4 ms·
Transferring goods from those "with lower willingness to pay to those with higher willingness to pay" does not increase economic efficiency, it changes the allo
by etchalon 3y ago
Transferring goods from those "with lower willingness to pay to those with higher willingness to pay" does not increase economic efficiency, it changes the allocative efficiency. But at scale, in many situations, scalping merely becomes rent seeking. Rent seeking reduces allocative efficiency. How much the rent-seeking of scalpers offsets the allocative efficiency is up for debate.
But all of this is sideways to when and whether scalping is moral or, at least, preferable in society. Not all actions which increase allocative efficiency are things we actually want in society.
Otherwise, kidnapping and ransoming children back to their parents would be a boon industry.
- ls612 3y agoThe first paragraph is only true if you believe the supply is fixed (ie the elasticity on the extensive margin is zero). This is often a good way to teach economics because much of the math remains the same in a production environment but when you apply it in an environment it isn’t designed for it leads to fallacies like this one. Free markets and capitalism work precisely because it isn’t a zero sum game like this. And your last two paragraphs are nonsensical, you are comparing the right to eat at a top end restaurant with the right to not have your kids kidnapped it’s downright laughable that you’d see such a moral equivalence.