As American oligarchy emerges, there’s a new trend of big corporations using AI against its citizens and workers to boost their profits. It’s creating a perfect storm for a market rebellion led by consumers.
If you follow the data, it tells a story of systematic theft hiding behind the veneer of innovation.
A devastating new paper by Columbia Business School Professor Len Sherman builds on research he released this summer that exposes how Uber’s “upfront pricing” system has engineered a nearly $4 billion annual wealth transfer from drivers to shareholders in the U.S. alone.
His analysis of more than 24,000 actual trips reveals algorithmic manipulation so pervasive that only 22% of 2024 trips were priced within normal parameters, compared with 86% in 2019. The other 78% of trips use what Sherman calls “algorithmic manipulation to charge riders more while paying drivers less.” This gaming of the system is now spreading to other sectors, according to Sherman.
This isn’t isolated corporate misbehavior. This new approach to gaming the system via AI-powered dynamic pricing is now spreading to other key industry sectors, including fast food and travel.
It’s the blueprint for a new American economy where algorithms extract maximum profit while government regulators look the other way — or actively dismantle consumer protections.
Big tech companies have led the movement to transform commerce into a rigged casino where the house always wins, consumers always lose, and the dice are loaded with AI.
The $3.8 Billion Housing Heist
The scale of corporate theft via algorithmic pricing that favors the “house” becomes viscerally clear in America’s rental housing market, where a single software company has engineered the largest price-fixing scheme in U.S. history.
A White House Council of Economic Advisors’ report published in December 2024 found that algorithmic pricing from companies like RealPage cost renters $3.8 billion in 2023 alone, an average of $70 per month nationwide, with some metropolitan areas seeing increases exceeding $100 monthly.
In Boston, renters using algorithm-affected properties paid an additional $79 per month on average, according to federal analysis. In Jersey City, tenant Kevin Weller watched his rent jump from $4,400 to more than $7,000 per month, with building management telling him the software “dictates the rate.”
The U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, filed in August 2024, exposed internal corporate documents that read like a confession of criminal conspiracy. RealPage executives boasted about “driving every possible opportunity to increase price” and helping landlords “avoid the race to the bottom in down markets.”
One RealPage executive explained to landlords that using competitor data could identify situations where “you may have a $50 increase instead of a $10 increase for the day.” A landlord praised the software, saying: “I always liked this product because the algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and terms.” That’s classic price fixing.
The smoking gun arrived in federal prosecutors’ amended complaint filed in January 2025, which documented how one landlord told RealPage it started increasing rents within a week of adopting the software and, within 11 months, had raised them more than 25%.
In August 2025, the nation’s largest landlord, Greystar Management Services, settled with the DOJ, agreeing to stop using “anti-competitive” algorithms after managing nearly 950,000 apartments nationwide through RealPage’s pricing scheme.
As DOJ Antitrust Chief Abigail Slater noted: “Whether in a smoke-filled room or through an algorithm, competitors cannot share competitively sensitive information or align prices to the detriment of American consumers.”
Cities fought back with legislative bans. San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, Jersey City, Hoboken, and Seattle have all prohibited algorithmic rent-setting, with New York Governor Kathy Hochul proposing statewide legislation to protect renters.
The Professor’s Smoking Gun
The housing heist represents just one sector in a broader algorithmic assault on American consumers.
Sherman’s research provides forensic evidence that algorithmic opacity isn’t just unfair. Instead, it’s theft on an industrial scale. Uber’s take rate jumped from 32% to more than 42%, a massive wealth extraction accomplished while drivers experienced more than 20% earnings decline since 2022.
According to Gridwise Analytics, Uber drivers’ earnings have plummeted more than 20% from 2022 to 2024, while DoorDash drivers now earn just $12.23 per hour. Meanwhile, Uber is on track to generate nearly $10 billion in free cash flow this year.
Another academic study released in mid-June by Oxford University independently concluded that Uber’s ride-share platform systematically exploits both drivers and passengers through “algorithmic gamblification” that leaves both parties worse off.
After Uber introduced dynamic pricing in 2023, the average pay for UK drivers dropped from £22 to just over £19, before expenses. At the same time, Uber’s commission rate, or “take rate,” increased from a fixed 25% to a median of 29%, and on some higher-fare trips, the company took more than 50%.
