Oh clearly the farmer thinks this is worth it, but then when the mob demands protection money that is worth it too. My question is, how much is this business tw

Oh clearly the farmer thinks this is worth it, but then when the mob demands protection money that is worth it too. My question is, how much is this business twisting the farmer's arm, or more directly, how much of this cost is profit-seeking and how much of this is actual costs incurred. Because I am always curious what the opportunity for open source alternatives would be. If enough farms pay $5k/yr to developers to make stable software, and another $5k/yr to someone doing data management, perhaps they could save $50k per year in money going to some VC firm. I just don't like the way investment firms will design products specifically to extract profits from farmers (or anyone), and I am interested in the concept of software that has minimal overhead costs, so all possible profits flow to the users rather than up to the top of some hierarchy.