Six instances of the same mechanism

• "Gas is expensive in California"

  CARB's California-only fuel blend prevents out-of-state supply from covering shortfalls, guaranteeing price spikes from any refinery disruption.

• "Housing is unaffordable"

  Single-family zoning makes apartments illegal on most residential land, producing scarcity by legal code.

• "Tech platforms have permanent monopolies"

  DMCA and patent law make it a copyright liability to replicate a platform's core features, regardless of engineering capability.

• "Copyright protects creators"

  Copyright term extensions track catalog values, not creator lifespans, ensuring corporate control over public culture outlasts any individual author.

• "The two-party system is what voters want"

  Ballot access thresholds apply only to challengers. The legislators who write them face no equivalent requirement.

• "Regulatory agencies protect the public"

  Agencies staffed from and returning to industry produce policy that reflects those relationships, by design.