r/mildlyinfuriating • u/TheAeroplaneBear2906 • Jul 16 '26

Unskippable ad Clear Backpacks + Pay to Keep Your Phone

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My freinds school is now requiring these items, and is also using AI to promote this 🫠

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u/Lv_InSaNe_vL Jul 16 '26

There's a phycological trick to making something cost a small amount of money. I'm not a psychologist so I don't have all the details but I was doing IT at a trucking company and we started issuing tablets to the drivers for their electronic logs and stuff and well over half of them were coming back broken.

So we started charging $40 for "equipment fees" when they started (which also covers some other pieces of equipment that went on the trucks themselves like dashcam/tracking stuff) and the number of broken tablets dropped down to our normal attrition rates almost immediately.

And even before our "equipment fees" they would sign a contract that any intentional damage would be charged to them so its not like the financial risk changed. I think there's just something about having to pay for something instead of getting it for "free"

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u/MonsterkillWow Jul 16 '26

It's not fair to poorer students.

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u/Lv_InSaNe_vL Jul 16 '26

Well, I was talking about fully grown adults. But I imagine the schools will have assistance programs for low income students just like they do now

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u/Somewhere-A-Judge Jul 16 '26

That's a really silly assumption