Amazon’s “Project Nessie” Exposed
Two years ago, the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon revealed another piece of the algorithmic pricing puzzle through unredacted documents detailing a secret algorithm called “Project Nessie.”
The algorithm allegedly identified products where Amazon could temporarily raise prices, predicting competitors would follow suit. After competitors raised their prices, Amazon maintained its higher price, ultimately inflating prices for consumers on millions of items over several years, costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.
To minimize consumer backlash, Amazon would rotate the products subject to higher prices, playing a sophisticated shell game designed to extract maximum profit while avoiding detection. The program represents the clearest example yet of how algorithmic pricing creates systematic consumer harm at unprecedented scale from one of the world’s most valuable companies.
The Contagion Spreads Across Industries
A similar pattern is now emerging beyond e-commerce, housing, and the ride-share sector.
Delta Airlines’ stock jumped 12% after announcing AI-driven pricing tests, prompting three U.S. senators to demand congressional hearings. The airline industry now wants to eliminate what few consumer protections Americans still have.
According to sweeping USA Today reporting, airline lobbyists have outlined their deregulatory wish list: rolling back mandatory refunds for canceled flights, scrapping “all-in” pricing requirements and ending family seating guarantees.
Meanwhile, Google has just entered a second court battle against the DOJ over its alleged advertising technology monopoly, with the prosecutors in the lawsuit arguing for a breakup of its online advertising empire to address its unfair competitive advantages.
Earlier this month, the FTC and a bipartisan group of state attorneys sued Ticketmaster for using “illegal tactics to make fans pay more for live events”. Ticketmaster controls 80% or more of major U.S. concert venues’ primary ticketing, according to the FTC. Consumers spent more than $82.6 billion buying tickets from Ticketmaster between 2019 and 2024, the agency added.
The pattern is unmistakable: Companies are weaponizing AI to implement what economists call “first-degree price discrimination” by charging each consumer as close as possible to their maximum willingness to pay while paying suppliers the absolute minimum they’ll accept.
The Fed Chair’s Economic Warning Signs
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell delivered sobering testimony this week, describing a “challenging situation” confronting the central bank as it contends with higher inflation and a weakening labor market. His comments signal growing economic headwinds that could accelerate the algorithmic casino’s collapse.
Adding color to why the Fed decided to make the first cut to interest rates this year on September 23, Powell noted the “near-term risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside, and concluded that the “two-sided risks mean that there is no risk-free path.”
The Fed Chair described the current environment as a “low-fire, low-hire economy” where companies and workers wonder how major economic policy changes will work out. With unemployment at 4.3%, monthly job growth has slowed sharply, and companies are pulling back on hiring while consumer prices rise again.
As a counterpoint, Fed member Stephen Miran, newly appointed by Trump to “help undermine Fed independence,” warned that failing to reduce borrowing costs substantially “risks unnecessary layoffs and higher unemployment.” Vice Chair Michelle Bowman said the labor market had become “more fragile and could deteriorate more significantly in the coming months.”
These economic warning signs arrive as multiple sectors implement algorithmic pricing schemes designed to extract maximum value from consumers facing increasing financial pressure.
The MAGA Administration’s Double Game
The Trump administration’s approach to big tech reveals a stunning contradiction. While Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who authored the FCC chapter in Project 2025, threatens media companies over content, the same administration pursues broad deregulation benefiting gig economy giants.
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow President Trump to fire the last remaining Democratic FTC commissioner signals a fundamental shift in regulatory philosophy. As Justice Elena Kagan warned in her dissent, the conservative majority seems “raring to change the law passed by Congress nearly a century ago.”
Recent legal actions tell the story: The Justice Department filed discrimination lawsuits against Uber in September, while the FTC sued over deceptive Uber One subscription practices in April. Yet the administration simultaneously supports policies enabling the independent contractor classifications that power algorithmic exploitation.
The message is clear: The Trump administration will use federal power to control information while deregulating the economic mechanisms that extract wealth from American workers and consumers. It’s a casino where political speech gets policed, but economic exploitation gets protection.
