Bad industries

In the States, there are some industries that are largely respected.  There are a few, like mine, that are held in ill-repute.  In both cases, some of what forms the opinion is right and some of what forms it is wrong. 

I'm not immune to having my prejudices.  In each case, I haven't been harmed directly by either of these industries, but I've seen others hurt by them.  I think, for the reasons stated, that these industries are in serious need of regulation -- and I'm not typically in favor of more regulation.

The first industry is the credit card industry.  An industry that sends pre-approved credit cards to dead people, animals and children ought not to be allowed to write legislation, but that's what happened in the early part of this century, when Congress allowed itself to be bought by the credit card industry and turned over the duty to re-write the Bankruptcy Code to this industry.  The resulting law, known cynically as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), was declared by its proponents as a perfect law.  Within four years a federal court declared certain provisions of it unconstitutional.  Moreover, and perhaps more telling, the final draft that was signed into law misspelled the word bankruptcy.

Keeping pace with the credit card industry in its race through the nine circles of hell is the insurance industry.  It sells itself as protection for consumers and then presents policies with more convoluted rules than the Internal Revenue Code.  The Gordian Knot was easier to untie.  I've seen horror stories wherein coverage was denied over some weasely technicality that, in some situations, is only reversed when the great modern antiseptic, publicity, is shone on the problem via a television story.  I know there's insurance fraud out there, but the insurance companies are at least equally guilty of misusing their own product.

The final industry to draw my wrath and scorn is perhaps not an industry, but it's the organic being known as homeowner's associations.  I find it patently ridiculous that people can be paid to tell me how to live.  I understand that it already exists in places without defined homeowner's associations, where taxes paid to a municipality indirectly fund that entity and allow it to tell a homeowner how to live -- to a certain extent.  But it doesn't typically tell you whether you can put up the American flag.  I've seen stories wherein homeowners were sued because they refused to take the flag down. 

All three industries have at their cores a problem with self-importance.  The first two are capitalist entities, but the third is almost socialist.  Regardless, the three are rife with unfairness and boorishness.  There need to be changes to make each of them more equitable.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles