In the News
On any given day, Groundwork's analyses, op-eds, reports, and commentary are featured in leading publications and on the most influential news programs and podcasts.
On any given day, Groundwork's analyses, op-eds, reports, and commentary are featured in leading publications and on the most influential news programs and podcasts.
An analysis last year by the nonprofits Consumer Reports and More Perfect Union and the progressive policy group Groundwork Collaborative found that prices for Instacart shoppers varied by as much as 23% for the same product at the same exact time in different stores.
“President Trump promised a jobs boom, but today’s data shows the economy is shedding jobs outside a small number of sectors, and more Americans are struggling to find stable work,” said Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning campaign group in Washington.
Report finds Trump’s policies have driven up prices for Americans looking to share the love.
Today’s delayed report shows the United States added even fewer jobs in 2025 than previously reported.
These kinds of experiences are so common and universal that Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., decided to weigh their true impact. They call it the “annoyance economy.” In a report released Monday, they show how junk fees, customer service calls, excessive insurance paperwork, spam calls and texts, and more cost Americans at least $165 billion in lost time and money every year.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a nonprofit that focuses on economic issues, called Google’s A.I. shopping framework an example of “surveillance capitalism” that could eventually be used to goad people into spending more.
"That’s a pretty big difference," said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative nonprofit, speaking to USA TODAY in December.
But the White House hasn’t backed down on the proposal, which polls well with young adult voters frustrated with housing costs. A recent survey by left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative and Data for Progress found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the way to lower housing costs is through regulating corporate landlords and institutional investors.
“Companies have worked really hard to make it easy for you” to spend, Lindsay Owens, the executive director of Groundwork, told me. “Of course, when it comes to trying to get out of a purchase or out of a subscription, the same design choices are flipped and reversed.” She likened digital consumer platforms to Las Vegas casinos. Designers create colorful playgrounds with flashing lights and free drinks and chandeliers and mirrors and water features, where gamblers never know what time it is and never see a path to the exit.
Americans lose over $32 billion annually to spam and robocalls, $90 billion to junk fees, and $41 billion to calls with health insurance companies and waiting for medical services.