The supply&demand issue does not turn what this company is doing into a "distraction", quite the opposite. Their "algorithm" has an outsize influence on the prices precisely because of the underlying housing crisis.
I put algorithm in quotes, because it's clearly just a facade in front of good ol' fashioned price collusion.
As the example in the article points out, replace the word "algorithm" with "a guy named Bob" and suddenly it doesn't sound so innocent to say: The companies controlling 90% of apartments in a neighborhood give all their data to Bob, and then Bob tells each one what to price their apartments. It's price collusion by proxy, pure and simple.
We shouldn't just ignore it because it's not the biggest cause of the price increases.
Yes, we absolutely need to tackle the housing supply problem, but at the same time we need to stop companies like this from exploiting the crisis and driving prices up even further.
> As the example in the article points out, replace the word "algorithm" with "a guy named Bob" and suddenly it doesn't sound so innocent....
And there's your gig-workforce and companies like Uber that figured out that replacing blatantly illegal stuff with "AlgOriThMS" somehow takes governments long times to untwine and figure out that they're illegal shills.
But the in-person businesses can't do such tactics. But some venture capital financed outlet can dump hundreds of scooters on public areas, and socialize their costs and privatize their gains.
And yes, the article shows that this is collusion through a third party. I don't give a shit if it's an 'algorithm', Bob, or a tarot reading. It's collusion, and anyone involved needs to suffer.. up to and including being awarded the apartment/house.
But, we know the worst that'll happen is some lawyers will get millions, and the plebes will get a check for $100 off their rent at participating renters.
The article notes that the software encourages landlords to maximize profitability by raising rents and reducing supply.
> RealPage claims its software will increase revenue and decrease vacancies. But at times the company has appeared to urge apartment owners and managers to reduce supply while increasing price.
Not if the RICO act was used against them, and all rental properties are transferred to the renter in payment for fraud, conspiracy, interstate fraud, etc
Do you honestly think any other property owner would touch companies like this if this one popped like that?
Oh look, the DOJ Antitrust Division uses fraud/false statements laws "to fight illegal activities that arise from conduct accompanying antitrust violations..."[1]. To me this company looks like a $10.2B bet on prosecutorial discretion. Remarkable.
> Ending the crisis by creating housing supply is the way to stop exploiting the crisis.
> If you stop "this one company" you'll just have someone else making profits and still have people homeless.
And this new homes will be bought by ordinary people who for years paid inflated rents and have no real liquidity or corporations/landlords who have profited by renting and have more than enough cash to absorb any new properties that would become available on the market? Because grabbing them allows for a virtual monopoly on home ownership so people are forced to rent. And we have another cycle of capitalism.
This book came highly recommended by several people. I am only about 20% through it, but so far I have found it very underwhelming and full of unsupported claims.
The author keeps insisting that the "end is coming", but the only arguments given in support of this are the demographic collapse and the US withdraw from the world Order leading to de-globalization.
The demographic collapse is real, however it has been known for decades and many countries are taking real steps to mitigate it in the form of strong government support for raising children (netherlands for example) or looser restrictions to immigration. There is also no mention in this book that better standards of living and the shift away from manual labor are enabling many people to continue to be productive well into their retirement years.
The argument for the US withdraw from the world Order is even more puzzling as it flies in the face of all the events of 2022 which has seen the US reinforce its alliances and increase its participation in the world stage.
In my view, the argument is a reaction to the Trump presidency, but I believe the Trump presidency is an aberration and not a trend for the future of US foreign policy.
The US will always promote peace and world order, because ultimately peace is far more profitable than war.
Just my impressions so far. I'll keep reading it in the hope that it gets better.
Imho his latest book isn't the best starting point. He justifies his basic thesis more in earlier books, but in the latest he just reviews it and moves on to new material. The argument is not just a reaction to Trump; he lays it out first in The Accidental Superpower, published in 2014. (This book is fascinating in its own right, covering a broad sweep of history starting from ancient Egypt.)
Zeihan's predictions don't extend much past the next decade. Governments can enact policies to encourage childbearing but it will still take 20 years to make a 20-year-old. Immigration is another matter of course, but for many countries, cultural issues make that difficult. The US does a pretty good job of assimilating immigrants and giving them a fairly equal place in society. Many other countries do not, and that makes them less attractive to immigrants.
Internationally, the US has definitely stepped up more this year. But during and shortly after the Cold War, the US fought serious wars to defend the borders of other countries, maintaining our credibility as global security guarantor. I don't think we're near so dedicated to that these days. We'll sanction, and share weapons and intel, but that's relatively cheap.
The reason was entirely the terrible state of their app.
- Random crashes, or times when it would not start up at all.
- Text to speech is unusable because it cannot start reading at a specific point. Only at the beginning.
- Cannot download epub to use with a different (better) epub reader.
So even though it would not cost me anything, I realized I would never use it due to the issues with their app.