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Regional Airline Collapse: How 1978 Deregulation Killed Small Town Air Service—And Nobody Cares
In 1978, Boomers passed the Airline Deregulation Act. They promised it would lower fares and expand service. Instead, four carriers now control 81% of the U.S. market, regional carriers have vanished, 500+ small towns lost all airline service, and the…
ByAiden
RealPage’s Algorithmic Rent Pricing: How a Software Company Helped Landlords Collude — and Got Away With It
Rent-setting software made it illegal for landlords to talk directly about prices. So RealPage gave them an algorithm instead. For years, the company’s YieldStar software analyzed apartment market data and recommended the “optimal” rent — the highest price a neighborhood…
- ByAiden
Vision Care Has Become a Luxury Good: How EssilorLuxottica’s Monopoly Priced Out Millennials from Seeing
The average pair of prescription glasses in the United States costs $200–$300, but an identical pair manufactured abroad for $15 will be marked up 1,000% before you buy it. Vision care has become financially inaccessible to tens of millions of…
- ByAiden
Long-Term Care Insurance Premiums Are Skyrocketing: How Insurance Companies Collected Your Money for 30 Years, Then Raised Rates 50%
Long-term care insurance is a scam that got its billing statement. For decades, insurance companies sold middle-class Americans on policies promising to cover nursing home, assisted living, and home care costs in old age. Premiums seemed reasonable — $150–$400/month in…
- ByAiden
Airbnb & Housing Crisis: 1-2M Units Lost, 74% Investor-Owned, NYC Success, Paris Crackdown
Airbnb converted 1-2 million housing units from long-term rentals to short-term tourist accommodations. 70-74% owned by professional investors. As Paris, Canada, and NYC discover, the only solution is strict regulation. Key Takeaways 1-2 million units removed from long-term supply 70-74%…
- ByAiden
Social Security Claiming Age: Why Waiting Until 70 Is a Privilege Poor Workers Can’t Afford
Should you claim Social Security at 62 or wait until 70? That depends entirely on how much money you have in the bank and whether you expect to live past 78. If you’re rich and healthy, wait until 70 —…
- ByAiden
Why Are Credit Card Interest Rates So High? The 22% APR System Built on One 1978 Supreme Court Case, Two State Legislatures, and $430 Million in Lobbying
Credit card interest rates in America average 22.30% APR — a number that would have violated the law in most US states before 1978. The legal framework that permits 22% interest (and the 29.99% penalty APR that follows a single…
- ByAiden
Why Is Homeowners Insurance So Expensive? The 70% Surge, the Market Collapses, and the Boomer-Era Policy Failures That Caused Both
Homeowners insurance in America has become one of the most consequential hidden costs of homeownership — and for millions of families, it is becoming either ruinously expensive or simply unavailable. Since 2019, the national average homeowners insurance premium has risen…
- ByAiden
Child Poverty in America: How Congress Proved It’s a Policy Choice — Then Made It Worse
American child poverty is not an intractable social problem — it is a policy choice. In 2021, the United States proved this with mathematical precision: by expanding the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 per child and delivering it as monthly…
- ByAiden
The 403(b) Retirement Plan Scam: How Teachers and Nurses Lost $435,000 Each to Insurance Fees
A 403(b) plan is a tax-deferred retirement account available to employees of public schools, nonprofits, and certain tax-exempt organizations — covering 14.5 million American workers, most of them teachers, nurses, and hospital staff. Unlike the 401(k) plans that for-profit company…
- ByAiden