3 ms·

Two of these things -- baseball and disneyland are clear monopolies. The other thing -- movies is not really that expensive if you do not buy the food and you s

Two of these things -- baseball and disneyland are clear monopolies. The other thing -- movies is not really that expensive if you do not buy the food and you should not be teaching your kids to eat at the movies anyways. A lot of people are talking about the way the working class has been screwed over since the seventies. That is a good point. But another more practical point is that if you do not want to pay through the nose you have to keep your wits about you, know the price gouging monopolies and avoid them. Take your kids to a national park instead. Or to a soccer game. Or to a museum. One of the ways America is becoming a country for the rich is that monopolies are becoming more acceptable both in mass culture and politically and legally. As an ordinary person you can push against that. The easiest and first way you should push against is with your wallet and with your spending. Then you can do the more complex thing -- elect politicians that will not tolerate monopolies.

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
I will teach my children, if I ever have any, to eat at the movies. My girlfriend and I always try to support our local theater by getting as much concessions as possible. Movie theaters are a very important part of my life and I don’t want them to die. A movie ticket wouldn’t fund a thing, especially with inflation now.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Doesn't seem that great to teach your kids to eat some of the worst food just to support a venue. It also sounds like self-deceit tbh. "Totally just eating this slurpee and vegetable oil 'butter' popcorn to support the local theater!"
  - el_benhameen 4y ago
    You can teach them that it’s a special, infrequent thing. My kids eat lots of fruits and vegetables and I don’t keep junk food around the house. But for me, shitty theater popcorn is part of the experience, and we go to the movies rarely enough that it’s easy to say “hey, this stuff isn’t good for you so we’re not going to have a lot, but let’s enjoy ourselves now and then”.
  - selimthegrim 4y ago
    Maybe his kids will have a summer HS job there
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
The thing I wonder about with movies and food: where is the competition? Where is the free market thing? If the price of tickets and food is an issue for people to not go to the cinema more often, surely a competitor would see that as an opportunity and gouge prices? I mean that's basically what Uber did with a ton of investor money; undercut the competition out of business. Muh free market. edit: oh you mentioned monopolies already, I should've finished reading your reply lmao
- bombcar 4y ago
  Movies at least are a dying breed; the local theatre just closed down, and the total number of theaters in the US is dropping (though it's leveled out from the huge crash around 2000).
casion 4y ago
Baseball is a monopoly by who? Certainly not MLB, they're just the biggest game in town but by no means the only game, nor even the most common, nor even the most expensive in many places.
pitaj 4y ago
People on HN really be throwing around terms like "monopoly" with no sense. How is baseball a monopoly? There's not only competition between teams and leagues, but with other sports! How is Disneyland a monopoly? There's not only competition with other theme and amusement parks, but with all forms of passive entertainment (plays, movies, comedy shows, music festivals)!
- willturman 4y ago
  Major League Baseball has an exemption to US anti-trust regulation. It's literally a federally codified monopoly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_v._Kuhn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_v._Kuhn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._National_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._Natio... https://blogs.fangraphs.com/baseballs-antitrust-exemption-a-primer/ https://blogs.fangraphs.com/baseballs-antitrust-exemption-a-...
  - missedthecue 4y ago
    Doesn't look like it was codified. It was a supreme court ruling that baseball was not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act
    - shadowofneptune 4y ago
      Even then, they did not avoid calling it such. If I remember that case correctly they classified it as a cartel, making it one of the few cartels (in the sense of a set of companies which collude with each other) in the US.
    - willturman 4y ago
      You’re right - codified was a poor word to use as the exception was not written into law but established with a Supreme Court ruling. Major League Baseball’s anti-trust exemption was formally established 100 years ago and has been upheld by multiple subsequent rulings. The necessity of the exemption is currently being explored by the Senate Judiciary Committee who has requested a formal justification for the exemption as it applies to minor league baseball from commissioner Manfred. [1] Being the only professional league operating in the United States that has an anti-trust exemption, it should be interesting to see what justification MLB comes up with in the context of current labor law. https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Senators-ask-MLB-why-antitrust-exemption-needed-17312921.php https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Senators-ask-MLB-why-a...

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago

I will teach my children, if I ever have any, to eat at the movies. My girlfriend and I always try to support our local theater by getting as much concessions as possible. Movie theaters are a very important part of my life and I don’t want them to die. A movie ticket wouldn’t fund a thing, especially with inflation now.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
Doesn't seem that great to teach your kids to eat some of the worst food just to support a venue. It also sounds like self-deceit tbh. "Totally just eating this slurpee and vegetable oil 'butter' popcorn to support the local theater!"
- el_benhameen 4y ago
  You can teach them that it’s a special, infrequent thing. My kids eat lots of fruits and vegetables and I don’t keep junk food around the house. But for me, shitty theater popcorn is part of the experience, and we go to the movies rarely enough that it’s easy to say “hey, this stuff isn’t good for you so we’re not going to have a lot, but let’s enjoy ourselves now and then”.
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  Maybe his kids will have a summer HS job there

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

The thing I wonder about with movies and food: where is the competition? Where is the free market thing? If the price of tickets and food is an issue for people to not go to the cinema more often, surely a competitor would see that as an opportunity and gouge prices? I mean that's basically what Uber did with a ton of investor money; undercut the competition out of business. Muh free market. edit: oh you mentioned monopolies already, I should've finished reading your reply lmao

bombcar 4y ago
Movies at least are a dying breed; the local theatre just closed down, and the total number of theaters in the US is dropping (though it's leveled out from the huge crash around 2000).

casion 4y ago

Baseball is a monopoly by who? Certainly not MLB, they're just the biggest game in town but by no means the only game, nor even the most common, nor even the most expensive in many places.

pitaj 4y ago

People on HN really be throwing around terms like "monopoly" with no sense. How is baseball a monopoly? There's not only competition between teams and leagues, but with other sports! How is Disneyland a monopoly? There's not only competition with other theme and amusement parks, but with all forms of passive entertainment (plays, movies, comedy shows, music festivals)!

willturman 4y ago
Major League Baseball has an exemption to US anti-trust regulation. It's literally a federally codified monopoly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_v._Kuhn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_v._Kuhn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._National_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._Natio... https://blogs.fangraphs.com/baseballs-antitrust-exemption-a-primer/ https://blogs.fangraphs.com/baseballs-antitrust-exemption-a-...
- missedthecue 4y ago
  Doesn't look like it was codified. It was a supreme court ruling that baseball was not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act
  - shadowofneptune 4y ago
    Even then, they did not avoid calling it such. If I remember that case correctly they classified it as a cartel, making it one of the few cartels (in the sense of a set of companies which collude with each other) in the US.
  - willturman 4y ago
    You’re right - codified was a poor word to use as the exception was not written into law but established with a Supreme Court ruling. Major League Baseball’s anti-trust exemption was formally established 100 years ago and has been upheld by multiple subsequent rulings. The necessity of the exemption is currently being explored by the Senate Judiciary Committee who has requested a formal justification for the exemption as it applies to minor league baseball from commissioner Manfred. [1] Being the only professional league operating in the United States that has an anti-trust exemption, it should be interesting to see what justification MLB comes up with in the context of current labor law. https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Senators-ask-MLB-why-antitrust-exemption-needed-17312921.php https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Senators-ask-MLB-why-a...