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How I became a con artist (2010)

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Re: How I became a con artist (2010)

#61

Post by yetanotherphd »

underwater wrote: post #58
yetanotherphd wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that scalping is legal, and doesn't break some contractual agreement with the ticket seller, it is not "hurtful". What is best for society is not to give things to those who want/need them most, but to people who are willing to pay the most for them. This is the first welfare theorem. The "suits" earned their money, and what is the point of earning money if you can only use it to buy things other people don'…

What an awful world view. People should always come second to those who have more money than them?

That's why we redistribute money. It's not the worldview that is awful, it's the fact the people prefer to spend money on themselves, than on other people.

Once you're done with redistribution, then the time for complaining that I can afford X while the starving artist who really appreciates it can't, is over.

EDIT: But to clarify, yes, if a person is willing to pay more for something, they should receive it. If you oppose this, then what you really oppose is that one person is richer than another. Hence the discussion on redistribution.

Re: How I became a con artist (2010)

#62

Post by f7t7ft7 »

underwater wrote: post #58
yetanotherphd wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that scalping is legal, and doesn't break some contractual agreement with the ticket seller, it is not "hurtful". What is best for society is not to give things to those who want/need them most, but to people who are willing to pay the most for them. This is the first welfare theorem. The "suits" earned their money, and what is the point of earning money if you can only use it to buy things other people don'…

What an awful world view. People should always come second to those who have more money than them?

No, you can figure out when the tickets go on sale to the event that you just can't miss and you can get them early just like the scalpers do, if you actually are such a big fan...

Re: How I became a con artist (2010)

#63

Post by f7t7ft7 »

auctiontheory wrote: post #34
bruceb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true. Not even western world, the US. In my travels I have never found a place that is as open and easy to return stuff as America. Even the same company has different return policies depending on the country. H&M has 30 day return for cash with tag & receipt. H&M Brussels will not give your money back, only credit. It might even be only 14 days their I forget. We pay less of a risk premium in the US. Some of thes…

We pay less of a risk premium in the US. Some of these scams will drive that up. Yup. Thanks to the scammers, even REI has limited their return policy: http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2021116265_r...

Except that REI isn't going from a normal return policy to a draconian return policy. It's going from the most unbelievably lenient and forgiving policy to something that's still far more lenient and forgiving than anyone else offers. I don't think it's quite a fair comparison.

Re: How I became a con artist (2010)

#64

Post by javert »

thecage411 wrote: post #48
javert wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that what is in a person's self-interest is to find a sustainable, enjoyable way to live that will last a lifetime. There is a lot more that could be said about that, but it's a high-level summary. The proof of that is looking at man's nature and what life is . So all I can do is point in the right direction. To write it all down in a comment would be impossible, plus pointless, because it doesn't prove anyth…

In general I agree with your argument, I just think there are a small percentage of actual sociopaths in the world (I've met one). > I'm not sure what you are calling the premise and what you are calling the conclusion. But in general, I think that acting in your own self-interest actually results in cooperation with others and not victimizing other people. So we need to be arguing for more rational self-interest. We…

To answer your question about rejecting the premise because I don't like the conclusion...

I actually agree with the statement "trust is a common good." The problem is, people often assume that esablishing a "common good" is something that requires self-sacrifice from individual people. That's not true in general, and certainly not true in this specific case. Why? Trust is _also_ an individual, personal good. Lying, cheating, and manipultaing people is not a viable way to live a sustainable, happy life.

So, if it's going to be said that "Trust is a common good," I just wanted to add, "... and also a personal good." That's why I said the person's point was a "bad way to look at it." Really, it's just an incomplete way to look at it and possibly misleading, given people's typical assumptions.

Anyway, thanks for the chat and it's nice to know that we have some common ground here.

Re: How I became a con artist (2010)

#65

Post by eru »

javert wrote: post #24
austenallred wrote: post #13

I had a really hard time reading this, mostly because it's difficult for me to separate out in my mind when arbitrage becomes theft. For example, in my teens I found a hack in the eBay search algorithm. The algorithm was very simple; it simply scanned the titles. So if I input '32GB Apple iPod Black' it would return everything with those keywords. If, however, I typed in 'iPod' it would return millions of results and…

A seller on an open market quotes the price they want to sell for. They would rather have that much money, than the item they are selling. So it's not victimizing them to make the trade. But it would be victimizing yourself to not make the trade, and instead tell the other person your inside knowledge. And it's not dishonest, because in a market, there is no implicit assumption that the buyer doesn't know something t…

For HFT: the whole business would be much healthier without the sub-penny rule.

Re: How I became a con artist (2010)

#66

Post by glomph »

suprgeek wrote: post #39
austenallred wrote: post #13

I had a really hard time reading this, mostly because it's difficult for me to separate out in my mind when arbitrage becomes theft. For example, in my teens I found a hack in the eBay search algorithm. The algorithm was very simple; it simply scanned the titles. So if I input '32GB Apple iPod Black' it would return everything with those keywords. If, however, I typed in 'iPod' it would return millions of results and…

It is quite puzzling about how you are equating buying & selling on e-bay without ANY misrepresentation (Product is as described & Payment is legimatelty delivered) to a Confidence scam where the author very clearly cheated the stores by misrepresentation/lying. Similarly why is ticket buying and selling a Con? Long-hold Time frames and upfront-risk are a very legitimate way to add value. Is it possible that there is…

Ticket scalping is pretty unpopular with both the people who put on productions and the people who buy tickets. In my opinion it is pretty scummy.

The original ticket offices could put up their prices to the point where touting wasn't viable, but this would put people off their productions and also make them less accessible to poorer people.

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