In my first year of nuclear power training in Balston Spa, New York, I was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Saratoga Springs. I lived off-base in a 4 apartment townhouse. I wondered why I was the only one occupying an apartment for months. Then horse racing season started (in case you are unaware, Saratoga Springs is the Mecca of horse racing in America. Or at least it was in '93 - no Idea if it still is).
For a month or two the rent for the other three apartments went up to 10 times what I was paying, and my landlord asked me not to tell the other seasonal tenants what my rent was, which she kept the same year-round. When I went into town, that sweater that I saw in a store that had previously been $70 was now $300.
This predation isn't a new thing, as that was over 30 years ago, and I have no doubt it goes back much farther than that. I've just been aware of it longer than most. At least in the real world the argument can be made for 'supply and demand' (I still think that is bullshit but at least it is a defense); in the digital world, there is no such thing.
This comment was edited on Jun 24, 2024, 17:24.
"The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."