechanisms of extraction. The online world is a landscape of carefully constructed traps designed to lure you in, manipulate your behavior, and make it excruciatingly difficult to escape.

Hotel California Subscriptions: You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave

The subscription economy, projected to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2025, is built on a model known as the "Roach Motel": it's easy to get in, but nearly impossible to get out. Companies are fully aware that by making the cancellation process a frustrating gauntlet, they can significantly boost revenue—by up to 200%—from customers who either forget they are subscribed or simply give up trying to cancel.

The tactics employed in this gauntlet are a masterclass in psychological warfare. Users report having to navigate through eight different account menus just to find a hidden cancellation link. They are forced to chat with bots that endlessly suggest "alternatives" before finally being allowed to speak to a human retention agent, whose entire job is to read from a script designed to wear them down with "special deals". Stories abound of consumers being charged for a year after being assured their subscription was canceled , or being told by customer service that their subscription doesn't exist even as the monthly charges continue to appear on their credit card statement. The process can be so maddening that some users have resorted to extreme measures, like claiming they were about to be incarcerated, just to be released from a service. The problem is so widespread that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed a "click to cancel" rule, a federal-level admission that corporations cannot be trusted to let customers leave voluntarily.

The Architecture of Deception (aka "Dark Patterns")

The difficult-to-cancel subscription is just one example of a broader category of manipulative design known as "dark patterns." These are tricks embedded in websites and apps that make you do things you didn't intend to do. Becoming familiar with them is like learning to spot loaded dice at a casino.

Bait and Switch: The interface promises one outcome but delivers another. A classic example was a Windows update prompt where clicking the "Close" button actually initiated the installation process, betraying user trust and intent.

Confirmshaming: This pattern uses guilt to steer your choices. Instead of a neutral "No, thanks," the button to decline an offer might read, "No, I'd rather bleed to death" or "No thanks, I like paying full price".

Disguised Ads & Sneak into Basket: These tricks either camouflage advertisements to look like legitimate download buttons or secretly add unwanted items, like a magazine subscription, to your online shopping cart, hoping you won't notice before you pay.

Forced Continuity: This is the engine of the subscription trap, where a "free trial" automatically converts into a recurring paid plan without adequate notification, catching users who forget to cancel in time.

These deceptive practices are not just annoying; they are incredibly lucrative and legally perilous. Epic Games was forced to pay a $245 million settlement for using dark patterns in its Fortnite payment system, and the diet app Noom paid $62 million to settle charges over its deceptive auto-renewal practices.

The Gilded Cages of Apple and Google

The final layer of digital entrapment is "ecosystem lock-in." This is the strategy of designing a suite of products and services that work so seamlessly together that the cost, difficulty, and frustration of switching to a competitor become prohibitively high.

Apple is the undisputed master of this domain. An Apple Watch is described as "truly pointless" without an iPhone to pair it with; even basic functions like notifications will break. AirPods, while functional as basic Bluetooth earbuds, lose their signature features—Siri integration, automatic device switching—when used with a non-Apple device. The HomePod smart speaker is even more restrictive, requiring an iPhone or iPad for the initial setup and ongoing management.

Google, in a bid to build its own gilded cage, plays the same game. A Pixel Watch becomes a useless bracelet if you switch to an iPhone. Pixel Buds, the "Google mirror of AirPods," are stripped of their key features like Google Assistant integration and real-time translation when used outside the Android ecosystem.

This lock-in strategy is often initiated through the "freemium" model. Services like Gmail, Google Drive, or the free tier of Spotify act as the bait. They leverage powerful psychological principles like reciprocity (users feel a sense of gratitude for the free value provided and are more likely to pay to reciprocate) and fear of missing out (FOMO) (users see the enhanced features of the premium version and feel an urgent need to upgrade so they don't miss out). Once a user upgrades and their data, photos, and habits are embedded in the system, the walls of the cage begin to close.

When combined, these digital strategies represent a fundamental inversion of the concept of ownership. Consider the journey from a physical CD to a streaming service. You once bought a CD; it was yours to own, play, lend, or sell in perpetuity. Today, you pay a monthly fee for a temporary license to access a library of music through a service like Apple Music. This service works best on a proprietary device like a HomePod, which is controlled by your iPhone. After a few years, that iPhone is deliberately slowed down by a software update, forcing you to purchase a new one to maintain the quality of the service you are already paying for. You don't own the music. You don't own the software. And you barely own the hardware, which can be remotely degraded at any time. You have become a perpetual renter in a digital world owned by a handful of corporate landlords.

