Grift

See Scams

Flavors of Modern Grift

Grift is used in favor of scam because it also includes legal but ethically questionable business models that permeate modern capitalism. Examples include:

• Pseudoscientific medicines, supplements and fad diets.
• Pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing.
• Corporate Rent-seeking.
• Timeshares.
• Telemarketing to the elderly (or anyone).
• Insider Trading.
• Undisclosed fees that significantly add to the actual price.
• Loot boxes and most other in-game purchases.
• Buying out a generic drug manufacturer and increasing the price of life-saving medicine by 100x.
• Using political outrage to sell guns, flags, fake border walls, pillows, supplements, gold coins, etc.

Making Grift Taboo

Since the legal and regulatory systems cannot always intervene to prevent this type of behavior, capitalist culture needs to make them taboo. The rampant grift in our economy will only end when unscrupulous business activities can no longer buy you access to the upper echelons of society. A culture of grift-awareness that educates people on how to recognize scams and unethical business practices can reduce the number of potential marks and make the grift life less profitable.

Grift Begets Grift

The presence of grift is rampant, and causes a feedback loop where the more prevalent grift is in the economy, the more people see it as the only way to get rich, so even more people abandon their business ethics and join the grift game. The more economic power that grifters have, the more they can shape the political and regulatory environment to legally allow or even supercharge their scams, giving them even more power.

Grift erodes trust in institutions. It preys upon the most vulnerable. It exacerbates economic injustice.

Matt Binder has a whole YouTube channel dedicated to the exposing the Scam Economy