Corporations and landlords already jack up prices as much as they can. This is a problem of lack of competition. If there is proper competition then you should be able to buy/rent cheaper things, which would drive downward pressure on prices. The problem is maintaining competition because once one entity gets big enough then it tends to buy out the rest. There is also the issue of collusion, especially collusion through software that recommends pricing based on “market” i.e. average price + extra to drive upward pressure in prices. If multiple entities are using that software to determine prices then they are colluding by proxy.
If a competitive environment is maintained, then companies will drive down prices to capture those UBI dollars since people most dependent on UBI would be looking to spread their UBI as far as they will go, so they’ll look for the lowest prices.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If rent everywhere suddenly jumps then the DOJ has a slam dunk case of price collusion.
Kinglink@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If there was no external stimulus, they would have a slam dunk case. When every gas station jacks the price up 20 cents because the price of oil goes up, it’s just the market.
Put 1000 dollars in everyone’s pocket, every (smart) landlord will react and change their prices accordingly. That’s not “Collusion”, and the DoJ will never be able to make a case. That’s just landlords paying attention to what happened in the world.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The external stimulus you’re looking for there is the cost of gas to the gas station actually rises. There is no extra cost to landlords. Raising prices in concert with your competition with no reason is the definition of collusion.