[unpopular opinion]what about scalpers?

[Sauron]

10 hours ago, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

I disagree that the market is broken. This is actually the best scenario. The two only viable alternatives are:

You have a pretty narrow view of possible economical scenarios

[Riccardo Cagnasso]

12 hours ago, danomicar said:

The problem with scalpers is that they serve no value to the economy they partake in. They are simply businesses which take advantage of consumers by acquiring items through less than legal means.

 

Another issue with scalpers is that they remove money from the markets which they operate. Someone spends an extra $700 to acquire the card, when that $700 could be spent supporting other businesses in the PC market. 

 

Sure, it's not inherently illegal to take advantage of supply & demand to make a profit for yourself. But I agree that people should be upset that their items can only acquired through organizations that provide absolutely no value to them. 

Less than legal? Really? Are you sure? Can you prove that?

Also, economy is not a zero-sum game. You don't "remove money" from a market when you are making profit in it. It's the exact popposite.

9 hours ago, Jet_ski said:

Let me tel you the issue with “this is how the market works.” This is the exact argument I’ve heard of people defending the Pharma Bro. Pharma Bro was this [expletive] Martin Shkreli who bought the manufacturing license for the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and raised its price by a factor of 56 (from US$13.5 to $750 per pill). He also acquired a couple of other medical licenses and even tried to get the FDA to reject a breakthrough cancer treatment solely for his personal gain.

 

As for the free market, two other pharmaceuticals decided to make alternatives to this drug to break that guy’s monopoly. And they have. So at the end that prick just forced an entire economy to waste resources on solving a problem that was already solved decades ago.

 

One might say healthcare is not the same as electronics but the interpretation of a market economy that you’ve presented doesn’t make that distinction; neither do scalpers like Martin Shkreli. And that’s why people hate them. As a matter fact scalpers hoarded toilet paper, masks, sanitizers right when the pandemic started. They created a panic which made things way worse.

Nice strawman. The problem with your comparison is:
1 scalpers don't raise the price factor of anything. they just move some sell a small quantity of artificially low priced items at market value

2 scalpers don't have any long term influence on prices (because of 1)
3 scalpers don't influence lawmaking, gonvernment agencies etc

So... ???

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

You have a pretty narrow view of possible economical scenarios

Nice to know that you have a broader one. Could you please enlighten us on different scenarios?

[LogicalDrm]

*** Thread locked ***

 

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