I'm sure a lot of my irritation is just from being a new member of the socioeconomic class that gets solicited.
Until very recently, I never lived in an affluent enough area that people would expect to get anything out upcharging their services by thousands of dollars, because no one could afford it and they'd just be told to take a hike.
Now I have neighbors with deep-ish pockets and the buzzards are constantly circling. I am confident that they know they're grifters.
I've meditated on this a little more and I think part of what's going on is a perverse selection process in who you're likely to be negotiating with. Since most Americans seem to feel a bit icky about haggling and negotiating, they're going to avoid careers doing it.
Negotiation heavy jobs are then going to draw from whoever doesn't feel whatever weird shame the rest of us do. Well, it's no surprise then that our negotiations are often us vs some sociopath trying to scam us.
If bargaining/haggling/negotiating were more of a normal part of our culture, then more honest people would be involved in negotiations and they wouldn't seem so scammy.
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Great point. This might be why we trend away from negotiable goods once more efficient price mechanisms appear.
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Salespeople love to negotiate and they tend to be psychopaths. I say this in the nicest way possible
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