There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute

In some circles, this saying is very well-known. In most circles, almost everyone will deny ever maintaining it.

This saying is so renowned that it has its own page @ wikipedia.org … which indicates that its origins can most probably be traced to the languages of gamblers and con artists. [1]

I have for many years questioned (or even “criticized“) Americans [2] for raising this construct to the pinnacle of American business practices and American business ethics [3].

Americans (i.e. the European conquistadors and such) and the American “Way of Life” has always been very enthusiastically and fanatically religious. Today, the fever with which “marks” are willing to self-identify as suckers has reached epic proportions. “Subs” and “slaves” alike are even willing to pay to become the targets of so-called “targeted” marketing and advertising.

Suckers willingly stand in line to buy cigarettes, get tattoos, piercings and whatnot. Thereby, they willingly declare “please use me” — as if they were unworthy unless they can be suckered into becoming profit sources for big business … the obvious and completely transparent sucker seems to hang out a sign: “open for exploitation”.

[1] [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute ]

[2] i.e., the people who live, act, do business, etc. in the United States of America

[3] here I might also mention, the dictum “buyer beware, seller beware”, which curiously also calls attention to the integrity of “wares”; see also the rather exhaustive analysis “Phishing for Phools”