Hacker News Reader

Overall I agree: I think a big root cause of current woes is that companies have grown too large and competition is broken. Not only that, but larger entities have more leverage to tilt the playing field and become even more anticompetitive.

There is another issue: collusion. If every company requires binding arbitration in their contracts (of adhesion), do I just opt out of having a cell phone, internet service, etc.?

See also: RealPage's rent-fixing.

View on HN

I continue to find the RealPage thing amusing because it's simultaneously possible that a) what they're doing is totally ineffective because there are tons of landlords and withholding units from the market primarily benefits the landlords who don't participate and thereby achieve a lower vacancy rate, making all of the landlords who don't use it smarter and more profitable than the ones who do, thereby ensuring a ton of defections that make the scheme ineffective, and yet b) that what they're doing is still an attempt at price fixing, which is illegal regardless of whether or not it's effective.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com