This Machine Kills
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349. Death By A Thousand Prices (ft. David Dayen, Lindsay Owens)
🕑 Added 2024-06-25 02:19:29 +0000 UTCWe are joined by David Dayen (editor, American Prospect) and Lindsay Owens (director, Groundwork Collaborative) to discuss the special issue of the American Prospect they put together on “how pricing really works.” We drill down into why pricing is the perfect window for seeing how power works in the economy. We explore the great many tactics and technologies that companies have devised to make pricing into a major source of profits by enforcing a system of unfair, deceptive, and aggressive strategies designed to exploit each person based on what they are willing to pay and what they are willing to accept. We wrap up by talking about what can be done by legislators, regulators, and the court of public outrage to push back against the weaponization of pricing.
How Pricing Really Works https://prospect.org/pricing
Groundwork Collaborative https://groundworkcollaborative.org/
David Dayen https://x.com/ddayen
Lindsay Owens https://x.com/owenslindsay1
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
Comments
Amelia
YES!!!!!!!!! I have been fixated on this topic ever since I witnessed the birth of the $20+ cocktail in 2022 as a server in a restaurant/club owned by a powerful corporate restaurant group in Chicago…despicable but SO fascinating. During my time at that same job my coworkers and I would frequently have to wait for more than an hour after weekend night shifts to get home because rideshare rates would surge upwards of $40-60 for a 2.5 mile ride. Pure evil. That kind of greedy price experimentation/inflation spreads like wildfire. First it’s a $22 old fashioned, then you realize you can’t afford to buy an umbrella and before you know it you’re totally priced out of your neighborhood. I’m consistently surprised at how little curiosity people have about something so obviously power-driven as pricing. Why are we letting corporate vultures get away with this kind of life ruining, world destroying shit?! Thank you for this episode and for everything y’all do! :) :)
