( Three minute read)

You often wonder how a country can slide down hill.

I put a lot of countries problems down to the Rip off factor.

You could say that life itself is a rip off from its start to the end.

However each and ever country has its own matrix when it comes to rip off.

Some start before you set foot on the countries soil with visas fees.

No matter the price of a cup of coffee usually is a good barometer to judge by.

Within our capitalism system is becoming more and more prevalent, unaccountable Algorithmic profiteering is going to rip us off on a grand scale. Before they do here is a classic one we just experienced at the hands of a New Zealand cowboy called Gibbons Electrical.

Unfortunately while staying in a wonderful rural property a jar of marmite fell from a shelf overlooking-a glass cooking top, splintering its glass edge.

Natural it had to be replaced.

After hunting around the price of a replacement from new to second hand one varied between over 1000NZ$ new and 200 $ NZ. used.

We eventually on trade it we secured a second hand ( exact model replacement @ 150$ plus a round trip of 200 kilometres to collect it).

This replacement had to install by an electrician that could supply the property owner with a safety certificate, for insurance purposes.

So far Reasonable

With ten minutes labour, this cowboy installed it, presenting an invoice in the grand sum of 168€ for the trouble of do so.

Unplugged and re plugging came to 167$.

The majority of the cost over 100 € was the disposing of the old top, which we could have put in the car and driven it two minutes to a skip or ten minutes to the recycling depot cost free.

On pointing this out to the cowboy he stuck to his guns, because he has the owners of the property over a barrel and us as visitors.

(The owners of the house are totally screwed he being apparently the only electrician with in miles and they of course do not want to put his nose out of joint.)

So as not to upset the apple tart we cough up the 167nz$ which borders on unadulterated blatant robbery.

As there is no stigma attached you could say that it’s just sour grapes on our part being caught with our trousers down.

It is an example of what is wrong with the world we live in today.

If we do not stand up to being rip off we will be condoning a society where hidden algorithms will not just rip us off constantly but be excepted as the norm.

All human comments appreciated. All like click and abuse chucked in the bin.

Contact: bobdillon33@gmail.com