# Inertia Rent A firm earns inertia rent when its profit depends on customers not using their options. - Forms: auto-renewals, unclaimed refunds, unused gift cards, unused warranties, idle seats, loyalty penalties. - These margins assume that human attention is expensive. - Low agency is load-bearing. Claims desks, appeals and complaint lines all assume most people never start. - An agent has no habits and no fatigue. It compares each renewal, claims each refund and disputes each bill. ```mermaid graph LR O[Option exists: refund, switch, appeal] O --> H[Human customer] O --> G[Agent customer] H -->|too tired, too busy| R[Option unused] R --> M[Firm keeps inertia rent] G -->|acts every time| U[Option used] U --> L[Rent goes to zero] U --> S[System load rises above design limit] ``` ## In software - Part of every switching cost sits in human habit. - An agent user forms no habit. Only integration and contract costs remain. ## The test Would this margin survive if every customer had a tireless agent? - Exposed: rent from attention, confusion or defaults. - Safer: rent from contract, regulation or physical lock-in. ---- tags: #boat #economics #AIstrategy links: [[Scarcity Migration]] [[Concepts MOC]] [[High Agency]] [[Effort as a Hidden Filter]] [[Defensibility Principles MOC]]