Grift
Grift is used in favor of Scams because it also includes legal but ethically questionable business models that permeate modern capitalism.
"That's the power of the good con artist: the ability to identify your deepest need and exploit it. It's not about honesty or greed; we are all suckers for belief." -Maria Konnikova
One of the most important practical lessons of ethics is recognizing when someone else is being unethical. Technology has led to a prodigious proliferation of possibilities for pilfer. But, our institutions of moral education have not been keeping up.
Flavors of Modern Grift
Examples of modern quasi-legal grift include:
- Pseudoscientific medicines, supplements and fad diets.
- Ponzi schemes, Pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing.
- Corporate Rent-seeking.
- Timeshares.
- Telemarketing to the elderly (or anyone).
- Insider Trading and pump-and-dump schemes.
- Rug pulling (especially in crypto) and other exit scams
- Companies that produce more stock price hype than profitable products (bubbles).
- Undisclosed fees that significantly add to the actual price.
- Patent trolling.
- Loot boxes and most other in-game purchases.
- App-based gambling
- 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.
Taboos will also enable the enforcement of business ethics within organizations. It is not possible to implement an unscrupulous business practice without the help of many people. If these people are empowered through the incentives of cultural norms, it can override the tendency for organizations to discourage dissent.
Grift Begets Grift
The prevalence of grift causes a feedback loop where the more grift there 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. This cycle continues until the people get sick of being marks and fight back, hopefully just at the ballot box.
Grift erodes trust in institutions. It preys upon the most vulnerable. It exacerbates economic injustice. Legal systems and consumer protection agencies need to catch up to modern grifting techniques and prioritize the prosecution of these crimes. Culture needs to catch up as well, and give people the critical thinking skills they need to navigate modern capitalism.
Spiritual Grift
Spiritual spaces are especially susceptible to grift, due to several factors.
- "Spiritual" people tend to emphasize faith and emotional truth over reason and critical thinking
- Religious in-group bias causes people to overly trust grifters that profess a religious identity (see Bernie Madoff)
- People in search of healing will eagerly buy anything that offers it, especially if other methods have been unsuccessful
Anyone whose belief system is based on faith over reason makes themselves an easy mark.
When Internet-connected capitalism means that you can be grifted by anyone in the world at any time, protecting yourself from these scams is a necessary prerequisite for achieving modern financial literacy. It should be a cornerstone of our updated scripture and belief systems to recognize and call out shady business practices, not only outright theft. This is why a new spirituality based on critical thinking is so desperately needed.
Stop Participating in Bubbles
Economic bubbles are one of the most common forms of capitalist grift. A business idea that sounds viable can be hyped on social media to drive demand for the stock and inflate the price. This can be sustained for as long as the hype can be sustained. Crypto-bros have perfected this, resulting in the largest and longest-lasting bubbles in economic history, in the forms of crypto-currency and technology stocks.
Eventually, the monopolistic and political power of the economic bubbles they create become self-fulfilling prophecies, where the fact of their monopolies justifies continued investment since it seems like nobody can possibly compete with them or threaten them with regulation. Especially when they own the government!
The main problem is that anyone who buys into the bubble and sells before the bubble bursts can make a lot of money in the meantime. The fact that someone is eventually left holding the bag is someone else's problem. If you're smart enough to buy low and sell high, then you have an obligation to maximize your returns. This amoral thought process is how so many justify their participation in these modern scams. Others are just caught up in the hype; they are the ones most likely to lose in the end.
Participating in bubble economies is unethical and needs to be taboo in order to have an economy that works to maximize gross national happiness and not short-term stock market returns.
Grifty Videos and Podcasts
Hidden Brain - How to Spot a Scam
The Conspirituality podcast provides an in-depth study of spiritual grift and online misinformation, as well as diagonalism and the intersection between hippie health nuts and the alt-right.
Scamfluencers is a podcast that profiles infamous scammers, especially on social media.
The Scam Economy is a popular YouTube channel about scams, especially in crpyto.
Here are 9 more scam podcasts.
As you can see, scams are a very popular topic on podcasts. People are tired of getting scammed all the time, and it shows.
Grifty Grooves
Songs to scam by.