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# Consumer Friction Now Costs Americans $165 Billion Annually
- URL: https://adjacent.media/signals/consumer-friction-now-costs-americans-165-billion-annually/
- Published: 2026-04-12T16:01:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-12T16:01:21.000Z
- Description: The “annoyance economy”—robocalls, opaque fees, and dysfunctional chatbots—is quantifiable infrastructure waste that companies deliberately maintain because the friction is cheaper than solving problems at scale.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #signal, theme-consumer, consumer behavior, attention economy

Source: [NYT > Business](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/business/annoyance-economy-costs.html?ref=adjacent.media)

The "annoyance economy"—robocalls, opaque fees, and dysfunctional chatbots—is quantifiable infrastructure waste that companies deliberately maintain because the friction is cheaper than solving problems at scale. This is rational business strategy: companies externalize costs onto consumers' time and attention, betting that compliance and resignation prove more profitable than service. The $165 billion in annual friction represents a deliberate architectural choice by dominant firms to optimize for extraction rather than experience.