Because they can. It really is just a cartell. Especially institutions pay a fortune for bundled access.

Welcome to the world of scientific publishing, long before AI. Except authors even have to pay for creating “content”, and reviewers are expected to work for free. Yet article access is sold at astronomical prices.

Turns out, if you don’t sacrifice cities on the car altar and plan for quality of life instead, children can in fact play on the streets. The Netherlands show it.