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It's called providing liquidity for parking spots ;). But really, this is an excellent idea. They can add another twist to it: Normally people know when they wo

by sytelus 13y ago

It's called providing liquidity for parking spots ;). But really, this is an excellent idea. They can add another twist to it: Normally people know when they would be leaving. So they can advertise spot and time. Other users can then "book" the spot at the times being advertised. If this becomes illegal then police can track down sellers using same app so things are flaky at that point. However I would doubt if selling information about available parking lots can be made illegal. For those of you "troubled" by this, get this: Pretty much everything in life with short in supply is essentially an auction. When you reserve dinner at restaurant, they have adjusted their price such that their supply meets the demand. In Essence they sold the spots to highest bidders. This is not limited to private properties. When try to buy a house in the same area as great public school, same thing happens - you get priced out of the area and the goods goes to highest bidder.

wutbrodo 13y ago
I'm rather shocked you don't see the flaw in every one of your examples. The owner is the person to whom the gains of short supply are accruing. There's no app to sell your reservation to someone else, scalping tickets is illegal or banned by the ticket vendor, etc etc. The short supply is due to a market failure; the city underprices the parking spots it owns relative to demand, increasing congestion and making it impossible to find a spot. This is to the point that people are theoretically willing to pay 20 dollars (or whatever Monkeypark will charge) in order to get an underpriced parking spot. It makes no sense to distribute foregone gains from underpriced city land to random squatting motorists, instead of just raising pricing and having that benefit accrue to the owner of the land (the city). It's the same concept behind not allowing people to sublet my rent-controlled apartment for market rates; the price distortion issue isn't with the sublet policy, it's with the rent control in the first place.
dnr 13y ago
Restaurants are a bad example. First, have you tried getting a seat at a trendy restaurant on Friday night in SF? Second, most popular restaurants deliberately charge less than an equilibrium price to avoid seeming unfair, and to keep all the seats full. Similarly, popular bands sell concert tickets for less than market rate to avoid seeming elitist, and also to make it more likely to sell out a show, which is more fun for their fans and attracts more attention for the band. In short, not all business decisions are about extracting the most money possible at the present time. There are often other longer-term considerations.
- raldi 13y ago
  Re: bands underpricing tickets, it just leads to Ticketmaster, StubHub, and scalpers swooping in, correcting the pricing error, and pocketing the difference.

by sytelus 13y ago

wutbrodo 13y ago

I'm rather shocked you don't see the flaw in every one of your examples. The owner is the person to whom the gains of short supply are accruing. There's no app to sell your reservation to someone else, scalping tickets is illegal or banned by the ticket vendor, etc etc. The short supply is due to a market failure; the city underprices the parking spots it owns relative to demand, increasing congestion and making it impossible to find a spot. This is to the point that people are theoretically willing to pay 20 dollars (or whatever Monkeypark will charge) in order to get an underpriced parking spot. It makes no sense to distribute foregone gains from underpriced city land to random squatting motorists, instead of just raising pricing and having that benefit accrue to the owner of the land (the city). It's the same concept behind not allowing people to sublet my rent-controlled apartment for market rates; the price distortion issue isn't with the sublet policy, it's with the rent control in the first place.

dnr 13y ago

Restaurants are a bad example. First, have you tried getting a seat at a trendy restaurant on Friday night in SF? Second, most popular restaurants deliberately charge less than an equilibrium price to avoid seeming unfair, and to keep all the seats full. Similarly, popular bands sell concert tickets for less than market rate to avoid seeming elitist, and also to make it more likely to sell out a show, which is more fun for their fans and attracts more attention for the band. In short, not all business decisions are about extracting the most money possible at the present time. There are often other longer-term considerations.

raldi 13y ago
Re: bands underpricing tickets, it just leads to Ticketmaster, StubHub, and scalpers swooping in, correcting the pricing error, and pocketing the difference.