> How are "the elite" forcing companies that do not own real estate and who rent their office space to mandate RTO? Well, for one thing, the people who own rea

> How are "the elite" forcing companies that do not own real estate and who rent their office space to mandate RTO? Well, for one thing, the people who own real estate and the people who run Fortune 500 companies are the same people. What do you think the CxOs and board members do with their money after they cash out their outsized stock grants? Hide it under the mattress? No, they invest it, and often they invest it in whatever's "cool" that year - in this case commercial real estate. Even if the exact same person doesn't have feet in both camps, there are likely to be favors going back and forth between them. So, renting isn't the smartest move for chairperson X's company? That's OK, says building-owner Y. We'll make it up with deals from the other companies I own, or you can get a special bonus when you jump ship to join our other friend Z's company because they owe me a favor. It's not a conspiracy theory when the possibilities are legion. No coordination is required; it's more of an emergent network-effect kind of thing. I've seen people I know[1] make these kinds of deals. In general they fall below the "breach of fiduciary duty" line, but even when they're clearly crooked they're unlikely to be prosecuted. Even the DAs and such who aren't hoping to walk through the same revolving door lack the resources to prosecute such complex and uncertain cases. They have more career-enhancing things to do. We could argue about how much it happens, or how much it's driving the push for RTO, but the ultra-dismissive tone of some commenters here smells just as fishy as anything coming from the other side of the discussion. [1] No, not friends. I like my friends moral. But I'm not 100% in control of who moves into my neighborhood, who joins the clubs or engages in the activities I do, etc. Sometimes they mention these things directly, because I can pass as a business-savvy person and they don't even realize these things are wrong. Sometimes I overhear them, because braggarts tend to be loud. If you've never moved beyond the semi-rich techie circle and met people in the really-rich business circle, you might not appreciate just how bad these people tend to be.