In this episode of De-Riggable, Ben and Steve name a force that quietly sets prices across the entire economy but rarely gets called what it is: desperation. Not demand. Not preference. The inability to say no without harm.

Through the story of a bagel-shop worker forced to choose between healing a leg ulcer and paying his bills, they show how desperation suppresses wages, concentrates profits upward, and spreads inequality through the whole system. When people can't refuse a bad deal — whether that's low wages, unsafe conditions, or unaffordable healthcare — the market isn't discovering value. It's extracting it.

The conversation also moves through why reaction isn't the same as understanding, how money functioning as political speech distorts democracy, and why policies that cut food, housing, and medical support only deepen the cycle. But the core claim is simple: a market isn't free if people can't say no. De-rigging the economy means removing desperation at the bottom — not adding more regulation on top of it.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Read Steve's A True Free Market⁠⁠