Section 3: Death by a Thousand Fees

Beyond the shrinking products and digital traps lies a more direct form of financial extraction: the endless barrage of fees, surcharges, and hidden costs that ensure the price you see is never the price you pay.

The Sticker Price is a Lie: True Cost of Ownership

The advertised price of any major purchase is merely the cover charge for entry into a world of ongoing expenses. The "American Dream" of homeownership, for example, begins not just with a down payment, but with closing costs that can amount to 2-5% of the home's purchase price. From there, the financial drain is relentless: property taxes, homeowner's insurance, private mortgage insurance (PMI) for those with smaller down payments, and homeowner's association (HOA) dues. A common rule of thumb is that a homeowner should budget at least 1% of the property's value every year just for maintenance and repairs.

The same principle applies to owning a vehicle. The sticker price is just the starting point. The largest hidden cost is depreciation; a new car can lose over 20% of its value in the first year alone. Added to this are the ongoing costs of insurance, financing interest, taxes and registration fees, fuel, and a constant cycle of maintenance—oil changes ($35-$75), tire rotations (starting at $60), and brake pad replacements ($150-$300 per axle). The "True Cost to Own®" a vehicle over five years is often thousands of dollars more than the initial purchase price.

The Surcharge-Industrial Complex

In addition to the hidden costs of ownership, we are now subjected to a universe of explicit, add-on fees.

The "Convenience" Fee: Perhaps the most brazenly named charge in existence, a convenience fee is a penalty for using a payment method that is more convenient for you but less preferred by the business. When you pay tuition, taxes, or buy concert tickets online with a credit card, the 2-3% fee you are charged exists solely to offset the merchant's own credit card processing costs. You are, in effect, paying the company for its cost of doing business.

Banking Fees: The banking industry has perfected the art of the fee, often creating a system that functions as a tax on having limited funds. These include monthly account maintenance fees (waived only if you maintain a minimum balance), out-of-network ATM fees, and the infamous overdraft fee—a penalty of around $35 for miscalculating your balance, even by a few cents.

Investment Fees: Even when you try to grow your money, the fees are there to siphon it away. The difference between a low-fee investment (0.5%) and a high-fee one (2%) may seem small, but over a 30-year career, that difference can reduce an individual's annual retirement income by more than $5,000. Some mutual funds also carry "front-end load" charges, which can take as much as 5.5% of your initial investment right off the top before it has a chance to grow.

The Price Isn't Real: Dynamic Pricing & Data Monetization

The final evolution of this fee-based world is the elimination of a stable price altogether. With "dynamic pricing," the amount you are charged for a product or service is not a fixed number but a fluid calculation based on current market demand, competitor pricing, and other external factors. The travel industry pioneered this model, with algorithms constantly adjusting the price of airline tickets and hotel rooms to find the absolute maximum price the market will bear at any given moment. A boutique hotel in New York City, for instance, increased its revenue per available room by 23% in six months simply by implementing a dynamic pricing system.

This practice is powered by the engine of the modern internet: data monetization. The vast troves of information that companies collect about you are not just sitting in a server. They are used internally to create detailed profiles for targeted marketing and to identify upsell opportunities. More importantly, this data is often packaged and sold externally to third parties.

This creates an unholy alliance between data and pricing. The personal data that companies monetize is the fuel for the dynamic pricing algorithms. This system represents the ultimate endgame of consumerism: the death of a universal "price." In this new paradigm, there is no single price for a hotel room, only your price. The algorithm knows your browsing history, your past purchases, and your demographic profile. It can infer whether you are a budget-conscious traveler or someone who has recently been searching for luxury goods. It can determine if you are booking a vacation months in advance or if you are desperately trying to get a last-minute flight for a family emergency. Each of these data points helps it calculate the perfect, individualized price designed to extract the maximum possible value from you, personally. This shatters the foundational principle of a fair and transparent market, replacing it with a system of perfect, algorithm-driven price discrimination at a massive scale.

Section 4: The Final Boss: Your Medical Bill

If there is one document that perfectly encapsulates the entire ethos of the Grand Fleecing, it is the American medical bill. It is the final boss of anti-consumer design, a system so opaque and convoluted that it feels intentionally hostile.

