What's a scam that's so normalized that we don't even realize it's a scam anymore?

Health care in the United States

Mortgages, loans, anything with interest

First thing I thought was formalized education. Especially nowadays - education does not guarantee success like it used to back in the day. Most companies would prefer someone with a lot of work experience (with results) over someone with much higher education but no experience. A person graduated with a degree, couldn't find a job, so he/she enrolled to continue their studies and get a doctorate so that they could teach others about that same subject. It's kinda like a pyramid scheme :D Don't get me wrong though, education opens up doors especially in the STEM fields. But many careers in Humanities prize experience above a piece of paper and a list of modules you said you studied but probably already forgot at this point. Even something highly paid and sought after as Data Analysts roles can be accessed just by having a certificate that takes roughly a month to get (I have a bunch of friends that did it this way).