Quote:
Originally Posted by Patton250
I’ve read the whole thread. He basically doesn’t like people who have the audacity to believe in personal responsibility. He has called you and Chad every name in the book. Nowhere in the thread, has anyone endorsed dealerships or anyone scamming other humans. Basically, you and others have said that people have the responsibility to protect themselves, and should seek help if they lack the experience to do so in a given situation. I agree with that. Here’s an example. My income is too complicated for me to do my own taxes now. If I attempted to do them, I would definitely screw up and Chris would probably blame the system rather than me. While I’d love to cuss out and blame the IRS, its still my responsibility to get it done right. Most people in the United States agree the IRS is pretty predatory. L O L. However, we are still held responsible for getting our taxes done correctly. I suspect Chris is all for suing gun manufacturers if one of their products is used in a murder. 
Disclaimer: I do not support predatory practices from any business, including car dealerships. Anyone who knowingly and willingly scams another human being is a bad person, and I happen to know that in the very end they will get their due punishment. |
That is what you want to read into it, of course.
There is obviously a threshold where where the situation flips from you screwing up or being unprepared to you being taken advantage of. Some situations are quite murky, but to me it boils down to some combination of intent and rate of occurrence. If the intent is malicious, as it is in this case, it's clearly a scam and the victims are victims. If you are purposely rushed through signing 20 pages of papers and walk out thinking you own the car, it's pretty clear. Being tripped by a hole in the sidewalk might be your fault for not looking down, but if some asshole kids did it on purpose in a shaded area I'd say you are mostly absolved. Even if a utility didn't mean to do it, but ends up breaking 20 ankles, it's probably their fault. It's about the reasonable expectation.
Your tax scenario is interesting. I don't think the IRS is trying to purposely trap you, so it's your fault. Again, it depends. If 75% of Americans make the same mistake, I would say that the problem lies with the tax code. In software, if most of your users are making the same user error, it's bad design not the fault of the user. Of course, I do think our taxes are needlessly complicated, but the fault lies mostly with the tax preparation industry that has lobbied hard to prevent anyone from fixing it.