Comment by PaulHoule

I do a lot of "focus group" style conversations and one theme is "why do people think the economy is so bad for them right now?" A perception that the housing market is unfair comes up a lot, particularly complaints that investors are buying up all the houses.

Ithaca recently got an ordinance to encourage alternative dwelling units (ADU, aka "granny flats") but boy was it a knock-down drag-out because so many people were up in arms about AirBNB conversions and Private Equity getting involved in buying and building properties. As I'm seeing it Ezra Klein's "Abundance" theme is closely linked to Matt Stoller's "antitrust" theme both in the sense that monopolies are one reason "why nothing works" and that anger at them is dominating the public imagination.

the govs of the left shifting countries in EU (Norway, Denmark, Iceland) played an active role in nipping private energy monopolies in the bud. (Where did Spain err in comparison?) Their policies probably would be regarded as communist in the US though. I tend to call it "communitarian" rather than "communist", but I might be too lazy to argue that distinction :(

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/97813...

https://www.norden.org/en/publication/power-communication-an...

Abstract >Traditional corporatist mechanisms in the Nordic countries are increasingly challenged by professionals such as lobbyists, a development that has consequences for the processes and forms of political communication. Populist political parties have increased their media presence and political influence, whereas the news media have lost readers, viewers, listeners, and advertisers.

YC used to be about investing in potential millennialist monopolies like AirBnB/Stripe/Coinbase/sama, though these days they lobby for the small businesses & the small cities (SF) :)