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Tickets allocated efficiently
By Dr Madsen Pirie

Sirbob.jpgBob Geldof has branded the sale of Live 8 tickets on the internet auction site eBay as "sick profiteering" (BBC report). Minister for Music James Purnell also asked eBay to halt the sales, and now eBay has banned them. Sir Bob said:

It is filthy money made on the back of the poorest people on the planet. Stick it where it belongs… The people who are selling these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalizing on people's misery. I am appealing to their sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed.

Well, yes. But since there was a rigged market, with tickets allocated by lot, what does he expect unsuccessful applicants to do? Note that no money is raised to combat poverty; the only goal is to raise 'awareness.' If tickets had been sold to highest bidders, millions would have been raised. As it is, those on whom fortune has smiled and who'd rather have the money tried to sell their tickets to those who'd rather have the concert. This seems not so much 'sick' or 'filthy' as a straightforward satisfaction of demand.

There was nothing wrong with it.



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Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Adam Smith was the great Scottish philosopher and economist best known for "The Wealth of Nations", his pioneering book on free trade and market economics.

A wide selection of material about Adam Smith is now available on the Adam Smith website. This includes the full text of his two major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations.