A $165b annoyance

 A $165b annoyance

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Turns out that all that time listening to your cable company’s hold music can cost more than just your sanity. A new report puts the accumulated cost of the “annoyance economy”—a term for fraught everyday interactions like dealing with spam, robocalls, hidden fees, insurance claims, and subscription cancellations—at $165 billion, according to the New York Times. The report’s authors, Stanford economist Neale Mahoney and Chad Maisel, a policy fellow at the progressive Groundwork Collaborative (who together worked in the Biden administration to try to tackle junk fees), say that while some of these nuisances result from outdated systems and regulations, others are there on purpose. Mahoney and fellow researchers have concluded that companies that make it difficult to end subscriptions earn anywhere from 14% to 200% more in revenue. So, perhaps keep that in mind as motivation to persevere the next time you find yourself repeatedly shouting “representative.”