What is actually missing from discussions about pricing is this: "What is a reasonable balance of profit for providing a service and benefit to those being ser

What is actually missing from discussions about pricing is this: "What is a reasonable balance of profit for providing a service and benefit to those being served?" Without tools like RealPage, a landlord will naturally set a price that results in enough profit to make it worth their time, effort, stress, etc. Economies of scale can make a big difference here, as some of the overhead can be managed more efficiently by having a bigger business (more properties). But when something like this tool, or just old-fashioned price collusion, enters the equation, inevitably the profits go up unnaturally. It is no longer a free market where every actor will work in their own best interest, but rather a gang of actors is able to extract more from others. This is also exacerbated by the gang not being dependent anymore on the people it serves (it's customers) for other services. In the past, you as a business owner would think twice about grossly overcharging your customers because some of those customers provided their own services which you dependend upon. But now, you can buy your good from cheaper foreign markets, and you can buy your labor from imported artificially-low-paid workers. You no longer have to care what your customers think about you, because you'll never need them. At the end of the day, what is the point of a human's existence? Is it to make as much money as possible, irrespective of the service being provided or the exaggerated cost to the customers? Or is it to provide a needed service to others such that everyone can be reasonably happy? Clearly we have been trending toward the former for some time now, as evidenced by the rapid rate of increase of human productivity rewards going to a very small percentage of the population (0.1%) https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLTP1246 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLTP1246 . This trend is not sustainable, because at some point the people will revolt. Maybe we'll all be dead before then from other issues we've caused, but given enough time on this path there will be a complete collapse of the current system.