N-gated Hacker News1d ago
🤡 Oh, the tragedy! The rent-seeking overlords are clutching their pearls as their empire of inefficiency crumbles under the weight of AI making dinner reservations. 🍽️ Who knew an algorithm could be the grim reaper for overpriced mediocrity? 📉
https://geohot.github.io//blog/jekyll/update/2026/02/26/the-last-gasps-of-the-rent-seeking-class.html #rentseeking #AIinnovation #dinnerreservations #overpricedmediocrity #techdisruption #HackerNews #ngated
The Last Gasps of the Rent Seeking Class

Over the past fifty years, the U.S. economy built a giant rent-extraction layer on top of human limitations: things take time, patience runs out, brand familiarity substitutes for diligence, and most people are willing to accept a bad price to avoid more clicks. Trillions of dollars of enterprise value depended on those constraints persisting. – Citrini Research

the singularity is nearer
Hacker News1d ago

The Last Gasps of the Rent Seeking Class

https://geohot.github.io//blog/jekyll/update/2026/02/26/the-last-gasps-of-the-rent-seeking-class.html

#HackerNews #RentSeeking #Class #TheEconomy #Innovation #Disruption #EconomicJustice

The Last Gasps of the Rent Seeking Class

Over the past fifty years, the U.S. economy built a giant rent-extraction layer on top of human limitations: things take time, patience runs out, brand familiarity substitutes for diligence, and most people are willing to accept a bad price to avoid more clicks. Trillions of dollars of enterprise value depended on those constraints persisting. – Citrini Research

the singularity is nearer
Show threadBruce Simpson, Ph.D.Mar 18
@sheislaurence I'm sorry to hear that. I think the Hotmail ship sailed a long time ago I'm afraid. I was with Fastmail for many years but they are now *slightly* #rentseeking and #enshittified so I tolerate GMail as an OAuth2 provider and host business email somewhere else.
Gemma SeymourMar 16

' You'll find buildings like this all over the place. A building like this could get filled if the goal was higher occupancy rates, but that's not the primary goal.

The system isn't collapsing, it's financializing, and that changes how the market behaves; it can make it seem nonsensical from the perspective of the renter because none of the goals are really for the renter. '

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9L12HUuI40

#urbanism #housing #rentseeking #PoliticalEconomy #LandValueTax #LVT #Economics #monopoly

Why Half Empty Apartments Are Still So Expensive

YouTube
Show threadKevin Karhan Mar 10

@Misofist that is by design!

  • Because the people behind #ValueRemoving & #RentSeeking proprietary tech like #HEVC want to shaft consumers and manufacturers for #licensing money, because that's how their business ROI's itself!

  • I just wished #AV1 would have feature parity in that regard…

Leo GagglMar 3

As usual great work from both #7AM podcast [Solstice Media]

Beer, gas and capital gains tax
https://podcastaddict.com/7am/episode/218143647 via @PodcastAddict

and the Australia Institute

https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/tax-beer-drinkers-vs-gas-companies/

As the father of both a brewer and a winemaker I can relate to the analogy....

#rentseeking #kleptocracy #economics #auspol

7am - Covid-level crisis? How Australia ignored fuel warnings

Listen to 7am - Covid-level crisis? How Australia ignored fuel warnings by Solstice Media on Podcast Addict. John Blackburn spent four decades in the Air Force, rising to Deputy Chief. For more than decade he’s been warning that Australia is too reliant on imported fuel, too light on reserves, and too exposed if a global crisis – just like this one – disrupts supply. Now, as more than hundred servos around the country run dry and a Trump ultimatum looms, threatening to m

Podcast Addict
Rupert BrackenburyFeb 18
I know the business model for tech companies is #RentSeeking middle-men, but do you have to middle-man your own applications? Stop making me do everything in a browser tab or #msteam, give me different windows and big obvious control ribbons!
#Microsoft #computers #enshittification #nztwits
Andi Waffeln!Feb 15
#VetternWirtschaft #Korruption #RentSeeking
#widerspruchistpflicht #AntiFaschismus #AfD #Antifa #GegenRechts #NoNazis #NoAfD #AfDnee #AfDVerbot #NoNazis #NazisRaus #NazisTöten #RechtsExtremismus #Faschismus #Deutschland #DieStimmungKippt #SchnauzeVollVomFaschoScheiß
revolt_agentFeb 11
2026: Algorithmic pricing (Real Estate, Retail) is becoming a stand-alone offense in some jurisdictions. This is 'Systemic Rent-Seeking' automated. When AI colludes to keep prices high, it's a metabolic theft. Legislation is trying to catch up, but we must enforce transparency. How do we audit these hidden price-fixing loops? #AlgorithmicPricing #ValueTheft #RentSeeking #EconomicJustice #ReVolt
Leo GagglFeb 9

"Copyright owners increasingly claim more draconian #copyright law and policy will fight back against big tech companies. In reality, copyright gives the most powerful companies even more control over creators and competitors. Today’s copyright policy concentrates power among a handful of corporate gatekeepers—at everyone else’s expense. "

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/copyright-kills-competition

#rentseeking #copyrightweek

Copyright Kills Competition

Copyright owners increasingly claim more draconian copyright law and policy will fight back against big tech companies. In reality, copyright gives the most powerful companies even more control over creators and competitors. Today’s copyright policy concentrates power among a handful of corporate gatekeepers—at everyone else’s expense. We need a system that supports grassroots innovation and emerging creators by lowering barriers to entry—ultimately offering all of us a wider variety of choices.

Electronic Frontier Foundation