Ultimately, this is a consequence of out-of-control complexity in the legal system in America (and, I think, in many other countries). The current status quo is that in order to do many commonplace things, you will be required to sign long, arcane legal documents that are difficult or impossible for people without specialist knowledge to understand, and which in most cases you have no real negotiating power to argue against.

And so people don't read them. You can't.

When my wife and I sat down to buy our first house, we planned to read every document before signing it. The mobile notary they sent to our house was aghast. He was like, "Uh, I guess if you want to try, I can leave these here and try to come back in 8 hours or so, but obviously I will not stay here while you read everything you sign." Even if we had read it, what are the odds that we could've found some gotcha clause dressed up in weird language in that mound of documents?

When the status quo is for people to sign documents that they have not fully read or understood, things like this are going to happen.

There are a couple of solutions, neither of them perfect:

1. We need lawyers-in-a-box that can protect us from the most outrageous abuses. You should be able to point your smartphone at a Confession of Judgment and your phone should make a big red X and say, "WARNING! This kind of document is considered predatory! Exercise extreme caution before you sign it!" (You should also be able to get one that would tell you that the non-compete they want you to sign in California is not binding, that this contract contains a mandatory arbitration clause, and other things like that).

2. But that would only help a little bit. Ultimately, we would need to really rework the legal code in ways that I think everyone is more than a little uncomfortable with.