When does price discrimination go too far?

[quesaisje]

A lot of dissatisfaction with health care and higher education is a reflection of how effective they are at pushing price discrimination at the expense of patients and students.

Leaders in these sectors tend to market these strategies to the public in terms of access and equity. The reality is that the system is fine-tuned to vacuum every possible dollar out of government coffers and middle class pockets.

[quesaisje]

Reflecting on two ways in which price discrimination has become more intrusive:

(1) Phone apps are taking the place of paper coupons and store membership cards. Vendor apps offer exceptional deals on everything from McDonald's fries, to cat food, to gas. But they also require that customers agree to extremely intrusive data collection on their phones (which in turn enables more sophisticated price discrimination).

(2) Means-tested programs administered by utilities and vendors. I don't remember these being as common ten or twenty years ago. (Maybe it's just that Vermont likes to lean on these more than other states with which I'm familiar.) For example, moderate-income households can pay a lower monthly rate for internet service. Some state subsidies for energy efficiency upgrades work like this too. I don't know how much uptake many of these programs get, but they're common enough that someone could save a substantial amount of money if they were diligent about claiming eligibility. (This is in addition to the big-ticket items like housing, health care, child care, elder care, and education that have massive and complex price discrimination.)