The Market Pays What the Market Will Bear: Super Bowl Edition

Over on Facebook, a lot of people have their knickers in a knot over this picture of Super Bowl parking rates from WTHR:

The irony is that most of the people who are shocked, shocked at expensive pricing for Super Bowl parking are the same people who were caterwauling a few months ago about how it was unfair that the 1% had so much money. Well, guess what folks? The vast majority of people who can afford to attend the Super Bowl in the first place are among the 1%, or within spitting distance of it, So on the one day when local businesses can make a killing rooking Mr. Big Shot 1% because he wants to park his Ferrari or Escalade within walking distance, you get all outraged over “price gouging.” I guess because someone’s actually making a profit off Mr. 1% rather than the government stealing it from him to pay off the debt from your Masters in Women’s Studies.

A parking space has no “intrinsic value.” It’s worth whatever people will pay for it. (And while we’re on the subject Marx’s Labor Theory of Value is bunk. Just in case you hadn’t figured that out yet.) Why should you care that a guy who’s already paid $1,200 for tickets has to cough up another $200 for parking? No one’s forcing Mr. 1% to park there. The market pays what the market will bear.

About Lawrence Person

Lawrence Person is a political commentator and science fiction writer living in Austin, Texas. His political work has appeared in National Review, Reason, The Freeman, Liberty and The World & I. His SF has appeared in Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, Postscripts, Jim Baen's Universe, Fear, and several anthologies. He owns such a large library (mostly science fiction first editions) he had to buy a two-story house to put it in, and then adopted a golden retriever to drag him out of his house on a regular basis.
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