Today’s links Ticketmaster jacks us for billions so it can pocket millions: Corruption is unimaginably wasteful. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. Ticketmaster jacks us for billions so it can pocket millions (permalink) Corruption is a system of concentrated gains and diffused costs: cheaters make a lot of money, and their victims each lose a little. The cheater has a much larger pool of money to spend on keeping the scam going, and the victims need to pay again to fight the cheater. Actually, it’s worse. The victim pays once when they are cheated, then, they pay a second time (in time and/or money) when they fight back against the cheater. But in order to fight back effectively, the victims need to band together – it doesn’t make sense for one victim to pony up to counter the cheater, because the cheater stole from a lot of people and can therefore spend far more than the victim lost and still come out ahead. This is the third time the victim pays: they pay the “collective action” tax of locating other victims, agreeing to a common strategy for fighting back, and then coordinating with all those co-victims to keep the campaign up. But actually, it’s even worse….Pluralistic: Ticketmaster jacks us for billions so it can pocket millions (03 Jun 2024)