Enough with the Small Print

The fine print on any binding contract must be the most overlooked passage in human history. It never fails, just when you think you got yourself together, you discover somewhere down the line that you’ve overlooked something.

I know because it continues to happen to me as it does to millions of consumers everywhere, but frankly we’re not to blame. To stay on top of every additional wording is the responsibility of those behind the contracts. While consumers should try to take the time to read the small print, it’s not always possible, and obviously not expected, which is why businesses leave any extra requirements in that despised tiny wording.

If America’s institutions really gave a damn about adequately informing the consumer, they wouldn’t need to explain everything in small print. That is all a ploy to protect businesses from legal issues and to ensure they’re not out the extra billion dollars or so they can potentially make from that small print.

It’s about time businesses are held responsible. It’s unfair to those who do their best to follow up on their financial and legal responsibilities, only to discover they’ve been sideswept by additional language hidden at the end of all the writing.

This is coming from someone who has taken extreme measures to read everything on every document she receives. Those times that I had been slightly more careful with the small print, I’ve come to realize that there really was nothing of relevant importance to read in the first place.

So I say, stop with the small print, or hold businesses and contract preparers responsible for misleading the masses. Enough is enough already.