From Your Job to Your Politicians, Welcome to the Big Con

Look around. School? Scam. Work? Scam. Democracy? Don’t get me started. From birth, you’re signed into a contract you never agreed to—and the ink’s invisible.

The Scam of Education

They told you education was freedom. Translation: a lifetime subscription to debt. In the U.S., the average graduate owes forty grand for a piece of paper that certifies one skill: obedience. You don’t buy knowledge you buy permission. Knowledge is free at a library. But you won’t get hired unless you pay six figures to prove you can sit still and take it. That’s not education. That’s extortion dressed in a cap and gown.

The Scam of Work

Welcome to the office. Eight hours of pretending to work, three hours of meetings about nothing, two hours making PowerPoints nobody reads. Economist David Graeber called it: “bullshit jobs.” Jobs that exist to justify bosses who exist to justify other bosses. And your paycheck? It’s hush money. It says: “Don’t ask if any of this matters. Just cash it.”

The Scam of Consumer Life

Your phone breaks on schedule, your clothes unravel by design, your apps charge you to exist. Even rebellion is monetized punk is a T-shirt at H&M, mindfulness is a $300 retreat. You’re not a citizen. You’re a subscriber. You’re not living. You’re leasing.

The Scam of Politics

Ah, democracy. Every four years, you pick your favorite liar. Ninety-one percent of U.S. elections and everywhere else, are won by the candidate with the most money . That’s not choice it’s an auction. Every speech is a product demo, every promise is vaporware. “Hope and Change.” “Make it Great Again.” Doesn’t matter. Different logos, same scam.

The Meta-Scam: Hope

And here’s the cruelest trick: they even scam your hope. Hustle culture says grind harder. Spirituality says manifest harder. Politicians say vote harder. It’s always on you to fix what they broke. And if it doesn’t work? They’ll sell you a premium upgrade.

So yeah. Is everything a scam? Pretty much. From your first day of school to your last ballot, life is one big pyramid scheme with better branding.

The truth? You were born into a scam. The only choice you’ve ever had is whether you sell it, buy it, or burn it down. What do you think?