In the tax-prep world the big news was that Intuit, owner of TurboTax, has to pay $141 million ($30 a return) for ripping off the poor in 2016-18. Which is chump change for Intuit whose net income for those three years was $3 billion.

The online tax-prep companies in the US, along with the IRS, formed a partnership to put out a free online tax program for the poor and needy called Free File. The companies did this so the IRS wouldn't create a government system that they'd have to compete with. Intuit came up with a clever plan to “monetize free” by creating their own “free” program called Free Edition. They then hid the IRS's Free File to force people to use their Free Edition. Their webpage that had the IRS's program on it had special code so if you searched on Google you wouldn't find it. And they made it impossible to get to that webpage from the “regular” TurboTax.com. So most people, assured by ads that it was “free, free, free,” entered their data online into the TurboTax Free Edition. And of course it wasn't free, how else could Intuit make a billion a year.

Deep into the return a message would pop up saying that to claim that deduction they'd have to upgrade to the Deluxe Edition which is not-so-free. Intuit figured that people, when ultimately asked to pay, will usually do it rather than redo their taxes all over again. “There’s a lot of desperation — people will agree, will click, will do anything to file,” said a former long-time software developer.

Federal regulators and state prosecutors are still investigating Intuit, but Intuit has protected itself against a class-action lawsuit from the masses. If you actually read the legalese in the TurboTax terms-of-user agreement you find that you can only individually make an arbitration claim against them. This means you have to pay a small fee to a private arbitration organisation and then there may be legal fees too. Intuit is betting that not many people would go to that length to fight for 100 bucks. But a predatory Chicago law firm is calling their bluff. They are representing over 100,000 individuals and paying several million dollars in filing fees to make their claims. And they are doing that because, though the individual's fee is modest, Intuit has to pay a few thousand dollars in arbitration fees for each case (non-refundable). For 100,000 claims that runs to more than $175 million. Add in tens of millions in legal fees and, as an Intuit lawyer said, we have “a scheme to exploit the consumer-arbitration fee structure to extort a settlement payment from Intuit.” Intuit asked a judge to stop this scam and the judge agreed that this mass-arbitration tactic “is able to threaten companies — Intuit’s not alone — into paying $3,000 in arbitration fees, for a $100 claim.” But the judge didn't side with Intuit. He said Intuit has been “in Hamlet's words, hoisted by their own petard.” Intuit will have to fight an ever-growing number of individual cases, or settle with everyone at once. Neither way will be cheap.

Intuit may win some of the individual claims, but they are guilty and can't win them all. So even if a huge settlement doesn't happen, these big-game-hunting Chicago lawyers are unlikely to lose much. Yet you have to admire the cohones. Taking on some big money and not afraid to shoot it out in court. Like Shane standing up to a room full of bullies. And just like the movie, we have here a Wild West brutal kind of justice. Not very civilized, in our day and age.

Don't cry for Intuit, they made $2 billion in 2021. They're so rich they can sponsor NFL championship football games. Which is fitting because the NFL is full of cheaters too. Am I mistaken, or are all the big money-makers of our day morally bankrupt?

How about Apple, slowing down your phone just when they're releasing a new upgrade. They clung to the lame lie that they were only trying to “prolong the life” of the phones. (Like Putin saying Russia is “saving” Ukraine.) Why go to such shameless and stupid extremes to make themselves even more filthy rich? How could they have thought that in a litigation-mad country they would get away with it? It's cost Apple over half a billion dollars.

In America they think vanity and pride are virtues, not sins. So you'd think there'd be a few CEOs committing hara-kiri? But they don't seem embarrassed at all. They know the news will quickly move on and everyone will soon go back to worrying about the share price. And surely ripping off the consumer is nothing compared to Trump getting away with rape and revolution?

That's the times we live in. No one is accountable. If the poster boy for the next generation of leaders is George Santos, then we have bigger problems than global warming. A hundred years from now kids will be studying our history and they won't believe it. How can someone make up the most outrageous biography (that no one checks) and get himself elected to the US Congress. Has Trump made Republicans blind to pathological liars? But worse yet, his lies are exposed and he doesn't resign. In 2016, he bilked a homeless veteran out of money raised to save his dying dog. And he got away with it — which allowed him to get where he is today.

Maybe we need something like Iran's Morality Police. Get some thugs who think they know the Will of God and have them out grabbing sinners and beating the life out of them. Surely if we saw that everyday on the news, our consciences would be constantly nagging at us. And the world would be a better place.