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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   35144 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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The “problem” solved is converting time-preference into money preference. In theory this ensures the cards/tickets go to the “best” end users, because all the factors which might make use of them can be distilled into money.

I don’t find it very morally compelling, because outside of economic use, I’m skeptical of how well money converts end-user consumption. As largely recreational luxury goods, graphics cards (sigh, not for crypto) or concert tickets are basically sinks of value. Given that the user will not produce anything with them, that makes discussion of “efficiency” moot.

So it would be more accurate to say scalpers are allocating luxury consumables to the lucky/hardworking. Yay.

No I get that, but that's already a solved issue. Just like with every other instance of someone who wishes to spend money instead of time, you pay someone to spend the time for you. The order of operations makes a huge difference here. Hiring someone to stand in line for you is fine, someone getting tickets purely to resell is not.

Its no longer about waiting in line. Its about running custom scripts and having multiple tabs open on multiple computers. I say this because thats why my friend had to do to buy UFC tickets yesterday where all tickets were sold out online in minutes.

Of the 15 tabs he had open, only one got through to seat selection. He was lucky, but the average consumer won't have the technical skills to compete against bots in online ticket purchase release.

Buying tickets from a scalper who stood in line for you is economically equivalent to paying the scalper to stand in line for you.

But not morally equivalent. Nobody has a problem with scalpers on economic grounds.

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