The Economic Perfect Storm for Rebellion
Multiple economic headwinds are converging to create unprecedented pressure on these algorithmic profit schemes:
Tariff aggression threatens to spike consumer costs across multiple sectors. Driven in part by the administration’s crackdown on immigration and changes to H-1B visas, including a $100,000/year charge for them, there’s a rising U.S. brain drain as top talent flees to Europe, Canada, China, and Australia, reducing American competitiveness. A shrinking government that has reduced traditional watchdogs and increased deregulation is adding more uncertainty and imbalance to the economy.
The airline industry’s deregulation push exemplifies this dynamic. While European travelers can claim up to $650 for delays longer than three hours, Americans get nothing for domestic delays, even when airlines are at fault. Yet U.S. flights were almost three times more likely to have long delays compared with European departures in 2024, according to AirHelp research.
In comparison, European regulations have directly led to a 5% reduction in delays at a cost of 60 cents to $1.20 per passenger. U.S. airlines claim European-style compensation would raise fares and hurt competition. Yet, Europe’s airline market remains fiercely competitive, with budget carriers thriving.
When recession arrives – and economic indicators increasingly point to fourth-quarter timing – these dynamics will accelerate dramatically. Companies that have alienated customers through algorithmic manipulation may discover that loyalty becomes essential when discretionary spending tightens.
The Resistance Toolkit
Consumer advocates and legislators are fighting back with concrete tools and victories:
- New York’s Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act, which took effect in July 2025, requires retailers using personalized algorithmic pricing to inform consumers: “THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA.”
- Consumer Reports is actively sponsoring California’s AB 446 and supporting similar legislation in Colorado to ban “surveillance pricing” – the practice where companies use personal data to set personalized prices.
- The National Consumer Law Center’s 2025 federal priorities include banning unfair “junk fees” in housing, extending the 36% interest rate cap for servicemembers to all consumers, and stopping “rent-a-bank” lending schemes.
By the end of 2025, an expected 20 states will have comprehensive data privacy laws in effect, with eight new state laws taking effect this year. Tools like Global Privacy Control now allow users to opt out of data sharing with a single click.
Companies like Brazil’s GigU have successfully challenged Uber in court by providing drivers with the transparency that platforms deliberately obscure. Their legal victory on appeal – beating Uber’s injunction attempt in a unanimous 3-0 judges’ decision – proves that algorithmic transparency isn’t just possible; it’s legally defensible.
The Wallet as Weapon
In a political system where democratic institutions face unprecedented assault, consumer spending represents Americans’ most powerful remaining vote. Recent events prove this power is real.
The concept is simple: Use purchasing power to support businesses aligned with your values while boycotting those that exploit algorithmic manipulation.
When FCC Chairman Brendan Carr made threats against Disney over Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air comments in early September, corporate executives calculated their options with stunning efficiency. Within 72 hours, Kimmel’s voice had vanished from America’s airwaves, not through government raids, but through spreadsheets showing stock price impacts and regulatory risk.
As a result, Disney’s stock dropped nearly 7% ($350 billion in value) after news of Kimmel’s suspension broke. When consumers canceled Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in protest, executives noticed. When advertiser calls flooded switchboards, lawyers reconsidered their silencing strategy.
Mark Ruffalo captured the mathematics perfectly: “Disney does not want to be the ones that broke America.” But the same consumer calculation applies to every company exploiting algorithmic pricing schemes.
The Choice Ahead
Corporate America has revealed its hand: Profits trump principles, stock prices matter more than fair dealing, and algorithmic manipulation outweighs honest commerce. But consumers still control the ultimate vote in this rigged casino.
Every subscription canceled sends a signal. Every purchase decision registers a preference. Every dollar spent or withheld casts a ballot in an election that happens daily.
The 2026 midterms remain 20 months away. But the economy that sustains these corporate algorithms operates every day. In a democracy under siege, your wallet may be your most powerful weapon against a system designed to pick your pocket.
As algorithmic pricing schemes spread from rideshare to airlines to rental housing to concert tickets, the question isn’t whether this represents the future of American commerce. It’s whether Americans will accept a future where the house always wins, the games are rigged, and the only rule is maximum extraction.
The casino owners are counting on our compliance. The question is whether you’re ready to walk away from their rigged tables.
Use your wallet wisely. The market — and democracy — may depend on it.
Big tech companies have led the movement to transform commerce into a rigged casino where the house always wins.
