"Washington is Hollywood's Hollywood ..."

We live in an increasingly scammy world. Everywhere you turn, things are hedged about with small print, unspoken requirements and unseen “gotchas.” How about the TV ads in which legally required information is shown at the bottom of the screen in unreadable form? What about those companies offering to cut your burdensome debts? And if you negotiate with creditors to cut their outrageous fees and fines, the mighty IRS, which considers relief a gift, can tax you accordingly.

It does not stop there. Almost every bill passed by local, state or federal powers has hidden fines, fees, and taxes aimed at you. How did you think all those hidden taxes got passed?

“There are plenty of unexpected taxes that raise the price of goods and services—sin taxes, import duties, user fees and excise taxes… The less visible a tax is, the less likely taxpayers will be aware of it, unsettled by it and advocate against it,” said economist Jared Bernstein of Washington, D.C.’s Economic Policy Institute.

About a third of the federal tax burden is hidden from public view. So voters underestimate the real tax burden and true costs. Thus we underestimate the true cost of government programs, and even demand more spending. Chris Edwards, an economist with the Cato Institute, calls it a “fiscal illusion.”

It is not just the big, ever-hungry Feds, either. Nope; it is your local government, local stores and shops with kindly owners. Let us begin with eyeglasses. What is wrong with them? They are vastly overpriced, that’s what.

Eyeglasses go back a long way, to the middle of the thirteenth century. It is generally accepted they were invented or developed in Italy. There are, however, stories of Roman men of letters using smooth crystals to magnify scrolls.

My point is that glasses have been around since, say 1250 to 2010 AD. That’s 760 years, around seven and a half centuries. So why do they cost at least $150 in most glasses stores? Don’t you think the technology has been more or less settled? Nowadays we are talking about plastic lenses shaped by computer driven presses, then fitted into metal or sturdy plastic frames. It should be a rather cheap process.

I know people who routinely pay anywhere from 250 to $450—even more. There are some places that claim you can get excellent glasses for less, and some that offer less expensive glasses that look pretty awful. I found a nice outfit which charges around $39 dollars for both frame and lenses that look as good as most of those offered in retail stores. But it is online, and some online stores are unreliable.

The real question is: Why should we have to search the web for decent glasses at a decent price? How is it that the prices for most retail glasses are just about the same no matter which shop you go to? It rouses the same suspicions as DVD movies.

Remember in the heyday of DVDs, when every hot movie cost around $21.95 or better? The same applied to CDs.  They were $17.95 and up for one disc. Every label charged virtually the same price. The whole business, to this day, reeks of price fixing. So why not complain, or work around the system?

Well, have you got a few extra hundred thousand bucks to spare? That’s just for openers. The FBI warnings on DVDs make it plenty clear: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Notice they say “including infringement without monetary gain.” This law was intended to deter Chinese “entrepreneurs” from copying Hollywood movies wholesale. But as a treat the lawmakers threw some judicial barnyard dirt at ordinary folks who wanted to continue the “fair use doctrine” that allowed people to preserve originals movies and tapes by making copies for personal use.

People do it with DVDs, but it is a major hassle and expensive. Moreover, in theory, the FBI can take time out of its busy schedule to bust your butt and toss you into a not-nice federal prison. Remember when they did it to college students? They charged them with tens of thousands of dollars for stealing trashy music from various Web sites? All of that for MP3 files, which have terrible quality.

Just who put the Feds up to providing protection to record companies, film studios and distributors? You got it! Record companies, film studios and distributors. Name me one book publisher with that kind of political clout. If  “Hollywood is Washington’s Washington,” the reverse is also true. Imagine what goes on behind closed doors when both get together! Even pagan Rome would have cringed.

There is plenty of trickery and mild deceit to go around. Did you know it costs cell companies virtually nothing to provide text messaging? I mean, virtually zero. How about charging you to both make and receive calls? Talk about the Mafia.

How about grocery coupons that promise discounts for an item but stipulate—in small print—“if you buy two large sized?”  For that matter, how about every grocery store putting prices on the shelf, but in miniscule type? Or placing prices an inch above the floor? That shows real care and concern for older customers.

One last thought: in Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai, his character steps out on to a brightly sunlit stairway after harrowing moments in a court room. He looks around marveling and says, “Ah, the world is a bright and guilty place!”

Amen, Brother Welles. It glitters and gleams and deceives.