The complexity is not an accident. A medical bill is not designed for you, the patient, to understand. It is a communication tool created for massive institutions—hospitals, clinics, and insurance companies—to negotiate payments with each other. The blizzard of codes (like CPT and ICD-10), arcane terminology ("allowed amounts," "co-insurance," "deductibles"), and fragmented bills arriving from different providers for a single procedure all serve this bureaucratic function.

The patient is a bystander in this process. The system's inherent opacity makes it nearly impossible to comparison shop for procedures, verify the accuracy of charges, or even understand what services you actually received. You may be billed for services you never received, or billed for something that your insurance company should have covered but didn't because the provider submitted the claim too late. The American medical bill is the pinnacle of obfuscation—a system where the consumer's benefit is not a primary, secondary, or even tertiary design consideration.

Conclusion: Knowledge is Your Armor

The journey through the Grand Fleecing reveals a landscape of interlocking strategies. It starts with a self-destructing phone (Planned Obsolescence) that traps you in a Gilded Cage (Ecosystem Lock-in). Inside that cage, you are nudged and manipulated by Digital Trickery (Dark Patterns) into signing up for a Hotel California Subscription you can't escape. All the while, your every click and search is being harvested to fuel an algorithm (Data Monetization) that calculates the maximum personalized price it can charge you for your next purchase (Dynamic Pricing).

The goal of this guide is not to induce despair, but to foster vigilance. As the great social critic George Carlin observed, "It's a big club and you ain't in it". The entire system is predicated on consumer inattention and the exploitation of predictable human psychology. It works because we are too busy, too trusting, or too tired to scrutinize every transaction.

But understanding the game is the first step toward not being its victim. By learning to spot the tell-tale signs of shrinkflation on a grocery shelf, to recognize the architecture of a dark pattern on a webpage, and to question every line item on a bill, you can begin to navigate this hostile environment more effectively. You may not be able to dismantle the entire system, but you can become a much, much harder person to cheat. The first step to winning the game is to realize you're playing one. The second is to learn the rules better than the people who wrote them.

Works cited

1. Printer Ink, It's a SCAM : r/videos - Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/15rowro/printer_ink_its_a_scam/ 2. Scary Printer Stories - 28 Prints Later - YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWv8aFGF53M 3. Printers : r/funny - Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/d2bwot/printers/ 4. Shrinkflation | Research Starters - EBSCO, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/political-science/shrinkflation 5. Understanding Shrinkflation: Causes, Examples, and How to Identify It - Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shrinkflation.asp 6. Shrinkflation: How inflation is downsizing some of your favourite foods, https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/03/how-companies-are-hiding-inflation-without-charging-you-more/ 7. Understand Shrinkflation and Effective Marketing Strategies for your Brand - Mintel, https://www.mintel.com/insights/retail/understand-shrinkflation-effective-marketing-strategies/ 8. 10 products hit by shrinkflation in 2024 | CHOICE, https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/packaging-labelling-and-advertising/packaging/articles/shrinkflation-investigation 9. Same Prices, Smaller Portion Sizes, Reduced Value: Egregious Shrinkflation Examples, https://www.greenmatters.com/business/shrinkflation-examples 10. Shrinkflation 101: Less Bang For Your Buck – Michigan Journal of Economics, https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2024/04/17/shrinkflation-101-less-bang-for-your-buck/ 11. Planned obsolescence - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence 12. What is Planned Obsolescence? with Examples, https://sixsigmadsi.com/what-is-planned-obsolescence/ 13. Examples of planned obsolescence : r/Frugal - Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/xzx48f/examples_of_planned_obsolescence/ 14. Planned Obsolescence: Why is it a problem? - Iberdrola, https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/planned-obsolescence 15. 5 Annoying Examples of Planned Obsolescence - Utopia.org, https://utopia.org/guide/5-annoying-examples-of-planned-obsolescence/ 16. Subscription Fatigue: Why Many Consumers Click to Cancel - Shortform Books, https://www.shortform.com/blog/subscription-fatigue/ 17. 18 Dark Patterns Examples (and How to Avoid Them) - Eleken, https://www.eleken.co/blog-posts/dark-patterns-examples 18. Why do companies make it so hard to cancel subscriptions when it just makes customers hate them? - Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1koqrcy/why_do_companies_make_it_so_hard_to_cancel/ 19. Tried to cancel a service but couldn't? Learn steps to take | Consumer Advice, https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/11/tried-cancel-service-couldnt-learn-steps-take 20. 'I have a huge case brewing': US readers' frustrations with canceling various subscriptions, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/15/us-readers-cancelling-subscriptions 21. Deceptive Patterns (aka Dark Patterns) - spreading awareness since 2010, https://www.deceptive.design/ 22. Avoid Dark Patterns: Privacy Compliance Best Practices - Usercentrics, https://usercentrics.com/knowledge-hub/dark-patterns-and-how-they-affect-consent/ 23. In business and economics, what is an Eco-System Lock In? | Reference Library - Tutor2u, https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/in-business-and-economics-what-is-an-eco-system-lock-in 24. 5 products that lock you into Apple and Google's ecosystems, https://www.pocket-lint.com/products-lock-into-apple-google-ecosystems/ 25. The Freemium Definition: Unlocking Free + Premium | ProductLed, https://productled.com/blog/freemium-definition 26. Freemium Model | Pricing Strategy + Examples - Wall Street Prep, https://www.wallstreetprep.com/knowledge/freemium/ 27. A Guide to the Cost of Buying & Owning a Home | Ally, https://www.ally.com/stories/home/cost-of-owning-a-home/ 28. The Hidden Costs of Car Ownership | JSB Blog | WV & MD, https://www.jsb.bank/resources/the-hidden-costs-of-car-ownership-maintenance-taxes-and-more 29. Cost of Car Ownership - 5-Year Cost Calculator | Edmunds.com, https://www.edmunds.com/tco.html 30. What Is a Convenience Fee? Understanding and Avoiding Extra ..., https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/convenience-fee.asp 31. What Is a Convenience Fee? A Guide for Contractors - Joist, https://www.joist.com/blog/what-is-convenience-fee/ 32. What Is a Convenience Fee and How to Avoid It - Upflow, https://upflow.io/blog/business-to-business-payments/convenience-fee 33. The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Convenience Fees - Nadapayments, https://www.nadapayments.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-convenience-fees 34. A guide to understanding convenience fee & how to avoid it - HighRadius, https://www.highradius.com/resources/Blog/guide-to-credit-card-convenience-fee/ 35. Credit Card Convenience Fees Explained: What Businesses Need to Know - SwipeSum, https://www.swipesum.com/insights/convenience-fees 36. 8 Common Bank Fees and Tips for How to Avoid Charges, https://bettermoneyhabits.bankofamerica.com/en/personal-banking/avoid-bank-fees 37. Common Bank Fees Explained - Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, https://www.barharbor.bank/personal/common-bank-fees-explained 38. Investment Fees: Meaning, Example, Types - Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/11/investors-fees-cheat-sheet.asp 39. Types of Fees - Canadian Securities Administrators, https://www.securities-administrators.ca/investor-tools/understanding-your-investments/types-of-fees/ 40. Dynamic pricing - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_pricing 41. How Dynamic Pricing Algorithms Can Transform Travel Business ..., https://www.travelai.com/resources/dynamic-pricing-travel-profitability/ 42. Data Monetization: How to Do It So You Can Get More ... - Analytics8, https://www.analytics8.com/blog/data-monetization-how-to-do-it-so-you-can-get-more-value-out-of-your-data/ 43. Data Monetization: A Complete Guide - Talend, https://www.talend.com/resources/data-monetization/ 44. Why are Bills So Complicated? - Lee Health, https://www.leehealth.org/billing/understanding-your-bill/why-are-bills-so-complicated 45. Why is Medical Billing so Complicated? - BillPro, https://nybillpro.com/blog/why-is-medical-billing-so-complicated/ 46. www.aboutyoufamilymedicine.com, https://www.aboutyoufamilymedicine.com/2025/05/12/healthcare-billing-simplified/#:~:text=Traditional%20healthcare%20billing%20involves%20layers,bills%20when%20something%20isn't. 47. Medical Billing Pointers - Minnesota Attorney General, https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/publications/MedicalBillingPointers.asp 48. How to read your medical bill | CMS, https://www.cms.gov/medical-bill-rights/help/guides/how-to-read-bill 49. Dumb Americans | George Carlin | Life Is Worth Losing (2005 ..., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLODGhEyLvk 50. George Carlin -- Consumption - YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pz8jO2Sht0